James L. Buckley
James L. Buckley
James Lane Buckleyis a judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He served as a United States Senator from the state of New York as a member of the Conservative Party of New York from January 3, 1971 to January 3, 1977. He was vice president and director of the Catawba Corporation from 1953 to 1970, and also served as Undersecretary of State for Security Assistance 1981–1982, as well as President of Radio...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth9 March 1923
CountryUnited States of America
Unfortunately, the media, which are not at all reluctant to act in their own self-interest, have succeeded in equating reform in the public mind with further restrictions on just about everyone else's freedom of political speech.
This source of corruption, alas, is inherent in the democratic system itself, and it can only be controlled, if at all, by finding ways to encourage legislators to subordinate ambition to principle.
If enough people openly engage in conduct once considered reprehensible, we rewrite the rule book and assume that God, as a good democrat, will go along.
They may then be willing to cast principled votes based on an educated understanding of the public interest in the face of polls suggesting that the public itself may have quite a different understanding of where its interest lies.
The Court made an exception, however, in the case of candidates contributing to their own campaigns because of the rather reasonable presumption that a candidate is incapable of corrupting himself.