SOTU (thread 9), Episode 15: If William F. Buckley Watched Trump's State of the Union

Picture Buckley with a raised eyebrow listening to the State of the Union: hed admire the swagger and talk of strength, but hed keep asking for the constitutional reasoning and intellectual coherence behind the applause.

He loved a good fight—preferably with footnotes, not fury—and would cheer patriotic confidence while worrying when populism starts to outweigh principle. For Buckley, conservatism needed more than victory; it needed a core.