In this video from William F. Buckley’s “Firing Line,” beat novelist and poet Jack Kerouac declares himself a lifelong Republican and chews out a hippy:

From the website of “The American Museum of Beat Art”:

Despite the ‘beatnik’ stereotype, Kerouac was a political conservative, especially when under the influence of his Catholic mother. As the beatniks of the 1950′s began to yield their spotlight to the hippies of the 1960′s, Jack took pleasure in standing against everything the hippies stood for. He supported the Vietnam War and became friendly with William F. Buckley.

Barry Goldwater enunciates his Burkean view of conservatism in a 1966 interview with William F. Buckley’s “Firing Line.”

The conservative position I don’t think should be one of constantly coming up with so-called answers to every problem that a Democratic president or a Democratic Congress or political enemies of ours seem to see in this country.

He’s absolutely right, of course– if the Republicans aren’t the “Party of No” then there should be a Party of No. But these ideas didn’t win in 1964, and I don’t know whether they’d win now.

His analysis of the passage of Medicare– hastily, sans debate– aptly describes what seems to be happening right now with an emboldened Democratic majority and Obamacare.

UPDATE: Additional videos from the Firing Line interview.

UPDATE (2/11/10): Andrew Sullivan embeds video #2 in a post about a center-right “CenPAC” conference contemplated by David Frum.