Don’t believe the obituaries. William F. Buckley is still very much with us.

Just as John F. Kennedy continues to inspire successive generations of liberals, so too will Buckley continue to motivate conservatives in the present and future. Buckley’s goal—establishing economic, social and foreign-policy conservatism as the default political template of the United States—has yet to be fully reached, but he has encouraged millions to make his dream a reality.

It is not unreasonable to characterize Buckley as the Martin Luther King Jr. of the conservative movement. Both men rose to prominence in the 1950s by challenging political philosophies that were both dominant and oppressive. Both men were gifted orators, drawing legions to their respective causes with the power of their words. Both men faced vicious criticism from ignorant defenders of the social order they opposed. Both men were devoutly religious, and relied upon their faith to carry them through times of personal difficulty.

Buckley is every bit the icon King is. MLK’s work led to a dramatic improvement in American race relations. Similarly, WFB’s work led to the election of Ronald Reagan and the subsequent destruction of Soviet communism. Millions of Americans have shown their commitment to King’s dream. Millions of Americans are showing their commitment to Buckley’s dream as well.

Buckley is still vital in America’s political and social life. His vision is reflected in the words of Rush Limbaugh and the writings of Jonah Goldberg. Thomas Sowell, Rich Lowry, Michelle Malkin, Monica Crowley, David Horowitz and Laura Ingraham all stand on Buckley’s broad shoulders. Every time someone refutes a point made by a member of the “progressive” opinion elite, he or she is doing so in Buckley’s name.

It’s interesting that Buckley’s trip to Heaven was booked now, as John McCain and Barack Obama battle to succeed President Bush. If McCain manages to defeat Obama, he will owe a debt of gratitude to Buckley’s ideological offspring for exposing Obama’s left-wing excesses. Similarly, if Obama manages to win, he will spend his first term symbolically fighting Buckley, as those who embrace WFB’s vision within and beyond the Beltway will not hesitate to condemn Obama for attempting to destroy the values Buckley held dear.

Buckley’s physical passing is every bit as sad as Ronald Reagan’s passing. However, Buckley would not want us to be sad for long—not when there is an election to win, not when the future of this country depends on keeping radical values out of Presidential power. Buckley would want us to dry our tears and get back to work; he’d demand that we cast a spotlight on Obama’s ideological rigidity, his relationship to extremist clergymen, his far-left voting record. He’d exhort us to tell the American people that hope and change are smoke and mirrors, masks that cover an ugly agenda deleterious to average Americans. He’d tell us that the conservative movement must do the work that the MSM will not: he’d want talk radio, the conservative blogosphere and center-right publications to join together for a national review of Obama’s “progressive” vision.

Like King, Buckley was a freedom fighter, waging a ideological war against government oppression. In Obama, Buckley would see a gathering storm, a politician using smiles and feel-good rhetoric to lure Americans into voting for socialism. He would once again stand athwart history, yelling “Stop!” from the top of his lungs.

Sadly, he cannot physically do so now. Yet those of us who loved him as we love our spouses or our children can. We can honor Buckley’s legacy by working our tails off to reveal Obama’s ultra-liberalism to the country. We can preserve Buckley’s vision by laboring to get conservative Republicans elected to the House and Senate in 2008 and 2010. We can maintain Buckley’s standards by being motivated instead of disillusioned, by being courageous instead of craven, by being bold in our fight to establish conservatism as the standard operating procedure in American politics.

Buckley was, is, and always will be a hero. We can pay tribute to his legacy by exposing Obama’s contempt for Buckley’s principles. In so doing, we can keep the White House out of Democrat hands on November 4…and if we do so, then, as David Bowie once put it, “…we can be heroes, just for one day.”