How much is William F. Buckley, Jr. responsible for modern conservatism?

William F. Buckley, Jr. often was called the “high priest” of the conservative movement.

That term, for me, always conjures up the image of the Hierophant (on the tarot card and elsewhere) with his triple crown, because it underscores the three dimensions of Buckley’s existence.

Illustration of the Hierophant card from “The Pictorial Key to the Tarot” by A. E. Waite (1910).

There was Buckley’s public life as a celebrity, mixing with high society and entertaining the nation...