Goldwater was a life long supporter of civil rights and desegregation. He voted against the bill because he thought it was unconstitutional and if upheld would be a dramatic and dangerous expansion of Congress's powers under the Commerce Clause.
Goldwater was right as we saw recently with another power grab under the Commerce Clause, Obamacare. But, voting with the Southern Democrat segregationists stained him going into the 1964 election.
“Goldwater was right as we saw recently with another power grab under the Commerce Clause, Obamacare.”
Obamacare was NOT ruled constitutional under the commerce clause. Roberts said it was constitutional because the mandate penalty was under the taxing power.
“He voted against the bill because he thought it was unconstitutional and if upheld would be a dramatic and dangerous expansion of Congress’s powers under the Commerce Clause.”
Was it upheld by the Court?
Here we are 55-56 years later and his stance against the Civil Rights Act is still used against Republicans.
Goldwater’s stance my have been principled, but it has not been productive.
If you read Goldwater's book "Conscience of a Conservative", he laid out every reason he opposed the Civil Rights Bill.
His fears were well founded.
He was concerned about what would become affirmative action, quotas, set-asides, the Fed Gov becoming massive and unaccountable, etc.
He also correctly disliked the erosion of State's rights.
He personally was all in favor of MLKs vision of people being judged by their character, not skin color.
He didn't have a racist bone in his body.
The book is amazing if you've never read it.
He correctly predicted the poop storm of racial politics that ended up happening.
And that we are still suffering from, 50-60 years later.
I don’t know if you know this from reading or were around at the time but it’s Great having some folks on the board that experienced things real time.
Their description and opinion on events is incredibly insightful and helpful.
I was born i ‘68 and I describe the Reagan era to my nephews and nieces in a way that reading about him probably can’t.
It’s a great thing.