The Goldwater Myth: He didn't become a libertarian until his twilight years.

As I recall, what he suggested was the possibility of using low-yield nuclear weapons to defoliate the jungle and cut off supplies from Red China. Predictably, the media turned this into a "he's an insane warmonger" story.

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.

senility is the only explanation.

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.

No. I know for a fact that he supported a human life amendment because he wanted the pro-life movement's endorsement in the election.

He was never really pro-life. At the time he said he was, I said he will turn on the pro-lifers, which he did.

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