The Deep Impact of Barry Goldwater

"I would remind you that 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." - Barry Goldwater's 1964 Nomination Acceptance Speech.

It was 1964, in the midst of a hard fought - if not competitive - Presidential campaign. Bill Moyers was refining the art of TV-based political character assassination by suggesting that Goldwater would cavalierly allow the nuking of a cute little girl picking flowers in a field. It was long before Moyers would host a PBS series where theologians would squabble over the interpretation of the Biblical book of Genesis, when political warriors Goldwater and vice-presidential candidate Humbert Humphrey accidentally met at an airport. The two partisans talked pleasantly for a few minutes. As they went their ways, Goldwater called back to Humphrey, "Well, keep punching, Hubert." [1]

The exchange was a remnant of an era when politicians fought the hard fight, held beliefs without constant reference to daily polls, and retained their humanity. Part of that era died last week with Barry Goldwater.

If a life is measured by its impact on others, Goldwater's created the deepest impact of anything from Arizona since the meteor that created Barringer Meteor Crater. In the 1950s, the Republican Party was an "echo" of the Roosevelt New Deal Federalism. Eastern establishment, Eisenhower Republicans had accommodated themselves to increasing government intervention in the economy, but only wished to moderate it. Goldwater led the counter-revolution.

Goldwater wedded an unrelenting anti-communism with a Liberatarianism that even rattled his allies. In his 1960 book The Conscience of a Conservative , Goldwater outlined an approach to government that is still persuasive today. He argued for preventing compulsory union dues for use in politics, a flat income tax, and state primacy in education. In foreign policy, Goldwater nurtured an abiding distrust of multinational arrangements, especially the United Nations.

The 1964 GOP Convention marked the wresting of party control from Eisenhower/Rockefeller Republicans. Goldwater and the Republicans were then promptly humiliated in the November elections. As a consequence, in the 1960s, the Democrats had almost complete control of the executive and Congress. The results of this control would ultimately induced a backlash that ushered modern Conservatism into the political mainstream. It took nearly two decades for Goldwater's admonition, "A government that is big enough to give you what you want is big enough to take it all away," to resonate with the American public. Goldwater's 1964 defeat laid the groundwork for Reagan?s victories and demonstrated the long-term saliency of political