Christopher Buckley, a political satirist and author who recently turned his back on the Republican campaign to support Barack Obama, answered FT readers’ questions about the US election.

Mr Buckley is also an editor-at-large at ForbesLife magazine, and a former columnist on the conservative magazine, The National Review - from which he resigned after deciding to support Mr Obama. Mr Buckley is son of William F. Buckley, founder of The National Review and prominent conservative commentator.

In a column on the Daily Beast website, Mr Buckley wrote after his decision to back Mr Obama that he had been “effectively fatwahed by the conservative movement.” Later, he wrote a humorous draft of Mr McCain’s concession speech for the FT. “I have had my victories. Just not tonight...”

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It’s clear to me that the current GOP has dissolved into the angry white people’s party, much like the old National Party of South Africa. How can this political party recreate itself into a multi-racial, multi-religious party that is relevant to most Americans? Catherine Lugg, Princeton, NJ

Christopher Buckley: An interesting comparison. I think it is entirely possible that the example of Mr Obama is going to persuade many of these people of the wrongness of their persuasions. We shall see.

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Who do you see emerging as a new leader of the GOP?
Ben Thypin, New York City

CB: Gosh, Mr Thypin, I honestly don’t know. All the talk in the days ahead is going to be on the topic of Ms Palin. My thoughts on that, expressed elsewhere in this online chat, are that I hope we find another flag-bearer. But these are secondary considerations. I for one, rather than focussing on the Next Conservative Leader, am going to be watching the leader we’ve just elected, with - how does it go? - much audacity of hope.

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Which wing of the Republican Party is likely to emit the most creative and entertaining recriminations? The neo-conservatives who gave us Iraq; the financial conservatives who gave us the TARP; or the religious conservatives who gave us Sarah Palin?
Rory Harden

CB: Excellent question! Though I’m not entirely sure it was the “religious conservatives” who gave us Ms Palin. My sense is that she was put forward by Mr William Kristol of The Weekly Standard. He’s hardly that, though he certainly is a neo-con. Well, let the recriminations begin? It will make for good spectating.

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Do you feel that Obama will, in the long run, benefit the US economy or is he promising more than he can deliver?
Stephanie, Washington, D.C.

CB: I suppose every president (with the exception of another one from Illinois, named Lincoln) came into office promising more than he could deliver. I think Mr. Obama is a smart man. But we have dug ourselves into a terribly, terribly deep hole. (55 trillion in unfunded liabilities in the years ahead!) How’d you like to have that in-box on January 20.

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Is it possible for the conservative movement to reinvent itself without the reliance on the cultural boogeyman that has made them so onerous? Can the Party separate itself from religion?
Mark Glover, Mass

CB: This is a key question, to which I very much hope that the answer is yes. Remember what Burke said (I shall now proceed to misquote him): “I believe neither in permanent defeats or permanent victories.” My late father (WFB, Jr) once said to me, “I have spent my entire life trying to separate the Right from the kooks. Let’s hope the next WFB, whoever he may be, will be successful.

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Will President Obama have more success in persuading NATO allies to provide troops for Afghanistan than did President Bush?
Andrew Gibbons, London, UK

CB: I think it is entirely possible. America has much fence mending to do in “Old Europe.” (Bad joke.) It is my hope that we will soon begin to disengage from Iraq and concentrate on Afghanistan. (Reculer pour mieux sauter, as it were.) Though as a reader of Kipling, and history generally, I am pessimistic about permanent foreign interventions in that rugged land.

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Will fiscal responsibility once again become a conservative virtue? And are the culture wars over, or will they continue, also inside the Republican party?
Ole Asbjoern Ness, Oslo, Norway

CB: Dear Mr Ness, I worked for a year on a Norwegian freighter and formed the warmest feelings for the Norwegian people. But to your question: I earnestly, earnestly hope that fiscal responsibility will again become a conservative virtue. As for the culture wars, one hopes, and yet one feels, realistically, that we are in one of those Hundred Year Wars.

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Do you see the tide of progressive conservatism coming to our shores any time soon?
James, Dallas

CB: Dear James, Am not quite sure what you mean by “progressive conservatism” or “to our shores” (esp as I type this from the island of Washington, DC). If you mean (by the former) a more say tolerant, elastic - to use a very slippery term - kind of conservatism; that is, non-single issue, etc, then, well, yes, I do hope it comes to our shores. Warm regards to all in Dallas. I spoke at the Texas Book Festival last weekend and had a grand time.

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Can the Republican party pacify the social conservatives while trying to become more inclusive? Their stance on ethnic and cultural issues seems on the verge of racism (i.e. real America, a white guy as Joe Six Pack, etc.)
Robert, Plano, TX

CB: A very good question, to which I have no very good answer, other than to express the hope that the social conservatives will - is “mature” quite the right word? Put it this way: that they will see the limits of their own negative passions, and grow out of them into something less angry, less reactionary.

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Will Americans face up to the looming tax burden to pay off the federal debt? No mature economy can grow quickly enough to ever grow their way out of it. So taxes will have to rise.
Arthur M, Dallas, TX

CB: I too fear that taxes will rise. I have always been one for lower taxes (especially my own). But Mr. Bush’s vaunted “compassionate conservatism” proved to be rather more an “incontinent conservatism,” which the consequence that he managed in merely eight years to double the national debt. Milton Friedman wept.

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Will the Middle East see completed regional peace treaties between Israel and all Arab nations during the first four years of an Obama administration?
S. Soares, Denver, CO

CB: Highly, highly unlikely, I should think. Let us wish President-elect Obama all the luck in the world, but what you propose would be a coup for even an actual messiah. That said, I think America has just earned itself major Arab Street cred with Mr. Obama’s election.

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Is Sarah Palin the future of the Republican party?
David Fickling, Financial Times

CB: Well, sir, that is the $64,000 question. I earnestly hope that the answer is no.

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The modern conservative movement seems to have been damned by the pandering and fear mongering that created its base. How can conservatives learn to harness positive rather than negative passion to drive its movement?
Cain Porter, Arlington, VA

CB: It’s a complicated question, and not one I will do justice to after only two cups of coffee (following a rather exhausting time). Remember that the “base” you speak of, which is to say the religious right, et al, were substantially created by the Left. There’s an old French saying — which I will now proceed to mangle -- “Ce chien est tres mechant. Quand on l’attaque, it se defend.” (This dog is very naughty. When you attack it, it defends itself.) But would be very much in favor of POSITIVISM on the right in the days ahead. I think the country is weary of negativism. Sorry not to have provided a better answer. Maybe after a third cup...

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Despite the fact that you support Barack Obama now, would you still call yourself a conservative? And if so, what characterizes you as a conservative these days?
Matt Mayer

CB: Well, that’s a very good question, sir. I do still consider myself a conservative. I wasn’t chucking that over the side when I endorsed Mr Obama. I think his instincts are “conservative.” I don’t actually think McCain’s were, in the end. He was more the maverick, though some of his instincts were excellent. For what it’s worth, Jeff Hart, a very distinguished former editor of National Review wrote in The Daily Beast sometime after I did that he believes Obama was “the genuine” conservative in the race. Time will tell.

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Can Republicans recover in 2010 with pragmatic, moderate centrist candidates?
James Arnold, Van Nuys, CA

CB: Well, it rather depends on how Obama and his Democratic majority do, doesn’t it? If they govern wisely and extricate us from this muck (I can’t use the other word because the FT is a family paper), then I shouldn’t think it will much matter what the Republicans do. But I am, yes, all in favor of “pragmatic, moderate and centrist” candidates. Or as the famous Argentine politician put it, “Moderation - or death!”

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Do you think that an Obama administration would have a negative impact on global free trade? To what extent does Obama personally believe his own somewhat negative remarks concerning international trade agreements made at his earlier rallies?
Max Rangeley, Devon

CB: To be honest, I haven’t a clue. My sense and it is only that, is that the guy has first-class instincts, which is to say that he will not be guided by ideology. He faces a number of pragmatic nightmares, and I am banking that he will act pragmatically. With a little help from his pragmatic-minded advisors, including Mr Warren Buffett. I didn’t endorse Mr Obama because I thought he was going to be a lefty.

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Do you think McCain’s campaign would have had more success had he courted the base less, thereby reinforcing the idea of his being a maverick? This strategy would have, of course, included picking a more centrist VP candidate (perhaps Lieberman?)
Matthew M. Bartlett, Northampton, MA

CB: That’s a persuasive line of argument to me. Though I’ll admit that in the first few days after the Palin announcement, I too was a bit swoony (if that word actually exists), I quickly fell out of love. I think when the history of this (amazing) campaign is written, she will be seen to have been not a wise choice. Though I don’t think Lieberman would have ignited any passion.

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With speculation of a ’civil war’ within the Republican party and the divisions between the conservative base and more moderate republicans, do you see a possible break-up or (perhaps more realistically) realignment of the GOP?
Chris Mullin, Northeastern University; Boston, MA

CB: It’s going to be an interesting time for the GOC (Grand Old Conservatives): a lot of shouting and finger-pointing, the proverbial circular firing squad. (Firing line?) Whatever happens, it needs to grope its way back to what we call First Principles.