Baldwin’s numerous venues were not, as it happened, limited to those of the left. His arguments, moreover, were original and unorthodox, and at times even paralleled Buckley’s own. Baldwin, too, was skeptical of liberal programs and the meliorist principles they rested on. When he observed that the “mountain of sociological investigations, committee reports, and plans for recreational centers have failed to change the face of Harlem,” a conservative could agree.