Barry Goldwater - The Conscience of a Conservative

The backlash against the modern civil rights movement that fueled the rise of the Republican Party in the South started in 1964 when the Republicans nominated Barry Goldwater for president. Goldwater swept the South---he voted against the 1964 civil rightS act and it was clearly understood that Southerners voted for him to fight integration---but lost overhwhelming to Lyndon Johnson in the election. Still, 39% of the people nationwide voted for Goldwater.

Goldwater was Mr. Conservative before Ronald Reagan. You do not hear his name mentioned today. He stated his conversative views in an influential book published 1960 called THE CONSCIENCE OF A CONSERVATIVE. I thought it would be interesting to read this book in retrospect.

In a forward to my edition of the book, George Will writes:

"THE CONSCIENCE OF A CONSERVATIVE is one of the most consequential political writings in American history." Well, maybe so, but if so it's amazing how today nobody reads it anymore.

At the end of his forward, Will is correct in this assertion:

"And so continues an American political argument about how much government we want, and how much we are willing to pay for it in the coin of constricted freedom." This is indeed the discussion that we should be having in this country. For Republicans, universal health insurance like every other industrialized country on the planet can be viewed as a restriction of freedom. For Democrats, it is an expansion of freedom for American citizens to live their lives not having to worry about going bankrupt over unpayable medical bills. For Republicans, the startling explosion in income inequality in this country is not a problem in the name of freedom. For Democrats, it IS a big problem and should be addressed. And so on and so on to other issues.

Goldwater had his conservative principles. Of that fact there can be no doubt. The problem is that he is wrong on almost all counts.

He was against federal aid to education. Remnants of that view are still around today when Michelle Bachmann favors eliminating the Department of Education. Never mind that Ronald Reagan instigated the establishment of the governmental deparment. Being against federal aid to education on any rational basis is hopelessly out-of-date now.

It is outright hysterically funny to read Goldwater's chapter attacking labor unions. Writing against the backrop of the 50's, Goldwater thought that too powerful labor unions were a threat to our democracy. What would he say today when union membership is at an all-time now and it's the big coporations that have their thumb on labor unions? My guess is that he would not be concerned. Goldwater wanted a balance between capital and labor. It's bad if the balance favors labor (in his view) but I'm sure it would be OK with him if the balance favored capital.

It is equally funny to read Goldwater's critique of the welfare state. He acknowledges the concept of the common good, but thinks government should play no part in pursuing the common good. Instead, the common good should be a function of private charity. What planet were you living on, Barry? Certainly not planet Earth in the United States of America.