"Radical conservatives in this country have an interesting time of it, for when they are not being suppressed or mutilated by Liberals, they are being ignored or humiliated by a great many of those of the well-fed Right, whose ignorance and amorality have never been exaggerated for the same reason that one cannot exaggerate infinity. There are, thank Heaven, the exceptions. There are those of generous impulse and a sincere desire to encourage a responsible dissent from the Liberal orthodoxy. And there are those who recognize that when all is said and done, the market place depends for a license to operate freely on the men who issue licenses — on the politicians. They recognize, therefore, that efficient getting and spending is itself impossible except in an atmosphere that encourages efficient getting and spending. And back of all political institutions there are moral and philosophical concepts, implicit or defined. Our political economy and our high-energy industry run on large, general principles, on ideas — not by day-to-day guess work, expedients and improvisations. Ideas have to go into exchange to become or remain operative; and the medium of such exchange is the printed word."
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Novelists from the United StatesColumnists from the United StatesTravel writersPolitical commentators from the United StatesJournalists from New York City
Original Language: English
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"Publisher's Statement", in the first issue of National Review (November 19, 1955).
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_F._Buckley_Jr.
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William F. Buckley Jr.
(November 24 1925 - February 27 2008) was an American author, conservative journalist, who founded the conservative political magazine ' in 1955 and hosted the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999.
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