William F Buckley and Political Discourse

William F Buckley died today. Althouse talks about him and has some video with him debating Noam Chomsky about Vietnam. Compare the calm, polite, reasonable discourse where individuals can disagree without demonizing themselves to the pundits of today, Bill O'Reilly, Keith Olberman, Chris Matthews, Rush Limbaugh, etc. Today, demonizing the other side is the default.

Alhouse

Here he is interviewing Noam Chomsky in 1969: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5. Now that's television!

AND: More video. What election commentary was like in 1969: "And yet always there is a strange seriousness, something in the system that warns us, warns us that America had better strike out on a different course, rather than face another 4 years of asphixiation by liberal premises.... No, Nixon won't bring paradise, but he could bring a little more air to breathe."