This decade-and-a-half-old book is the first of a tetralogy that sets out the history of America's transition from a consensus liberal democracy to a right-leaning country with very little, if any, consensus. After the 1964 election, the national conclusion was that conservatism in the country was as dead as Barry Goldwater's electoral standing. Boy, were they wrong.
The first stirrings of Goldwater for President had came in 1959 and were led by the retired Dean of Notre Dame Law School, Pat Manion. He was a staunch anti-communist reared on the America First rhetoric of Robert Wood of Sears and Col. McCormick of the Chicago Tribune. Goldwater was the grandson of a Polish Jew who built a dry goods empire in the Arizona desert. He believed in the rugged individualism of the west, was opposed to the New Deal and was elected to the Senate in 1952. He became known for his virulent anti-labor beliefs, opposition to deficit spending and willingness to raise money for Republican candidates. Manion was hoping to find a way to combine Taft Republicans and Dixiecrats, and concluded that with Goldwater, he could appeal to both constituencies. He published Goldwater's precis 'Conscience Of A Conservative', in which Goldwater took the ideas of the old-guard and somewhat updated it. Instead of railing that every raise for workers would lead to inflation or calling for the repeal of the income tax, he stated that the enemy was liberalism, which was weakening the core of American strength. The only way to beat the Reds was to stand up to them. He scared the hell out of a lot of establishment folks, though, with his concept of winnable atomic war. Going into the 1960 convention, there was a flurry of interest in Goldwater, but it passed and he easily fell in line to support Nixon.
In the early-60's two organizations that were integral to the rise of Goldwater came to the fore. The John Birch Society was founded by Robert Welch, a successful Boston businessman. Welsh was one of many obsessed with communism and he matched his anxieties to his promotional skills and fundraising abilities. Joining the right-wing activists was the YAF (Young Americans For Freedom), a college student-based group inspired by Goldwater's 'Conscience Of A Conservative', as well as Bill Buckley's 'National Review'. The author points out that extremism in the face of communism came easily to many, as the government had been beating a drum roll of red fear and anxiety since the end of WW2. As for Goldwater, he had a great line about the establishment Republicans. He said the party of Ike, Nixon and Rockefeller was a bunch of "dime store copies of the opposition". He was able to deliver it in 1961 in over 225 speeches. He was on the road and running. And the man he was running against had some issues. Jack Kennedy's first year in office saw the Bay of Pigs, a rebuff by Khruschev at Vienna and the construction of the Berlin Wall. However, he handled the Cuban Missile crisis the following year with aplomb, skill, restraint and strength.
At the beginning of 1963, an underground group of young Republicans, political ideologues, and operatives led by Clif White had a strategy to nominate a conservative, and people lined up around the country to take over the nominating process. After Kennedy was assassinated, the early polls showed that without an eastern establishment opponent and with a southerner to run against, Goldwater's numbers and appeal dropped precipitously. But the truth be known, the base wanted him and only Rocky stood in his way. The campaign began in New Hampshire, a conservative state where Goldwater's ideas were well received. However, he made mistake after mistake. His broken foot was in a cast, and the wags concluded that was the only way he could keep his foot out of his mouth. Rocky, with his new and pregnant wife in tow, fared no better, as both contenders fell to Henry Cabot Lodge. In an era long preceding super and endless Tuesdays, the May Oregon primary was next on the schedule. Rocky crushed Lodge and Goldwater. Goldwater was losing primaries, but in state after state, the team assembled by Clif White, with little if any help from the candidate, was locking up delegate after delegate. In the Golden State's winner-take-all primary, he won in a photo finish. A conservative, a man opposed to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a hard-core anti-communist who believed in using tactical atomic weapons, a law-and-order believer in old-fashioned values for whom social security was an uncomfortable fit, and a true despiser of the east coast establishment, was on the threshold of becoming the GOP's nominee. And once he secured the nomination, he flaunted his distaste for business as usual with his well-remembered acceptance speech in which he declared "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice - moderation in the pursuit of liberty is no virtue". A man who didn't particularly care to campaign, who held the media in disdain, whose supporters were fanatics set out on a course toward self-immolation.
The campaign opened with the 'Daisy' commercial Labor Day weekend and the warmonger tag was applied to Goldwater, whose Arizona Mafia demoted Clif White, fired half of the RNC staff in Washington in September and began their iteration of amateur hour. Goldwater thanked Boeing's workers for the performance of their planes in combat and assured them the planes "will be doing so again" . The man he put in charge of his campaign, Dean Burch, accepted the endorsement of the KKK in Georgia and Alabama. Goldwater was simply a poor candidate and his organization was in shambles. Republicans were running for cover, traditional Republican newspapers endorsed LBJ as the debacle headed toward November 3rd.
In October, William F. Buckley made a speech to a YAF convention that didn't generate a single round of applause. He stated that defeat was imminent and the challenge was to take their fiery devotion and find recruits for future Novembers. In late October, Goldwater cancelled a $1000-a-plate engagement and the organizers substituted former actor and GE spokesman Ronald Reagan. He was so good that they put him on TV. On Oct.27 Regan's speech was televised nationally. It was called "the most successful national political debut since William Jennings Bryan electrified the 1896 Democratic convention with the Cross of Gold speech."
In the end, Johnson crushed Goldwater and Scotty Reston in the NYTimes stated that the conservative cause was lost. The LATimes said the Republicans would be a minority party indefinitely. However, Johnson had predicted the end of a Democratic south and he was correct, as five Confederate states voted for Goldwater. Throughout the land, a kind of polarization was beginning. As is so often the case in America, the divide was racial and cultural. The Democrats were embracing Negroes at a time when there were riots in the cities, crime rates rising, morals collapsing, and respect for authority and tradition fading. These were themes that Nixon would bludgeon onto the national agenda and Reagan would play like a harp.
This is a fabulous book written by a very skillful man. It is a reminder that the right/left, urban/rural, coastal/heartland divide has always been with us. Over five decades ago, the right was very hardcore, considered Ike a commie tool, social-security a commie plot and the progressive income tax a bulwark of government centralization. I think the author could have delved deeper into the issue of how this era led to the total governmental discord that started in the 90's. I'd prefer not to have to read three more lengthy books to look for hints on that issue. In any event many thanks to my erudite brother for recommending this author.
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