Posted by
American_Hayek on Friday, April 17, 2009 5:00:00 AM
As conservatives, we stand today almost exactly where we stood in 1964. Democrats in the mid-60s had a solid hold on power in Washington and were gearing up for the disastrous Great Society programs. Our candidate (an Arizona senator!) was widely mocked by a liberal media elite, led by the NYT and television news. "In your heart you know he's nuts" was their rif on Goldwater's campaign theme, and exploding A-bombs were featured in LBJ's TV ad campaign against Goldwater. We lost in a landslide - way more lopsided than the 'mandate' that Obamabots claim. LBJ took the popular vote 61% to 38% and the electoral college 486 to 52.
"...for the American Conservative, there is no difficulty in identifying the day's overriding political challenge: it is to preserve and extend freedom. As he surveys the various attitudes and institutions and laws that currently prevail in America, many questions will occur to him, but the Conservative's first concern will always be: Are we maximizing freedom?" - Barry Goldwater
The Republican primaries had been contentious and the party was ripped with division. Liberal east coast Rs like Nelson Rockefeller were duking it out with the new breed of conservative commie fighter from the West. In the general election, Goldwater carried only his native AZ and (interestingly) what we recognize now as the hard-core redstate Deep South. The southern appeal had to do with state's rights, which was (of course) attributed to racism and resistance to civil rights legislation. I would assert that it had more to do with core conservative values than overt racism - core conservative values that persist in old Dixie today. But the take-away from this bit of history is the famous "Time for Choosing" speeches that Ronald Reagan gave in support of Goldwater's candidacy. The Gipper had yet to run for office and had only become a Republican in the early 1950s. The support of Goldwater set Reagan's star in motion and swept him to Sacramento in 1966 and eventually the White House.
The link below goes to one of the "Time for Choosing" speeches. In it you will hear Ronnie develop the exact conservative platform that he would run on as a presidential candidate:
- Free the people living behind the iron curtain
- Restrain government to its legitimate constitutional role
- Cut government waste
- Get government off the backs of business
- Protect the worth of the individual and stop collectivism
- Balance the budget
His words ring as true today as they must have then, and our Democratic foe is exactly the same as he was in 1964. Except (perhaps) that Obama is LBJ on steroids, with the benefit of an even more powerful media and an activist judicial system that LBJ lacked. This piece of video is a call to arms - and I propose that this is the very rallying point that we need at this moment....the Time for Choosing !
American Hayek
Atlanta, GA