Barry Goldwater: The Most Consequential Loser

"Conscience of a Conservative" made a deep impression on me too. I first read it in 1968 as part of a college class in political thought and theory. It was pretty basic when Goldwater points out that 'Conservative wisdom' comes from the laws of God and the laws of nature. These are the laws that "have no dateline," attached to them. Pretty striking stuff at any period in history or any individuals life. I think this in itself places a heavy emphasis on the individual.

His called a balanced national budget, states rights, a mighty military and better directed efforts at fighting communism. (Now on the last one we might substitute terrorism today) Other things also before there time was ready. Definetly against the 'Political Correctness' that abounds today. I think he was ahead of his time but fighting an entrenched battle against not only the Democrat Party but also the Republican Party. I think President Reagan finally broke the logjam there, but still had a fight on his hands, as we do today.

Times really haven't changed that much from the 50's and 60's in terms of politics. Only difference now I guess (and hope is that there are more of us. His "Me Too Democrats" still exists in our "RINO's" we have today. Oh yeah one other, the ever present vindictive of the Democrat/Liberal against pretty much anything morally correct and .

Goldwater was an amazing man and had a several long and great careers, politics only one of them but maybe the most lasting.

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

Good morning, stripes1776. Happy new year to you and yours. Hope the following helps answer your question:

Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), born in Virginia four years prior to the Civil War. Though his family had recently relocated from abolitionist Ohio, his father, a Presbyterian minister, was pro-slavery and a supporter of the Confederacy. Wilson was still a boy when the family moved to Augusta, Georgia, where he grew up amid the Civil War and Reconstruction.

As a young adult, Wilson moved north to attend Princeton, later rising to become that university's president. A Democrat, he was the governor of New Jersey at the time he was elected president in 1912.

Domestic: Wilson maneuvered through Congress three major pieces of legislation. The first was a lower tariff, the Underwood Act, which included the first graduated federal income tax. The passage of the Federal Reserve Act establishd the Federal Reserve system. In 1914 (as WWI began in Europe) Wilson's antitrust legislation established the Federal Trade Commission to prohibit unfair business practices. By virtue of this legislation and the slogan "he kept us out of war," Wilson narrowly won re-election.

In his 2nd term, the Spanish Flu pandemic, which killed more people than any other pandemic in human history, began in army camps in the midwest. Wilson did absolutely nothing to prevent its spread. In fact, he obstructed attempts to quarantine soldiers and continued to allow them to be moved from one camp to another, and then overseas to the battlefields of Europe. There is an excellent book, "The Great Influenza," by John Barry. Here is a brief excerpt from a review:

...begun when sick farm animals infected soldiers in Kansas, spreading and mutating into a lethal strain as troops carried it to Europe, it exploded across the world with unequaled ferocity and speed. It killed more people in 20 weeks than AIDS has killed in 20 years; it killed more people in a year than the plagues of the Middle Ages killed in a century. Victims bled from the ears and nose, turned blue from lack of oxygen, suffered aches that felt like bones being broken, and died. In the U.S., where bodies were stacked without coffins on trucks, nearly seven times as many people died of influenza as in the First World War.

In his zeal to get American troops to Europe to fight in a war he promised not to get us into, Wilson virtually nationalized the media and public relations. At his direction, public authorities were dishonest and deliberately minimized the damage and dangers to the public. Cities across the country were left to deal with the public health crises on their own as the federal government abdicated its responsibility.

President Bush read "The Great Influenza" early in 2005. I wish we could know what he thought of his predecessor's gross malfeasance as regards this pandemic.

Foreign Affairs: After promising for years to keep the U.S. out of WWI, and after even running on that promise, he broke it just as the war was winding down in Europe. On April 2,1917, he asked Congress for a declaration of war on Germany. Wilson went before Congress in January 1918, to enunciate American war aims--the Fourteen Points, the last of which would establish "A general association of nations...affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike." The League of Nations was Wilson's idea.

After the Germans signed the Armistice in November 1918, Wilson went to Paris to try to build an enduring peace. He later presented to the Senate the Versailles Treaty, containing the Covenant of the League of Nations, and asked, "Dare we reject it and break the heart of the world?" Although the Senate did not ratify the treaty, it was implemented in Europe. It's extremely harsh provisions choked Germany, led to out-of-control inflation in that country, toppled the government and led directly to the rise of Adolph Hitler. The Treaty of Versailles led to WWII, which Wilson's League of Nations utterly failed to prevent. The League was disbanded during WWII. Yet, despite its total failure, after the end of WWII, Wilson's League was resurected in the form of the United Nations.

As if all of the above were not enough damage for one president to inflict on his nation, Wilson returned from Versailles utterly exhausted. He suffered a serious stroke, but did not have the decency to resign from office. Instead, his wife and doctor hid his true condition from the government and the nation. His wife essentially acted as de facto president until her husband was well enough to resume at least a semblance of office.

In his day, Wilson was considered a conservative Democrat. We must understand that the terms conservative, liberal and progressive did not have the same meanings they do today, nearly 100 years later. Wilson was actually a forerunner of what became known as the Dixiecrats in the 1940's. Wilson was genuinely, deeply racist. He introduced Jim Crow practices to the federal government. From a 2003 article published in Reason: "Blacks all over the country complained angrily about the administration--Wilson had actually courted the black vote in the 1912 campaign, and they felt betrayed. The president was unmoved. 'If the colored people made a mistake in voting for me,' he told The New York Times in 1914, 'they ought to correct it.' "

It's true that Goldwater changed American politics. He brought conservative themes to the forefront, and made Reagan's later victory possible. At the time, though, he looked like a disaster. Johnson won a larger share of the popular vote Franklin Roosevelt did. Goldwater's campaign cost the Republicans 36 seats in the House and gave the Democrats a 2/3 majority in that body.

Of course, after the JFK assassination the Democrats were bound to win in 1964. And the Republicans didn't have a unifying candidate. At first it looked like the race would be between Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller, the leading Republican proponent of big government. Other candidates like Margaret Chase Smith, Henry Cabot Lodge and William Scranton were also from the liberal wing of the party.

The Goldwater campaign worked out very well in the end for America and for the Republicans. Once the Democrats had made their mistakes and the Republicans had gotten their act together, a lot of Americans decided that we agreed with Barry after all. But it's understandable that many at the time saw it as a disaster. It would have been all to the good if Republicans had been able to get their act together earlier, but when one set of attitudes loses its grip and another begins to form it takes time to sort things out.

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