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Long Ago In A Political Galaxy Far, Far Away…

I had discovered him only that summer when I came across National Review on the newsstand. I was delighted to find a frankly conservative, pro-Goldwater journal that trashed LBJ as “Uncle Cornpone.” It was lively, informative, and, oh, so much fun to read! ~Jack Kenny Via Dan McCarthy My father was, like Mr. Kenny, a Goldwater campaign […]

I had discovered him only that summer when I came across National Review on the newsstand. I was delighted to find a frankly conservative, pro-Goldwater journal that trashed LBJ as “Uncle Cornpone.” It was lively, informative, and, oh, so much fun to read! ~Jack Kenny

Via Dan McCarthy

My father was, like Mr. Kenny, a Goldwater campaign worker, though he had not grown up in a Viereckian, Stevenson-loving household, so it was particularly interesting to read his tale of these olden times. 

Even more remarkable was his description of a time when National Review was “lively, informative and, oh, so much fun to read!”  The last time I remember NR being genuinely informative was around the last time Kuehnelt-Leddihn wrote for them, perhaps in ’98 (he passed away in 1999), and the last time I thought it was any fun at all was when Florence King was still writing for them.  It had ceased being lively a long time ago.  By the time I had gotten to reading articles from the magazine in the mid-’90s, there had been one purge too many, I think, and that stole from the enterprise the kind of wit, verve and fun that can only come through the boisterous expression of strong and sometimes over-the-top views. 

Under the latest dispensation the magazine has become particularly tedious and flat, somehow combining all the dusty narrowness of being doctrinaire and ideological with none of the zest of serious principle.  To read a wide sampling of their articles over the past two months would be to learn that they a) oppose fascism and b) think appeasers are everywhere c) think jihadis are fascists d)believe that it is 1938 and e) think anti-Semites or enablers of anti-Semitism are everywhere.  Oh, yes, and the Iranian government wants to usher in the Apocalypse.  I may have left out their examples of deeply callous justifications of the mass murder of civilians in WWII as a good precedent for current policy.  It seems a very, very far cry from the NR of just 15 years ago, to say nothing of the Goldwater days.

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