William F. Buckley has passed away at the age of 82. His influence has been literally incalculable, although many serious tributes will be coming and greater brains than mine will be taking a shot at quantifying it. One thing is for sure: he was completely sharp until the end. Today I enjoyed reading a recent interview he gave to Bill Steigerwald at Townhall.com.

Q: Can you give us a concise definition of conservatism?

A: Conservatism aims to maintain in working order the loyalties of the community to perceived truths and also to those truths which in their judgment have earned universal recognition.

Now this leaves room, of course, for deposition, and there is deposition — the Civil War being the most monstrous account. But it also urges a kind of loyalty that breeds a devotion to those ideals sufficient to surmount the current crisis. When the Soviet Union challenged America and our set of loyalties, it did so at gunpoint. It became necessary at a certain point to show them our clenched fist and advise them that we were not going to deal lightly with our primal commitment to preserve those loyalties.

That’s the most general definition of conservatism.

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