Posted on 08/04/2006 12:59:47 PM PDT by churchillbuff
Variety reviewer Robert Koehler (formerly of the L.A. Times) recently reviewed a new documentary titled "Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater." The main driver behind the project is his granddaughter, C.C. Goldwater, and it's scheduled to air on HBO on September 18. The list of interviewees underlines it's not a big right-wing project: it includes Walter Cronkite, Ted Kennedy, Al Franken, Helen Thomas, James Carville, Bob Schieffer, Andy Rooney, Julian Bond, Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, John Dean, and erstwhile Goldwater Girl Hillary Rodham Clinton. A few righties appear (Richard Viguerie, George Will) and some more centrist GOP types do, too (John Warner, Sandra Day O'Connor).
Here's how Koehler sums the film up: "Pic reflects on a contempo religious GOP right wing that would have profoundly alienated Goldwater, who rarely brought God into his politics."
Koehler extolled the film for showing "some of the contradictions of Goldwater, who opposed expansion of civil rights for African-Americans in the '60s and -- as various family anecdotes illustrate -- was tolerant toward gays and lesbians as well as female reproductive rights. (Daughter Joanne tells of her abortion as a young woman, and gay grandson Ty speaks warmly of him.)"
At first, Koehler seems unhappy there's not enough angst toward the religious right: "Even with an impressive roster of journos and political sharpies (including Hillary Clinton, who was a Goldwater Girl in '64 and a devout conservative in her teens), little is made of libertarian Goldwater's differences with the right-wing Christian movement that swept into the GOP in the 1980s. John Dean, whose new book, 'Conservatives Without Conscience,' began as a collaboration with longtime friend Goldwater, articulates best how Goldwater's straight-talking politics was rejected by his Bush-era party."
But he later concludes: "Response to the pic from GOP pundits and opinionmakers will provide a telling indicator of the current political climate. Walter Cronkite overstates the case that the older Goldwater turned liberal, while George Will is more on point, noting that what changed wasn't Goldwater but the GOP's extreme shift toward moralistic conservatism."
It will be interesting to hear if that's exactly how it sounds out of the mouth of Will.
I could have easily included many of the founders, but chose Washington because he is the rock from which this nation was built (and personally very conservative) and little James because he was MOST responsible for the drafting of the constitution.
Thomas was more egalitarian and libertarian, and deserves much credit in history. However, I think Ben Franklin was the wisest of the bunch.
What the hell does that mean?
No Alexander Hamilton, the greatest man of his generation after Washington?
Uh, probably because the more you learn of Jefferson the less admirable he appears. He was the most overrated of American presidents.
Surely you jest!
Maybe it just means that though I strongly supported his run for President and read his book . . .
given all I've heard and seen in AZ over the years about him and his family etc.
I wouldn't exactly list him as my most trustworthy friends. I also doubt he was the kind of conservative I'd have a lot of faith in. I think he was too compromised by too many big people . . . not all of them all that kosher in a list of ways.
Just my opinion.
How did Teddy Roosevelt get on the list?
The man was a progressive.
I wouldn't have put Jesse Helms on an all time list, either... Although the Senate could certainly use him now. Anyway, good list!
Thanks!
Not at all. Jefferson was an underhanded sneak and a disaster as President. His only notable achievements were having Louisiana handed to him (he didn't believe its purchase was constitutional) and the Lewis and Clark expendition. Jefferson was the era's greatest rhetoritician but was clueless about the Constitution. Thank God he was out of the country during its writing and ratification as I am sure he would have opposed it.
If there was a bigger hypocrit in American history I haven't heard of him.
I have never posted a lie about anyone Jefferson included.
Any inaccuracies I will correct when they are pointed out. Point some out.
We ought to celebrate Thomas Jefferson for his many contributions to human liberty and Aaron Burr for his marksmanship in liberty's cause.
Teddy was a man's man. A conservationist, big game hunter, and yes, a conservative. He had soem "progressisve" ideas, but the word progressive back then did NOT mean left wing. He was a FRIM believer in American exceptionalism. In fact, he embodied it, to a large degree.
As long as its understood that Hamilton was not of Franklin's generation.
“Conservatism, we are told, is out-of-date. The charge is preposterous and we ought boldly to say so. The laws of God, and of nature, have no dateline. The principles on which the Conservative political position is based have been established by a process that has nothing to do with the social, economic and political landscape that changes from decade to decade and from century to century. These principles are derived from the nature of man, and from the truths that God has revealed about His creation. Circumstances do change. So do the problems that are shaped by circumstances. But the principles that govern the solution of the problems do not. To suggest that the Conservative philosophy is out of date is akin to saying that the Golden Rule, or the Ten Commandments or Aristotle's Politics are out of date. The Conservative approach is nothing more or less than an attempt to apply the wisdom and experience and the revealed truths of the past to the problems of today.” – Barry Goldwater, The Conscience Of A Conservative, 1960.
Barry Goldwater was a libertarian, western-state, "whorehouse" conservative who never had much use for religion other than to get votes. I believe he also procured an abortion for a female relative back in the Fifties.
'Ashrei ha`am 'asher bachar-bam; 'ashrei ha`am sheHaShem 'Eloqayv!
Liberalism regards human history as a "budding rose unfolding;" it develops teleologically until it reaches perfection (the "omega point") and then magically stops. And this programming took place without a Creator; in fact, the unfolding universe itself seems to be regarded as the creator.
Anyway, according to liberals, a "moderate," "centerist," "decent" person is one who keeps up with the unfolding of history (from the Tennessee Valley Authority to "gay rights") and a "dangerous radical" is a person who maintains his original position instead of changing with the times.
Was he a man's man?
Definitely-- Teddy was that and more, he was an exceptional painter, poet, historian, one could go on and on.
He was, as you say, an exceptional man who believed in the exceptionalism of America...
But he was NOT a conservative.
He believed in American exceptionalism, yes, but not in the wisdom of the Founders, or in the free market.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1660615/posts
His conservationism, while moderate and wise compared to the enviro-whacos of today, was also largely misguided, NOT because Roosevelt did not know hopw to conserve nature-- he did-- but because in grabbing land for the government to control, he assumed such wilderness areas would be managed in the future by men who knew as much about them as he did, a hope that was to be disappointed in his own lifetime: http://209.157.64.201/focus/f-news/1551707/posts
TR famously urged
"far more active governmental interference with social and economic conditions in this country"
Those aren't the words of a conservative.
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