William F Buckley & Charlie Rangel debate war on drugs circa '91

Possibly the last conservative to use intellect as a tool in arguing for a principled position, William F Buckley argues circles around Rangel, the liberal hack whose sole aim is to do more of the same A generation later, we're still having the same argument, Mr. Buckley's dead and Ron Paul is the only principled conservative who supports the decriminalization of cannabis.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• William F Buckley
• drug wars
• Charles Rangel

[Dsky40]

Did either gentleman win this debate?

[etijerino2008]

@Dsky40 Is there any doubt? Rangel sounded like a fool using foolish arguments.

[tinseltownsman]

All I know is, somebody named RobertCornhole and Reggie1971 managed to make statements and then retracted both--not to mention the video in question involves a cartoonish Charlie Rangel's attempts to debate the venerable WFB. The programming itself is hysterical--but why did somebody named RobertCornhole (Cornholio?) comment to begin with, and what could he possibly have said? I'm laughing hard while typing this.

[etijerino2008]

Robert's brother, Dick, made him remove it because the comment was asinine.

[levanyzzuf]

Buckley looks as if he's had 5 or 6 facelifts and the latest one must have been a real hackjob.

And while I agree with Buckley, it seems to me that Rangel actually won the argument.

[etijerino2008]

What you're seeing is traces of his reptilian ancestry.

[chifour66]

You were never properly smacked down until you were smacked down by WFB.

[bbburton]

How Rangel keeps getting elected to Congress is beyond me. This guy is a socialist. The drug war is an utter failure, much like our foreign policy. A police state is not the answer to anything but the pursuit of power itself. Not only has the drug war failed to curb the availability of drugs, it has failed to sway the public's attitude about drugs. How can a culture obsessed with promoting a pharmaceutical industry at the same time promote a war on drugs? It's insane, and hypocritical.

[HurricaneTBag]

@etijerino2008 Buckley had this weird gambit set up, where he said that "police enforcement isn't working and it's a huge waste of money" (I agree completely, and I wish he'd tell Mr. Boehner that) then he goes on to say that "because of this, unless were going to execute the drug dealer, which no one wants to do, we may as well legalize drugs." Rangel was merely suggesting that there may be a middle ground between the status quo, and legalization.

[DCUPtoejuice]

Kinsley!  I forgot to be thankful I have not seen his dumb mug in almost a decade!

[davebex13]

@HurricaneTBag Modern pop culture has degraded our society to inarticulate morons. I agree - this reflects a better time...

[davebex13]

@bertiethetoupee4 Imagine how it felt to the people trying to debate him!

[davebex13]

I love watching WFB videos. It goes to show how "Republican" and "Democrat" mean nothing, as political parties' positions can shift 180 degrees in decades.

[HurricaneTBag]

Charlie Rangel supporting the war on drugs and Bill Buckley flying the flag for decriminalization of narcotics? Just twenty years ago? My god. High level of discussion, not just talking points but actual arguments. Arguments based on hypotheticals and arguments based on empirical data. Man, I miss this stuff.

[bertiethetoupee4]

@levanyzzuf I like Buckley, but his face is genuinely terrifying.

[EllyMcCormack]

William F Buckley kicked his assss!

[xtrmsprts]

@ChuckNorrisKratosLOL well, yes, he later claimed that he had fashioned himself after the antagonists in james bond movies.