Posted on 01/11/2006 4:20:56 AM PST by Mike Bates
"During the campaign of 1964, [he] was our incorruptible standard-bearer," recalled William F. Buckley Jr. in his 1998 obituary of Barry Goldwater, the career senator from Arizona, 34 years after the watershed. Goldwater, of course, was defeated resoundingly on Election Day, winning only six states. "It was the judgment of the establishment that Goldwater's critique of American liberalism had been given its final exposure on the national political scene," Buckley continued. "But then of course 16 years later the world was made to stand on its head when Ronald Reagan was swept into office on a platform indistinguishable from what Barry had been preaching."
Strange, then, that these days many commentators believe Goldwater's conservatism was a different species from Reagan's and, especially, from George W. Bush's. Though admittedly an economic conservative, Goldwater has become an icon of opposition to social conservatism. When the 2004 Republican national convention showcased social liberals like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rudy Giuliani, George F. Will proclaimed, "[Goldwater's] kind of conservatism made a comeback." By "Goldwater conservatism" Mr. Will meant "muscular foreign policy backing unapologetic nationalism; economic policies of low taxation and light regulation; a libertarian inclination regarding cultural questions."
Will was merely restating the consensus view. Darcy Olsen, president of the Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute, argued on the fifth anniversary of Goldwater's death that "Goldwater conservative" had "a different meaning than just saying, 'I am a Republican,' because when you say 'I am a Republican,' people assume that you're involved in the Moral Majority. It's its own brand . . . very libertarian." Sen. John McCain said that Goldwater "disliked the religious right, because he felt they were intolerant, because Barry was not only conservative, but he was also to a degree libertarian."
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
There was a famous commercial of a little girl holding a flower and then the bomb going off. Made BG out to be a warmonger and then LBJ went in and engaged fully in the process of war rather than the objective.
No, I think that there is a latent tendency in older conservatives where they need to prove that they aren't hidebound ideologues and are still "relevant". At times, old folks, like young folks, simply crave attention.
When I learned more about Goldwater, I felt he was more of a mixed figure. Respectable in some areas, rightly reviled in others. Senility was cited as a possibility for his shift, which may be partly true, also the influence of his wives, but another angle was resentful jealousy. It was Reagan and others that would ultimately reap the rewards of the movement Goldwater got the ball rolling on, and he had a serious problem with it. If he was NOT senile at all and changed his positions to repulsive and destructive liberal ones to curry favor with the media after years of their disdain for him, and unfortunately, I think that is true to a certain degree, then he would rightfully deserve scorn. I think we would've been better off if he had been defeated by the pro-life Democrat Bill Schulz in 1980, it would've at least preserved his dignity during his public career. I'll always cheer on and respect the Goldwater of the Cow Palace in 1964, but hang my head in disappointment of the mean-spirited, bitter, and jealous Goldwater of the '80s and '90s.
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