Conservatives Must Thwart Anti-Semitism
The year 2025 represents a pivotal moment for those of us on the political right. President Donald Trump enters his second term as the 47th President of the United States with control of both chambers of Congress and a mandate for a conservative agenda. We also mark the 100th birthday of William F. Buckley Jr., the intellectual Godfather of the modern conservative movement in the United States.
The good news is that President Trump has assembled one of the most pro-Israel administrations in the country’s history for his second term.
Buckley’s brand of classical liberalism is far different from Trump’s populist overtones in the Republican Party today. However, one thing that remains constant and of the utmost importance is the fight against anti-Semitism, which is a legacy we must uphold to maintain our moral integrity, humanity, and widespread appeal.
When Buckley started National Review in 1955, the conservative movement was void. Columbia University literary critic Lionel Trilling, in his seminal 1950 work The Liberal Imagination, described contemporary conservative thought as amounting to “irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas.” However, Buckley’s journal provided a fusion of classical liberals, traditionalists, and libertarians.
Influential conservatives of the time such as Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford, as well as such organizations as the John Birch Society, drank deeply from the well of anti-Semitic sentiment. But Buckley was adamant about keeping National Review free and clear from such influences, and he succeeded. Indeed, as noted by historian George Nash, five of the 31 names on NR’s masthead were Jewish as of the first issue in November 1955.
His persuasion through various mediums, including his Firing Line talk show on PBS, helped defeat the liberal establishment, persuade the public to support the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and promote national Republican politicians like Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, and Newt Gingrich.
Yet when it was time for Buckley to step down as editor, he told the Washington Post that his most significant professional achievement was the “absolute exclusion of anything anti-Semitic or kooky” from conservatism.
Although Buckley was a man of principle, he was also a man of good faith. He believed in a rational conservatism that advocated truth and defended American ideals like capitalism, limited government, and personal liberty.
Former editor David Klinghoffer, who worked as an editor for National Review, remembers Buckley as a man of integrity and someone who “swept the vestigial anti-Semites from the right-wing scene,” alluding to banishing the leaders of the John Birch Society for their conspiratorial Jew-hating and, later on, writers Pat Buchanan and Joe Sobran for their seeming obsession with Israel and the “Jewish lobby” (and, in Buchanan’s words, the “amen corner” in the US Congress).
According to Jonathan Tobin of the Jewish World Review, Buckley’s political philosophy of civil libertarianism and fervent anti-communism were the driving forces behind his commitment to fighting anti-Semitism on the political scene, and also why he supported the state of Israel as the only functioning democracy in the Middle East.
Buckley’s “great effort,” coined by Samuel Freeman, wasn’t just eliminating the American right’s disdain for the Jewish people but also developing a mainstream, truth-rooted conservatism.
Along with bringing different coalitions together inside the Republican Party, he also made conservativism more modern in practice, which attracted different races and religious groups, especially Jews who defected from the Soviet Union and were unsatisfied with the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.
Buckley’s rise to respectable prestige as a national figurehead spearheaded the Republican Party’s conservative political dominance in American government for the better part of the late 20th century, culminating perhaps in 1996, when even the Democrat president Bill Clinton announced in his State of the Union address that the “era of big government is over.”
This lasted until 2016, the year that Trump became President and discarded much of the conventional wisdom of Buckleyism in the conservative establishment. He replaced it with populism and nationalistic overtones influenced, at times, by alt-right talking heads.
However, conservative Buckleyites were pleasantly surprised to be able to unite and form an alliance with the Trump Administration on its allegiance to the State of Israel, which both sides of conservatism saw as a stalwart ally in the war against terrorism and Islamic radicalism, as well as an unparalleled military ally and resource.
Trump’s first term achieved victories foreign and domestic, including recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state and relocating the embassy from Tel Aviv, signing the Abraham Accords to normalize relations between Israel and several Arab states, and signing an executive order implementing Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to stop anti-Semitic acts on college campuses.
Conservatives face a new challenge as anti-Semitism has resurfaced on college campuses and in the public square following the October 7th Hamas terrorist attack on Israel in 2023. Over the past year, roughly 10,000 anti-Semitic altercations occurred throughout the nation, a 200 percent increase from the year before, and college campuses recorded about 1,200 anti-Semitic attacks, a rise of 500 percent since 2023. This resurgence of anti-Semitism, which has attracted sympathy from parts of the right-wing online universe, underscores the urgent need for the conservative movement to uphold Buckley’s legacy and actively combat this hateful ideology.
The good news is that President Trump has assembled one of the most pro-Israel administrations in the country’s history for his second term. Florida Senator Marco Rubio is replacingd Anthony Blinken as Secretary of State, and Florida Congressman Mike Waltz has been appointed National Security Advisor. Rep. Elise Stefanik, the congresswoman who famously raked three college presidents over the coals for their timidity in fighting campus anti-Semitism, will be the new ambassador at the U.N., and Governor Mike Huckabee will be Trump’s Ambassador to Israel. Huckabee is an evangelical Christian who has given paid tours in Jerusalem.
These appointments signal a strong commitment to the fight against anti-Semitism and the defense of Israel within the new Trump Administration, inspiring conservatives to support and engage with these efforts.
While few if any conservatives communicate with the same mastery as William F. Buckley, his vision of American conservatism can still exist. Now, more than ever, conservatives must stand united and continue to work with the new Trump Administration to defend Israel and defeat anti-Semitism while promoting conservative ideals for a new generation.
READ MORE from Alex Adkins:
Lori Chavez-DeRemer Will Not ‘Work’ as Secretary of Labor
The Penguin Glides as 2024’s Best Drama
The post Conservatives Must Thwart Anti-Semitism appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.