When far-right Arizona senator Barry Goldwater ran for the U.S. presidency in 1964, he never even claimed to be wooing voters from the political center. “Extremism in the defense of freedom is not a vice,” Goldwater said in his speech accepting the Republican Party’s nomination at its 1964 convention. “And… moderation in the pursuit of justice n is not a virtue. “
That fall, outgoing Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson crushed Goldwater in a historic landslide, winning over 60% of the vote. Goldwater won only his home state and five states in the Deep South that had long leaned Democratic, but struggled against the party’s civil rights actions.
Goldwater was, without a doubt, a divisive figure: Democratic detractors like Martin Luther King. Jr., and then California Governor Pat Brown, had compared his straightforward, no-punch rhetoric to Hitler. Within his own party, moderates responded with varying degrees of dismay or horror to his policies. On the eve of the 1964 GOP convention, Pennsylvania Republican Governor William Scranton publicly issued a letter he had written to Goldwater, decrying the latter’s “insane quilt” of “dangerous positions”, including its casual attitude towards the use of nuclear weapons. .
But as his own White House candidacy died out, the embers of Goldwater’s political philosophy – defending small government and individual freedoms – would ignite the conservative wing of the party for decades to come.
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Goldwater offered a stark contrast to Johnson’s broad government policies
1964 Republican presidential candidate Senator Berry Goldwater (R) and his running mate William Miller, a member of Congress from New York
Bettmann Archives / Getty Images
Goldwater, who swapped running his family’s department store for a career in politics, eventually served five terms in the Senate starting in 1952. When he ran for President, the charismatic and rudimentary Westerner conquered the old guard of his party by galvanizing a popular coalition of business people. , Southerners, Midwesterns and Libertarians who felt sidelined by the GOP. It was their values, not those of the rich Eastern elites, which should prevail in the Republican platform, he argued as he rallied to defeat his main rivals like New York Governor, Nelson Rockefeller and the Boston Brahmin Henry Cabot Lodge . “Sometimes I think this country would be better if we could just saw the east coast and float it out to sea,” he told reporters in the early 1960s. As Johnson loudly declared war on poverty, Goldwater waged war against the moderate wing of his own party.
Goldwater warned in the acceptance speech that “anyone who does not care about our cause” does not belong to the ranks of the GOP. Today that “cause” – the search for a balanced budget and limited government, coupled with a firm stance on foreign and defense policy – would become at the heart of the party’s mission. Welfare? It should be a private matter, proclaimed Goldwater. Agricultural subsidies were to end. He considered the federal government to be bloated and offered no real opportunities for Americans. In the election, he voted against the landmark 1964 civil rights law, arguing that some of its provisions infringed on individual freedoms.
This philosophy of stepping on me drew voters who vividly remembered the battles surrounding the New Deal of the 1930s and lamented what they saw as a decrease in their control over their own lives and businesses. Government was overspending, interfering, and wielding too much power, they believed – and Goldwater seemed to be giving voice to those beliefs as LBJ doubled down on the role of government in the economy and society. “I have little interest in streamlining government or making it more efficient, because I mean downsizing,” Goldwater wrote. “I am not making a commitment to promote well-being because I am proposing to extend freedom.”
What mattered as much to Goldwater’s supporters as to his politics was his outspoken style. Crowds filled his gatherings, saluting him as he made a dozen appearances a day thanks to his Boeing 727. “Something has to be done, and done immediately, to get away from this obsessive concern for the rights of the accused. criminal ”to fight crime and lawlessness and restore order, he told a hearing. He pledged to “straighten out constitutional interpretation in favor of the public” by appointing judges who prioritize individual rights.
His fans let him go, even when Goldwater’s speech sometimes went too far. A Georgia supporter offered the candidate a taste of the drink he had concocted and sold in the back of his truck: “Gold Water” or “The Right Drink For the Conservative Taste”. The man of the hour was disappointed. “It tastes like piss,” he said, spitting it out.
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Goldwater’s conservatism, initially dismissed as radical, infused the Republican Party
A campaign button for Barry Goldwater’s presidential candidacy in 1964 quotes his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination.
David J. and Janice L. Frent / Corbis / Getty Images
Goldwater’s views – and his lasting legacy – are reflected in the Thin and Phantom book he published in 1960, The conscience of a curator. “Its publishers were originally concerned about the distribution of a first run of 5,000 copies,” said Steven Hayward, professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy at Pepperdine University.. But while Goldwater was campaigning in 1964, his right-wing GOP supporters took copies, propelling him to the New York Times bestseller list.
The 123-page manifesto has not been exhausted since. This is a regular feature of college courses in politics, government, and economics. The book appears on recommended reading lists by those on the Republican right wing.
Goldwater’s campaign slogan – “In your heart you know he’s right” – may have suggested that American voters in 1964 were unwilling to be like outspoken opponents of a strong federal government or supporters. ultra-conservative views of the candidate. That would change in the decades to come, as his ideas and supporters slowly but steadily moved to the forefront of the Republican Party. Positions that seemed far to the right in the 1960s gradually shifted into the mainstream, shifting from originalistic interpretations of the constitution to limited government and a loathing for mainstream media – which its supporters dubbed “the eastern press rat.” -fink ”.
Many historians trace the rise of candidates and far-right groups within the GOP to the failed, but memorable, Goldwater campaign. An early example: Ronald Reagan’s speech on the 1964 barn fire on national television, supporting Goldwater’s hawkish foreign policy and determination to downsize government. By 1964 Reagan’s political career was only gaining momentum; two decades later, he was shaking the political establishment by pursuing Goldwater-style hawkish policies towards the Soviet Union, while proclaiming that the nine most terrifying words in the English language were “I am from the government.” and I »I am here to help you.
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As the new century dawned, members of the Tea Party drew heavily on Goldwater’s libertarian policies to shape the GOP platform, denigrating not only liberal elites but all Republicans who still believed in the kind of “conservatism.” compassionate ”preached by George HW Bush. “The list of companies and industries that the government ousts, bail out, and takes back continues to grow,” former GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin said at a rally of Tea Party Republicans in 2010.
Columbia University historian Allan Nevins, a student of American politics and history and a two-time Pulitzer winner for his political biographies, saw the writing on the wall: If Goldwater and His Supporters Stood By Their arms, “There will indeed be a new Tory party.”
