Two Takes on That Will Thing

George Will, who is irrelevant now that the Chicago Cubs have actually won a World Series, wrote a column lamenting the coarsening (the words "soiled" and "vulgarians" figure in the essay) of the conservative "movement" (which involves moving backward) and extolling the "brio" of William F. Buckley.  Booman Tribune reminds us what a reactionary weirdo Buckley was and then goes on to explain:

These new Republicans were the furthest thing from Bach aficionados and most of them had only seen yachts on television. But they served as the bodies that business interests needed to prevail politically and begin to beat back a New Deal that was no longer working as well as it had. Buckley and his allies didn’t give a damn about prayer in school or restricting abortion rights, but they needed an army that would back them on opposing federal regulations, high marginal tax rates, and strong antitrust enforcement.

Conservatism was always about raising an army of vulgarians to serve the interests of a new conservative elite in which folks like Buckley would “play the harpsichord.” That’s it. That’s all of it.

There's more. Driftglass contributes a filk quatrain:

Don’t let it be forgot
That once there was a spot
For one brief shining moment that was known
As Scam-a-lot.

Because conservatism has never been "cool" or particularly tasteful or highminded.  (I'm stopping here ahead of an impending rant.)