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Good summary. Buckley had plenty of liberals on his show. Reminds me of the time he was discussing the 1963 Democratic convention with liberal Gore Vidal, and

• brownbat 10y ago
  Thanks. I would file that Vidal debate under examples of conversations that dove right off the rails, though it is maybe his most famous. I think there might have been some with Chomsky too. The Hitchens discussions were better, even though they were very far apart politically.* And he had some with sitting Democratic politicians where he would occasionally make concessions. Towards the end here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5-R2aHdul0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5-R2aHdul0 Though he starts by setting up an unproductive definitional trap about liberalism, a recurring theme, he basically backs off after being called on it (roughly 4:55). It's unfortunate that that full conversation (and really, more Firing Line) isn't on YouTube so we'd have more case studies. * Perhaps ironically, because Hitchens became a lot more sympathetic to Buckley's views on military intervention and skepticism of Communism later in his career. I think that's to Hitchens' credit though, that he was able to continue turning these issues over in his mind and apply them differently to different contexts.