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Barry Goldwater: The Most Consequential Loser
The Heritage Foundation ^ | December 1, 2005 | Lee Edwards

Posted on 01/01/2006 9:16:21 PM PST by Fiji Hill

Barry Goldwater: The Most Consequential Loser

Lee Edwards, Ph.D.
Distinguished Fellow in Conservative Thought
The Heritage Foundation


Barry Goldwater was the most consequential loser in modern presidential politics. His conservative candidacy forty-one years ago has had a more enduring impact on our politics and our nation than the losing candidates usually mentioned in the history and political science texts--Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, Al Smith in 1928, George Wallace in 1968, George McGovern in 1972, and Ross Perot in 1988.

This judgment might be challenged by some, given that Goldwater received less than 39 percent of the popular vote and carried only six states totaling 52 electoral votes in his 1964 campaign for the presidency. Most political observers of the day agreed with James B. Reston of the New York Times that Goldwater "not only lost the presidential election ... but the conservative cause as well." A few demurred, including the political historian Theodore White, who wrote, "One cannot dismiss Goldwater as a man without meaning in American history. Again and again in American history it has happened that the losers of the presidency contributed almost as much to the permanent tone and dialogue of politics as did the winners." Even White could not foresee just how meaningful the Goldwater candidacy would be.

Because of Barry Goldwater, the Republican Party became the Conservative Party and then the majority party in America. Today, Republicans control the White House, the Congress, more than half of the governorships, and approximately half of the state legislators. As William A. Rusher recently wrote: "Today practically all Republican candidates proclaim their conservatism, and almost all conservative leaders vow their allegiance to the Republican Party. It has been a remarkably fruitful union.

The union was made possible by the impact of the Goldwater candidacy on the five essential elements of politics--money, organization, candidates, issues, and the media.

With his nationwide grassroots appeal, Goldwater enabled the GOP through direct mail and television to broaden its financial base by a factor of 30 to 1. In 1960 there were between 40,000 and 50,000 contributors to the Nixon campaign. In 1964, the number of individual contributors was estimated at nearly 700,000. Goldwater gave the Republican Party broad-based financial independence for the first time in its history.

Politics is people, and thousands of young conservatives entered and stayed in politics because of Barry Goldwater's run for the presidency. Today they sit in Congress, manage campaigns, conduct national polls, head think tanks, edit magazines, and host talk shows. The Democratic Party was always better at organizing than the Republican Party because it could call upon organized labor for its manpower. But in 1964, nearly 4 million people volunteered and worked in the Goldwater campaign--twice as many as worked for President Lyndon B. Johnson. In the June Republican primary in California, for example, an estimated 50,000 volunteers turned out for Goldwater, prompting Rockefeller's outmanned campaign manager to remark, "They kept coming at us like the Chinese Army."

Goldwater was the first ideological presidential candidate. Ideas mattered most to him--he would not pander to the people for their votes. He prepared the way for idea-driven candidates like Democrat George McGovern in 1972 and Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980. Indeed, without candidate Goldwater there would have been no President Reagan for it was Goldwater who gave Reagan the opportunity in the last week of the 1964 campaign to deliver his famous "A Time for Choosing" TV address. That address made Reagan a national political star overnight and led to his running for and being elected governor of California.

Goldwater's structured campaigning, limiting his appearances to two or three major speeches a day in places "where the votes are," was adopted by presidential winners Ronald Reagan and George Bush the elder. Goldwater, who came from a state with only five electoral votes, also set a precedent for outsider presidential candidates like McGovern, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

Goldwater insisted on addressing the issues that have dominated the national debate for the past four decades. They included Social Security, which Goldwater argued was actuarially unsound but could be strengthened by a voluntary option for younger people. Federal subsidies: they should be reduced and eliminated where possible. Privatization: Government-owned properties should be sold to the private sector, government services should be contracted out to private companies. Law and order: the rights of victims should take precedence over the rights of criminals. Morality in government: the president and all in public office should avoid scandal and not misuse their office for personal gain. The Constitution: the president should appoint to the federal bench and especially the Supreme Court jurists who will respect not rewrite the Constitution. Communism: why not victory?

With regard to the media, the success of the Democrats' attack ads--the Daisy, the Ice Cream and the Social Security TV spots--convinced future presidential aspirants that the most effective advertising was negative advertising. On the other hand, Goldwater's half-hour TV programs were copied three decades later by Ross Perot in his infomercials.

In the fall of 1994, a USA Today-CNN Gallup poll found that 64 percent of Americans agreed with the Republicans' Contract with America. The people wanted smaller government, lower taxes and spending, tougher anti-crime measures and less Washington meddling in their lives. Every one of these ideas was first proposed by Barry Goldwater in his 1964 campaign--he was simply thirty years too early.

Without AuH2O in '64, the Republican Party would have continued to be dominated by its Eastern liberal wing and to remain a regional minority party. There would have been no electoral breakthrough in the South, no development of a two-party system in the South, no emerging Republican majority.

Barry Goldwater was a prophet, an Old Testament Jeremiah, who sternly warned the people to repent of their wasteful ways or reap a whirlwind of debt and deficits. He was a pioneer who led the Republican Party out of the barren East and into a verdant South and West where milk and honey and victory awaited them. He was, in George Will's words, "a man who lost forty-four states but won the future."

He sparked the conservative revolution in America, but he was an unusual revolutionary--the grandson of a Jewish peddler, a college dropout, a master mechanic and ham radio operator, a gifted photographer, an intrepid pilot, a man who never smoked a cigarette or drank a cup of coffee but kept a bottle of Old Crow in the refrigerator of his Senate office for after-five sipping.

His 1964 candidacy for president marked the beginning of a tectonic shift in American politics--from East to West, from the cities to the suburbs, from big government to limited government, from containment to liberation, from liberal to conservative--that shapes the nation to this day.

Lee Edwards, Distinguished Fellow in Conservative Thought at The Heritage Foundation (heritage.org), is the author of many books, including the just-published “To Preserve and Protect: The Life of Edwin Meese III.” Remarks at "The Conservative Movement: Its Past, Present and Future"


© 1995 - 2006 The Heritage Foundation
All Rights Reserved.



TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Philosophy; Politics/Elections; US: Arizona
KEYWORDS: 1964; auh2o; barrygoldwater; conservatism; goldwater; gop; leeedwards; republicanparty
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Barry Goldwater was born on New Years Day in 1909.

Lee Edwards wrote a biography of Ronald Reagan in 1967 as well as a more recent biography of Goldwater--and he's still going strong.

1 posted on 01/01/2006 9:16:22 PM PST by Fiji Hill
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Comment #2 Removed by Moderator

To: AuH2ORepublican


3 posted on 01/01/2006 9:27:17 PM PST by Coleus (Roe v. Wade and Endangered Species Act both passed in 1973, Murder Babies/save trees, birds, algae)
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To: Fiji Hill

Well, I'd prefer that Barry Goldwater be still around to write Lee Edwards' biography.


4 posted on 01/01/2006 9:27:43 PM PST by GSlob
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To: Crotalus72901
I wonder how different recent American history would have been if AUH2O had been elected President. I can only dream about it.....

Not hard to imagine, just picture the Eisenhower years. Ike campaigned for Barry and made a TV appearance with him before the election
5 posted on 01/01/2006 9:34:09 PM PST by fallujah-nuker (America needs more SAC and less empty sacs.)
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To: Fiji Hill
Barry Goldwater may have been the most consequential loser but without a doubt good ol' Jimmah Cahtah was the most disastrously consequential winner
6 posted on 01/01/2006 9:34:36 PM PST by stm
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To: Crotalus72901

I was told if I voted for Goldwater, that we would have riots in the streets and be in a long unwinnable war. I did, and darned if they weren't right.


7 posted on 01/01/2006 9:36:27 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: stm
...but without a doubt good ol' Jimmah Cahtah was the most disastrously consequential winner.

I would go with Woodrow Wilson on that one, although Carter is certainly right near the top of that list.

8 posted on 01/01/2006 9:43:08 PM PST by Wolfstar ("We must...all hang together or...we shall all hang separately." Benjamin Franklin)
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Comment #9 Removed by Moderator

To: dfwgator

"I was told if I voted for Goldwater, that we would have riots in the streets and be in a long unwinnable war. I did, and darned if they weren't right."

LOL!


10 posted on 01/01/2006 9:45:29 PM PST by jocon307 (Still mourning the loss of CBS FM)
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To: Fiji Hill
Lee Edwards wrote a biography of Ronald Reagan in 1967 as well as a more recent biography of Goldwater--and he's still going strong.

Thanks so much for this post--an excellent article. I will read this guy when I get a change.

11 posted on 01/01/2006 9:45:41 PM PST by stripes1776
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To: dfwgator
I was told if I voted for Goldwater, that we would have riots in the streets and be in a long unwinnable war. I did, and darned if they weren't right.

You nailed it.

12 posted on 01/01/2006 9:47:14 PM PST by stripes1776
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To: Wolfstar
I would go with Woodrow Wilson on that one

My knowledge of the Wilson presidency is nil. Could you state in a few words what he did.

13 posted on 01/01/2006 9:49:28 PM PST by stripes1776
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To: Fiji Hill

>>...it was Goldwater who gave Reagan the opportunity in the last week of the 1964 campaign to deliver his famous "A Time for Choosing" TV address.<<

That speech literally raised the hairs on the back of my neck! I KNEW Reagan was headed for greatness! In fact, we taped that address on our old reel to reel recorder so we could play it for friends.

If you guys ever get a chance to hear that inspirational speech, you'll understand how far above the crowd that man truly was.


14 posted on 01/01/2006 9:52:51 PM PST by Humidston
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To: Crotalus72901
"I wonder how different recent American history would have been if AUH2O had been elected President..."

He ran in the wrong year: between mourning for JFK and LBJ's skullduggery, no Republican could have been elected in 1964.
15 posted on 01/01/2006 9:53:13 PM PST by decal (Mother Nature and Real Life are conservatives; the Progs have never figured this out.)
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To: Fiji Hill

He convinced me that ideas are important and I became a Goldwater supporter as a teenager. Because of Goldwater, I eventually persuaded my democrat parents to change their registration. Because of Goldwater, California got Reagan and because of Goldwater, the Nation got Reagan.

I remember Reagan's speech in support of Goldwater. Brillant! And the media tried years later to label Reagan as a mental light-weight, just as they have attacked G.W. Bush!

And I remember the sad state of politics when Goldwater ran and who was in the Senate and House. I heard the pigs left because they could not stand the stench!


16 posted on 01/01/2006 9:56:08 PM PST by Prost1 (Sandy Berger can steal, Clinton can cheat, but Bush can't listen!)
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To: Prost1

I was only 15, but "in my heart, I knew he was right."


17 posted on 01/01/2006 10:01:34 PM PST by Rte66
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To: dfwgator

I still have my AUH2O pin. Worked my heart out for him.

*sigh*


18 posted on 01/01/2006 10:03:34 PM PST by Humidston
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To: Fiji Hill

His ideas live on, but only as campaign promises and dreams of those that continually pull levers for Republicans.


19 posted on 01/01/2006 10:08:09 PM PST by jeremiah (People wake up, the water is getting hot)
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To: stripes1776
My knowledge of the Wilson presidency is nil. Could you state in a few words what he did.

Wilson is the godfather of international globalism and domestic socialism.

20 posted on 01/01/2006 10:09:17 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist (None genuine without my signature)
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