Tevi Troy writes about prominent conservatives who died in the past twelve months. Even taking the pandemic into account, I was surprised by how many conservatives we lost.
Here is the list. It’s eclectic. To see what each person on it contributed to conservatism and to America, check out Tevi’s column:
Gertrude Himmelfarb (died December 30, 2019)
Owen Harries
Sir Roger Scruton
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
Roger Jepsen
Dr. Tom Coburn
Herman Cain
Barry Farber
Charlie Daniels
Walter Williams
Abigail Thernstrom
Bruce Herschensohn
Ed Lazear
Farber was a talk radio guy. Talkers magazine ranked him the 9th greatest radio talk show host of all time.
Farber began hosting a talk show in New York City in the early 1960s. At first, he was a liberal anti-Communist. However, as the 60s wore painfully on, he moved to the right.
My New York cousins used to talk about Farber, but I never had the opportunity to listen to him during this period. Eventually, Farber went national, and for a few years in the late 1970s, I listened to him fairly regularly late at night.
Farber was an immense talent and a very clear thinker. I admit, however, that I remember him best for the commercials he delivered, especially for Prevention Magazine.
Back in the day, the top radio hosts all were excellent pitch men, and Farber was one of the two best I ever heard. The other was Steve Allison, whose show on WWDC in Washington I listened to religiously in the early and mid 60s. (The award for excellence in a single commercial goes to Ken Beatrice, a D.C. sports talk host, for his Arby’s spot).
Farber ran for Congress in 1970 against left-wing icon Bella Abzug. Later he ran against Ed Koch for mayor of New York. Both efforts were unsuccessful.
However, as Tevi notes, Farber scored a moral victory against Abzug, holding her to only 52 percent of the vote in her heavily Democratic district. Against Koch, Farber came in second, running on the Conservative Party ticket. He outpolled the Republican candidate.
I recall Farber being asked on his show whether his unsuccessful campaigns were his biggest career disappointments. He scoffed at the idea. His biggest disappointment, Farber said, was not making it on television.
It’s too bad he didn’t. Farber was a helluva lot better than Larry King.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.