DISQUS

Dea Mr. Lewis,
You write: "Would the Reagan Presidency–critical to the demise of Soviet communism–have even been possible without the conservative movement WFB did so much to found and nurture? I doubt it."
As a former Soviet citizen and a scholar in Russian History, I would like to point that the demise of the USSR had been underway long before Mr. Reagan. The Soviet economy was designed as a contradiction to the basic law of supply and demand. For decades it (mis)functioned as a double economy, with the “shadow” part being actually more successful than the official one. To assume that without Reagan the Soviet economy would prosper means to recognize that the Communisms as a viable system. Anybody informed about the history of the USSR and the structure of the Soviet economy thinks of the “Reagan myth” is laughable. And also sad – since the propaganda has been put before the truth.
When first immigrated to the USA, I used to enjoy Mr. Buckley’s "Firing Line." Today I think about him as a semi-tragic figure, for he had lived long enough to see the realization of his dreams of dominance of conservative ideology in the USA. Unfortunately, the ways and means of the current “conservative” movement replicate Russian Bolsheviks at the beginning of the 20th century. In fact, it is “conservative” only in word. Mr. Buckley found himself in a company of Rush, Coulter, and, politically, with the spectacularly ignorant and principle-less Bush Jr., who is of course, Mr. Buckley’s creature and part of Mr. Buckley’s legacy.
Marina Korsakova