Fascinating, Andy. I guess I have another book to read. As is oft said,
"politics makes strange bedfellows."
On 4/20/2015 12:59 PM, Andy Bach wrote:
When William F. Buckley – the father of modern conservative thought –
ran for mayor of New York City in 1965, his platform included support
for the designation of bike lanes throughout the city. That might seem
surprising to many people today, who are used to associating bicycle
infrastructure with left-wing politics, but Buckley's position made
sense in context. Heather Hendershot, a professor of comparative media
studies at MIT, spoke to my fellowship last week about her work
researching Buckley and his groundbreaking political talk show /Firing
Line /for an upcoming book.
Buckley, Hendershot said, ran for mayor knowing he had no real chance
of winning. (Famously, when asked what he would do first if elected,
he quipped, "Demand a recount."
<http://maggiekb.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6d32b85afe89d936dcc221ab8&id=793edab049&e=3a8af27547>)
The point for him wasn't to win. Instead, it was to show voters what a
true conservative looked like, in comparison to the Republican
candidate who, according to /The New York Times/ article linked above,
actually "ran to the left" of the Democratic candidate on many issues.
And the fun part about running for an election you know (and don't
really care) that you have no chance of winning is that you aren't
beholden to anyone. Unlike the serious candidates, Buckley could – and
did – honestly speak his mind in ways politicians typically can't, for
fear of offending their base or enraging key supporters/contributors.
Bike lanes were a part of that
<http://maggiekb.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6d32b85afe89d936dcc221ab8&id=047e257c78&e=3a8af27547>,
Hendershot said, because Buckley saw them as a relatively cheap and
easy solution for horrendous traffic problems that plagued the city –
even though saying so almost certainly alienated both car drivers and
public transit advocates.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/02/magazine/02buckley.html?_r=0
From:
/Copyright © 2015 Maggie Koerth-Baker, All rights reserved./
The Fellowship of Three Things, a weekly collection of fascinating
facts, cool photos, and intriguing short interviews collected by
Maggie Koerth-Baker during her fellowship at Harvard University.
--
a
Andy Bach,
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
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