here for Buckley lay the genuine danger of Eisenhower: to resist “the socialist tidal wave,” Americans needed ideas, passions, and beliefs; Ike had given them only “aimless mush-headedness.” Eisenhower himself was mostly immune to these kinds of criticisms, but Buckley’s critique laid the groundwork for a campaign to push the GOP further to the right once the Age of Eisenhower had run its course.12
