I have been a fan of Barry Goldwater ever since I became involved in politics in the mid-80's. This may be an odd statement for some of us because wasn't Goldwater a Republican and a Conservative. Yes, in a historical since. However, if Barry Goldwater was alive today, he would be labeled a Liberal and would probably be a Democrat.
This should tell many of us how far we have moved as a country in such a short period of time. It also paints the reason that today's Republican party is quite frankly so screwed up. Unfortunatly, they screwed up the country in the process.
"Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism"
For those of us that doesn't remember Senator Goldwater, he was the man that had his butt handed to him in the 1964 Presidental election. Goldwater received 38.4% of the popular vote against Lyndon Johnson. In the electoral college, Goldwater received 52 electorals to Johnson's 486.
However many political historians believe that from this the Conservative movement was born. The mostly accepted belief that Ronald Reagan's election marked the final victory. Oddly, the Nixon presidency is ignored by many "Conservatives". Probably one of Goldwater's greatest moments was when he told Nixon that it was time to go. God! Wouldn't it be great to have a politician like that today.
Goldwater was for abortion and gay rights.
"Everyone knows that gays have served honorably in the military since at least the time of Julius Caesar .... You don't have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight."
In the late 80's he saw the rise of the "Religious Right" in the Republican Party and feared what would happen. He stated that the party was being taken over by a "bunch of kooks." His words then ring so true today.
When you say "radical right" today, I think of these moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others who are trying to take the Republican Party and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss politics goodbye.
Or this -
There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerfull ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus, God, or Allah, or whatever one calls the supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God’s name on one’s behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I’m frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in A,B,C, and D. Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of conservatism.
Or this gem on Jerry Falwell when Falwell wanted the Senate to reject Sandra Day O'Connor for the Supreme Court-
No one championed O'Connor more forcefully than her longtime Arizona friend, Senator Barry. Goldwater, whose early urging had helped her gain White House support. Noting the opposition to O'Connor from the far-right groups, Goldwater declared: "I don't like getting kicked around by people who call themselves conservatives on a nonconservative matter. It is a question of who is best for the court. If there is going to be a fight in the Senate, you are going to find 'Old Goldy' fighting like hell." Goldwater attacked directly a claim by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, head of the fundamentalist Moral Majority, that all "good Christians" should be concerned about the appointment. Scoffed Old Goldy: "Every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass."
Maybe last week Barry got the last laugh when Jerry had to answer for his time on this planet.
Before his death, Goldwater continued to fight against those that took the Republican party away from its true Conservative roots. He continued to fight for abortion rights and gay rights.
At 85, after a life in politics spanning five decades (he retired from the Senate in 1987), Mr. Conservative has found himself an unlikely new career: as a gay rights activist. While that's not his sole pursuit – he returned to Capitol Hill yesterday to testify in favor of scenic overflights of the Grand Canyon – in recent years he's championed homosexuals serving in the military and has worked locally to stop businesses in Phoenix from hiring on the basis of sexual orientation. This month he signed on as honorary co-chairman of a drive to pass a federal law preventing job discrimination against homosexuals. The effort, dubbed Americans Against Discrimination, is being spearheaded by the Human Rights Campaign Fund, the influential gay lobbying organization.
"The big thing is to make this country, along with every other country in the world with a few exceptions, quit discriminating against people just because they're gay," Goldwater asserts. "You don't have to agree with it, but they have a constitutional right to be gay. And that's what brings me into it."
Unfortunately, after Goldwater's death the "kooks" did take over the Republican Party and with it the rest of the country went to hell in a hand basket.
So now, those of us that called ourselves Goldwater "republicans" are looking for a new group to join and that is right now the Democrat Party. Do we agree with everything on the Party's platform? No. However, it is more than the Republican Kook Party's current platform dogma.
So as we Goldwater "republicans" join you in taking back our country from the nut cases, realize where we are coming from. We are not going to agree on all issues, but that is what democracy is all about, however we can respect each others views.
"To disagree, one doesn't have to be disagreeable."