Posted on 06/22/2012 6:37:39 PM PDT by Diggity
It's too bad that we don't have a Barry Goldwater for today's times.
No kidding. He’s one of my personal political heroes. Reading “Conscience of a Conservative” was a revelation: “Hey! I’m not crazy after all!”
I should read that book since you like it so well. I was too young to really remember him but of all the politicians now on the scene he is closest to how I believe.
Not on the scene of course but of all he ones that I have seen.
This Leftist film praises Goldwater for NOT being a social conservative, for being an violent enemy of Jerry Falwell, etc..
I wish there were still guys like him in our party now...He was a strong leader and a great man. He went a bit off the rails on a few social issues late in his career but I don’t hold it against him. A patriot..
I can remember going to a Goldwater rally in Montgomery, Alabama during his 1964 campaign. Ah, those were the days, when we had “A Choice, Not an Echo,” to borrow Mr. Goldwater’s phrase.
Check out “Pure Goldwater” it is a good read.Deals with his life i guess you would call it a biography.
I grew up in Montgomery. Did you? I went to REL high school and was 10 in 1964
Thanks for the info. I will check it out.
I was a high school senior in 1964, too young to vote, but I learned my political direction from Barry Goldwater in that summer and fall.
The Goldwater of the 1960s may have been conservative, but something happened to him sometime around the time Reagan was president. He suddenly became a social liberal and said some nasty things about Reagan. Nancy Reagan took issue with him turning on her husband after Pres. Reagan went to bat for him in the 1964 election.
He was the Milton Friedman of politicians.
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
And liberals/moderates still think that’s fall down, knee slapping funny.
We have a lot of work to do to save our Republic when lines like that are cause for derision.
If you recall, his ‘64 campaign slogan - “In your heart, you know he’s right” was mocked by the lefties as “In your guts, you know he’s nuts”
They never change.
Goldwater was more of a libertarian than a conservative. He was NEVER a moral conservative. That became more evident later, as the issue of abortion became more overwhelming. But it was there from the start, if you looked hard enough.
I was impressed by him at the time, but even back then it was evident that he was lacking something on the moral and religious side.
I had also read Ayn Rand at the time, including some of her earlier work. I greatly admired some aspects of her work, but she had the same problem—something was missing, namely a firm sense of moral right and wrong.
My Dad, I remember being mad and scared enough by that jacka** Cronkite let himself get tricked into voting for LBJ “I will not send American boys to do a job Vietnamese boys should be doing for themselves.” because that Goldwater was crazy and he was going to “Get us into a War.”
Famous “Daisy” Attack Ad from 1964 Presidential Election
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=dDTBnsqxZ3k
“In your guts, you know he’s nuts”
Fascinating reminiscence. Thanks.
In your guts, not your heart.
It’s always about Feelings, a Feeling of some indefinable hunger or want to the left.
No, I came down with some other college students from the Birmingham area to hear Goldwater speak.
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