Remembering Barry Goldwater
By Chuck Muth (07/22/07)
Sen. Barry Goldwater was a Goldwater conservative before being a Goldwater conservative was cool.
As such, he is often credited with sparking not one, but two modern-day political movements: (1) The conservative movement within the Republican Party, which turned his 1964 presidential electoral defeat into Ronald Reagan’s 1980 electoral victory, and (2) the modern “small l” libertarian movement which is split as a wing within the Republican Party and the Libertarian Party itself.
This political divide of the “Goldwater conservative” movement has been largely responsible for the movement’s failure to attain the kind of political power necessary to advance a truly limited government agenda dedicated to the protection of free markets and individual liberty.
The political conundrum faced by philosophical libertarians is readily seen in the current presidential contest, where adherents are split between supporting the official presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party (once chosen) or the candidacy of Rep. Ron Paul, a philosophical libertarian running as a Republican. The decision is complicated by the fact that Paul ran for president once before, back in 1988, as the official nominee of the Libertarian Party.
What’s a Goldwater conservative to do?
Should they try to work within the Republican Party and enjoy some electoral success, as well as achieve some minor policy objectives? Or stay “pure” and toil in the relative obscurity of third-party politics? Reasonable arguments for both directions can be made, but this kind of political schism in the libertarian movement has allowed both big government liberals and big government conservatives to continue driving the political agenda while expanding both the reach and expense of government.
The 2007 Conservative Leadership Conference (CLC) will explore this topic in some depth this coming October. At the same time, it will honor the memory of Sen. Goldwater, the man widely credited with creating the modern-day libertarian/conservative movement. The Barry Goldwater Award will be presented at the conference banquet on Saturday evening by Rep. John Shadegg, the conference’s Honorary Chairman and co-founder of the Goldwater Institute in Arizona.
Now, for the young among us who likely never learned much about Sen. Goldwater in the government-run education camps we call “public schools,” here’s a short refresher course…
A five-term United States senator from Arizona, Barry Morris Goldwater was born (January 1, 1909) in Phoenix in what was then the Arizona Territory. He later graduated from the Staunton Military Academy before taking over the family business founded by his grandfather, Goldwater Department Stores.
Goldwater served as a U.S. Army pilot in World War II and remained in the reserves after the war, eventually retiring with the rank of Major General. Goldwater was also an amateur photographer and “ham” radio operator who coordinated “phone patches” between service personnel in Vietnam to their families back home in the states. This was long before Al Gore invented the Internet.
Goldwater’s political career began in 1949 when he was elected a Phoenix city councilman. Three years later he won his first term to the U.S. Senate. He won the Republican Party’s 1964 presidential nomination after a contentious primary fight, leading to perhaps his most famous quote during his acceptance speech at the GOP convention: “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."
During his career, Goldwater strongly associated himself with battles against Communism and organized labor corruption. His 1960 book, “Conscience of a Conservative,” is still viewed today as required reading for constitutional conservatives. A particularly relevant passage in the book outlines Goldwater’s thoughts on what he believed his job was as an elected official:
“I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution, or have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is 'needed' before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should be attacked for neglecting my constituents' 'interests,' I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty, and in that cause I am doing the very best I can."
The Barry Goldwater Award will be presented each year at the Conservative Leadership Conference to an elected official who embraces Sen. Goldwater’s passion for the Constitution, individual liberty, free markets, federalism and his strictly limited government philosophy. A gift of $1,000 will be donated to the Goldwater Institute’s Ronald Reagan Fellows Program in the recipient’s name.
The 2007 Conservative Leadership Conference is being co-hosted by Citizen Outreach and Americans for Tax Reform and will be held at John Ascuaga’s Nugget Resort & Casino in Reno, Nevada, on October 11-13th and is open to the public. For additional information or to register, please visit http://www.clc07.com/
Copyright 2007 Chuck Muth
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