Posted on 07/12/2012 6:12:54 AM PDT by moonshot925
NARRATOR: "Don't look now young man, but somebody has his hand in your pocket. It's the hand of big government. It's taking away about four months pay from what your daddy earns evey year — one dollar out of every three in his paycheck. And its taking the security out of your grandmother's Social Security."
GOLDWATER: "You know, that's the great trouble with big, inflationary government. It takes more and more of your earnings. It slowly but surely destroys individual initiative and responsibility. The government must draw its strength from the people, and as it drains away this strength, it must inevitably undermine the foundations of self-government. I ask you to join me in helping restore the individual freedoms and initiatives this nation once knew, to make government more the servant and not the master of us all. In this free nation we do not choose to be ruled, we elect to be governed."
NARRATOR: "In your heart, you know he's right. Vote for Barry Goldwater."
The American people fell for it and Goldwater lost in a landslide.
A classic campaign ad (which was completely obliterated by one containing a fistful of lies and film of an A-bomb going off)
If I remember correctly the genesis of that story line occurred when a reporter asked Goldwater what he would do to solve the Vietnam issue. Goldwater responded by saying he would seek an immediate military solution by sending the B-52s to bomb North Vietnam. Senator Goldwater was also a general officer in the USAFRes at that time. I am not sure if his combat strikes occurred after the election or before.
At any rate the media ran with the story and the 1964 elections are history.
BTW - there is one more piece of history that the democrats and the media don't talk about for a variety of reasons. A little over 8 years later, December 1972 to be exact, the US government, under President Nixon, took the B-52s north and bombed North Vietnam back into the stoneage which is what it is reported what Goldwater wanted to do. So if you ever get THE WALL look at all the names that appear between December 1965 and December 1972 and remember who put them there. BTW - the Vietnamese losses were many many times what we lost.
Johnson and the media succeeded in depicting Goldwater as a dangerous reactionary radical who would plunge us into WWIII. Well we all know what happened. The Dems plunged the country into Vietnam, and Johnson initiated The Great Society which ended up destroying the black family and elevating the crime rate to new highs. But Goldwater was the first truly conservative Republican candidate, and his campaign inspired millions of young conservatives. The Republicans are now far more conservative than they were in 1964 thanks in large part to Goldwater's example. Fortunately, Rockefeller Republicans are virtually a thing of the past. Even the Mittster, as bland as he is, is not a Rockefeller Pubbie. He can't be, or he would never have gotten nominated.
I remember that. The near-universal reaction to that statement was, "Gee, Goldwater is crazy, he wants to drop bombs on North Vietnam!". LBJ and the 'Rats encouraged that notion by either remaining quiet about their intentions, or denying them outright. Oddly enough, within a year of the election, Johnson was doing what Goldwater proposed (dropping bombs). IIRC Operation Rolling Thunder began in March, 1965, so less than a year after the '64 election.
They told me that if I voted for Goldwater, we’d have a war in Southeast Asia, civil and racial unrest, and a ruined economy. I went ahead and voted for him anyway, and it turned out they were absolutely right.
Here’s the mega-smear TV ad that killed Goldwater’s campaign ...
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1964/peace-little-girl-daisy
That ad is reason #1 that I could never ever be a Democrat.
Your wit is truly inspirinig, Sir.
Damn straight. That was the mother of all Democrat attack ads to follow.
Thanks. Interesting video.
I guess it helped Johnson that Kennedy signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty in September 1963 which banned atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons.
It made it look like the Kennedy/Johnson Administration wanted peace and Goldwater was a fringe extremist who wanted war.
I spent every spare minute I had volunteering in Barry’s Tucson headquarters. CBS news came on at 5:30 pm there and walter crankcase announced Johnson had won while I was still making phone calls trying to get people to go vote.
Thanks moonshot925.
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