It should've been a Spring like any other Spring, as it should've been a political year like any other political year. It is the night of May 28th, 1968 in Manhattan and Norman Mailer is talking with Bill Buckley -- both men at the height of their literary and cultural power. One man calls himself a "left conservative"; the other is the Godfather of the American Conservative movement. Neither man knew it at the time, but everything communal, egalitarian, and progressive in the American spirit had crested and would never again reach high tide. Robert F. Kennedy would be assassinated in 7 days. And the next 46 years (and counting) would be a reactionary nightmare.
How self-satisfied was the intellectual Left on the cusp of its extinction.
