Farewell, Gore Vidal

Gore Vidal has died. He was 86.
For many on the conservative side of politics, there will be sighs of relief that their great tormenter is at last silenced.
For those on the liberal side, he will be missed as the one sure bet to shoot holes in any conservative idea.
For both left and right, Gore Vidal should be missed because he was the last of the glorious line of American “men of letters.” He followed in the footsteps of Mark Twain and H. L. Mencken.
He was destined to face-off with another great American man of letters, William F. Buckley, Jr.
How many times did they fill the TV screen and our living rooms with their barbed and sophisticated sparring. How many times did we think one had won only to hear the other reposte and take the day.
Vidal and Buckley battled over concepts, over principles, over important American political and cultural themes. They did not choose toothpaste -sale political sound bites or easy putdowns. They fought it out using Sophocles, Plato, Seneca, Cato, Aquinas and Locke.
Whatever you may think of Gore Vidal, or of William Buckley, they were intelligent, articulate, thoughtful, austere social and political critics. They did not aim to please. They aimed to tell the truth as they saw it and point the finger at those who had failed to live up to their high standards.
No one paid more dearly for that than Vidal.
His first book was blackballed by the New York Times because it contained a gay character. His comments about 9.11 made him a pariah in his own country.
But, it would be wrong to say that he was an America-baiter. He loved his country so much that he risked his reputation again and again to plead with her about what he saw as signs of imperialism and militarism.
And, we read his books and essays. We read and criticized and talked to each other about them. We found him distasteful, puzzling, worrisome and a lovable curmudgeon.
Don’t look for his replacement. Or for Buckley’s.
There will be none.