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I considered putting this in the Politics thread, but it was more personal than news-based, so I made a new thread.

The Pulitzer-winning political commentator Charles Krauthammer died today. While his name isn’t as widely recognized as most of the celebrities who get RIP threads, few people shaped the way I think about the United States and politics in general more than him. His opinions helped guide me on the journey towards intellectual conservatism that has taken up so much of my time over the last half-decade. Politics and culture are so often confusing messes of conflicting voices, but whenever I read his columns or heard him speak, the reason, intelligence, and ethics of his words made me feel as if I were better equipped to navigate the philosophical environment a little better. We live in a stupid, tribalistic era. To lose such an ingenious, fair, and morally decent voice now is catastrophic. But I am inspired by the way he lived his life. Here’s what he wrote several weeks ago, announcing he was in the final stages of cancer:

“I leave this life with no regrets. It was a wonderful life – full and complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living. I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended.”

That was written by a man who lived two-thirds of his life as a quadriplegic with no use of his legs and little use of his hands. Despite such misfortune, he accomplished great things, influenced countless people, lived how he wanted, and died with no regrets. If I can live a life even remotely as successful, I will be satisfied.

Also, Charles Krauthammer released a book several years ago. The political section of every major bookstore is stuffed with ephemera that maintain relevancy for all of six months, each thrown-together by commentators desperate for more attention and profit. Krauthammer resisted this urge and waited until the near-end of his career before publishing Things That Matter, a collection of columns and essays ranging from the 1980s to the waning years of the Obama administration. Anyone interested in having a clearer understanding of the pollical and cultural landscapes of the United States since the Cold War should take a careful look.

Lastly, here’s one of my favorite Charles Krauthammer clips:

While so many conservatives ignored their principles with the coming of Trump, as demonstrated by Ingraham above, Krauthammer stayed true to his beliefs. This put him at odds with many pundits, readers, viewers, and even the channel that showcased him, but as he once said, “You’re betraying your whole life if you don’t say what you think, and you don’t say it honestly and bluntly.” Charles Krauthammer’s unwillingness to compromise his philosophy was, to me, one of his most admirable qualities and something to which we should all aspire.

I doubt many posters here have a strong enough on Charles Krauthammer to comment, so maybe I'm just speaking to myself, but if you are one of those weird people who pay attention to political writers, feel free to reply.

Mr Krauthammer was one of a handful of conservative thinkers I began following when I first became interested in American politics a few years ago. Of this handful, I liked him the most. He was, for me, more disgestible than George Will, given his preference for concise and simple language compared to Will's verbiage and dense forests of citations. I found him more engaging than David Frum thanks to his more compelling personal voice, as Frum's perspective was (and is) usually subsumed into the editorial voice of The Atlantic. I continue to read Will and Frum and consider them two of my favorite political writers, so Mr Krauthammer was something special indeed.

For liberals, he was a valuable opposing voice for more than three decades. His style--fair, rational, affable--made him a much more effective communicator of conservative ideas than a lot of his lib-owning contemporaries. The left-leaning readership of the Washington Post has rarely been kind to him or his opinions, but the outpouring of support for him in the comments of his final column attests to the great number of people who respected what he had to say despite often irreconcilable disagreements.

For me, he was also one of a number of writers who have shaped (and continue to shape) my personal writing voice. I'm sure the same is true for many other young people. That alone is a fine legacy.

Rest in peace, Mr Krauthammer.

@Legday
I'll help you delete your posts this time. Next time, please think before posting ;)