[tpaine]

Today we see the result of the "Munich of the Republican Party" in the current socalled neo/paleo debates.

The fight was 'won' by the Nixonians, but the battle for our constitution never ends.

[45Auto]

"The expansion of the welfare state, he wrote, was an unfortunate and dangerous development that undermined individual freedom"

Goldwater was another example of a train of thought that went back to the founding of the US:

"I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, the the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer." - Benjamin Franklin, 1766

[Symix]

A couple days ago Michael Savage in his radio show played several of Barry Goldwater statements - they were sensational! All I knew of the Goldwater/Kennedy era was that the "right man won" accoriding to the media.
This and how great John Kennedy was.

I wonder if the right man won now. Kennedy is often described as the man who prevented WWIII in the Cuban crisis. I wonder if it was not the other way around - a wise old Russian man giving in to the brush American (while getting Cuba and Turkey in return).

[Reagan Man]

>>>The Conscience of a Conservative ... stands today as one of the most important political tracts in modern American history.

While it may be true that Goldwater bridged a certain gap that existed in the conservative movement of the mid-1960`s, he ended his life supporting homosexuality, opposing right to life of the unborn child and defending Bill Clinton. Not a legacy that conservatives should be proud of.

Goldwater may have projected conservatism for a short period, but it was Ronald Reagan who actually promoted and advanced conservatism to new levels. Barry Goldwater took the worse beating by a GOP presidential candidate in the 20th century. Reagan produced two landslide political victories in 1980 and 1984. Reagan also gave American's real tax reform, a victory over communism in the Cold War and revitalized the US economy and military armed forces.

OTOH, in all reality, Goldwater didn't do jacks**t for America.

[Ipberg]

Reagan and Goldwater are both great Republican heroes no matter their difference of opinion they had on a few issues.

[RLK]

I was a student for Goldwater after leaving the army and returning to the university.

[cicada]

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.

I wish that would fit into my tagline. I did not know of this book until I saw a referece to it in a Ben Shapiro column. It is out of print at Amazon and bn.com, but available online at Conscience of a Conservative .

It is amazing how much of what was written 40 years ago still applies today. My mother was a Goldwater Girl back about the time I was born. I remember we had a deck of cards with Barry's picture on it.

I wish I had been aware of how important an argument was being made, what was being defended by the conservative movement, what was rescued by Ronald Reagan in the 80s. What we are rescuing now.

This book, apparently ghost written by Brett Bozell, still makes sense because it is premised upon the wisdom expressed in the U. S. Constitution. It is now time to stand up and do our duty to preserve those ideas.