Why Barry Goldwater Couldn't Support Obama
The Goldwater name carries with it the standard of modern conservatism and has shaped the Republican Party for decades, waving proudly and with the dedication my father brought to everything in his life. However, that standard recently has been hijacked and used without any grounding in reality.
Being Barry Goldwater's son and living in Arizona, one would assume that I would be voting for our state's senator, John McCain. Well, I am. The decision truly is a no-brainer.
In a previous article, my niece CC implied that the Goldwater family would support Obama. I don't resent my niece's beliefs, she is after all entitled to the freedom of choice we all enjoy as Americans -- however, I do resent what she has done. When she speaks, she should speak for herself and not imply that she is a representative or spokesperson for the Goldwater name. When I speak, I represent my own thinking and never imply I speak for anyone else.
Before one can even attempt to speak for the reputation and beliefs of the Goldwater family, it might be helpful to re-read the Conscience of a Conservative that Barry Goldwater, Sr. wrote and be reminded of the principles of what it means to be a Goldwater conservative. My niece owes the family that at least if she thinks her public endorsement is so important.
Further, that endorsement should at least contain the specifics of what she thinks my father would find so appealing about Obama. Is it his tax policy on small businesses that will increase taxation for over four million people or half of the top one percent of income earners? Is it his anti wealth policy when he advocates increasing taxes and doing away with the capital gains tax? Is it his universal health care program? Who will pay for that? Is it his so-called education program that calls for free college education and offers more federal intrusion into our education process? Or maybe it is just his lack of foreign policy experience?
When anyone makes this kind of leap they at least owe specifics and not generalizations. It's this kind of blind reasoning that is helping liberal Democrats take over our government with a veto-proof Congress and allowing free control of the executive and legislative branches. I have to ask CC if she thinks her grandfather would want this. Absolutely not. He would view this as dangerous and I'm surprised she doesn't.
Barry Goldwater was one of the icons of the Republican Party and, yes, would be unhappy with many of the recent failures from within. I speak about this all the time and how mad I am that Republicans have lost their way. However, we do not find our way back by sheepishly going over to the other side. My father worked to rebuild the party in 1964 by taking it back from the liberal Establishment. He would work to do the same thing today.
CC does not help the Republican Party nor the cause by minimizing John McCain. McCain may not be everything she wants in a President or hold her exact values, but she should work within the party to promote the ideals Barry Goldwater stood for. Endorsing one of the most liberal Senators in Congress is certainly not the way to help fix any problem she sees; instead it is a betrayal of everything my father advocated government should be. My father would never endorse a candidate or a party that wanted to grow government, raise taxes or in any way step on our freedoms.
Together the Goldwaters, including CC, should work together to redefine the Republican Party and make it the model Barry Goldwater Sr. stood for.
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Increase taxes for one-half of one percent of the top income earners? Oh, the horrors of that! I can never understand the abject greed of people who are opposed to that premise. The fact is that the middle class and upper middle class are paying grossly disproportionately higher taxes than those top income earners. Those top income earners are people who have multiple homes and never have to think twice about the cost of anything. When their accountant gives them their tax return and tells them they what they owe in taxes for the year, they probably don't even know the difference from last year, regardless if the amount is much higher or much lower. Meanwhile, the middle class taxpayers who earn a decent living have been subject to the AMT, which has in effect eliminated the ability to deduct the rising cost of property taxes and medical expenses.
Mr. Goldwater:
I am disturbed how you chose to misrepresent your niece CC Goldwater’s statements in support of Barack Obama. In no way did Ms. Goldwater imply, “that the Goldwater family would support Obama,” as you state. What she did say was, “Myself, along with my siblings and a few cousins, will not be supporting the Republican presidential candidates this year.” I doubt that two grandchildren and some cousins represent the whole Goldwater clan, so your exaggeration is obvious and is a plain misrepresentation of the facts meant to discredit your niece’s choice. Your tactic is so Karl Rovian and I am shocked that you would resort to this.
It is also not something I believe your father would have done. Surely you must agree with your niece that Barry Goldwater “stood for: honesty, integrity, and personal freedom, free from political maneuvering and fear tactics.” As a lifelong Arizonan, I grew up knowing this Barry Goldwater. I didn’t agree with his political point of view, but I and everyone respected him because he was the man that Ms. Goldwater describes.
Your misrepresent what your niece has said is not in keeping with your father’s honesty and integrity. I also find it disrespectful of your niece’s personal freedom to choose whom she wants for president. She has made her decision based on what her grandfather taught her about freedom, honesty and integrity; she has obviously learned those lessons well.
The Goldwater name is as irrelevant as the GOP will be on Nov. 5th. I met Goldwater Sr. in 1985 at dinner for Reagan, and it still haunts me to this day. He sat there eating like he was Henry V knawing at a turkey leg. Food was litterly coming out of his mouth, and I am not exagerating this. It was disgusting. He was advanced in his years and all I could think was "This is the man who championed fiscal conversati
...funny, I don't think Barack would support Berry either
So, another republican dismisses a point of view that he does not share as somehow being irrational because it favors -- egads! -- a liberal candidate. In its basic form, to be liberal is to be open-minded. I don't believe that's a bad thing at all. I hope Mr. Goldwater appreciates the fact that this liberal site has given him an equal spot to voice his opposition talking points, and own opinions - something not tolerated in the conservative media, so none of us here get the same opportunity. Perhaps rather than admonishing his niece, Barry Jr. should try to convince his own party to get off the pedestals they put themselves on and stop trying to demonize anyone who doesn't share their view.
The four words you will never hear from a GOPer is "What do YOU think?"
With all due respect, Mr. Goldwater:
you know your father better than I, yet the picture you present here is not the honorable well-balanced man I have come to know through the years from writings, friends, etc. This is not the Barry Goldwater in my mind or my understanding of recent history, at all.
And I would make one back-at-you- suggestion which you really should heed:
After reading your article it is obvious you don't know Barack Obama's background or record or philosophy or his plan for America or his true bend as far as being liberal or conservative. Your ignorance is nearly inexcusable considering who you are and the liberties you take with discussing WHO Obama is. You neither know nor care who he is, judging from this piece.
You do, however, seem to know the finer talking points coming out of the right-wing not-so-muc
So I would suggest you do some homework about Barack Obama , find out about him and his policies, and indeed don't forget the detail where the real truth often lies. Give yourself some credibility first, if you intend to lecture to an audience who knows a little something about the real Senator Obama.
I'm sure Mr. Goldwater is a decent man, but as a Hollywood-
And his complaint that CC didn't specify what her grandfather would like about Obama is the usual Repub "I get to pretend I don't see any argument I disagree with". She talked about his personal philosophy in some depth. You, by contrast, just mumbled about his desire that the top half of one percent of the wealthy get to keep their ridiculous tax cuts. If you think that's what your father contributed to your country -- lower taxes for the super-rich -- you diminish him outrageously. It's like saying, "Boy, that Brett Favre really can do a good jeans commercial
So you're saying your dad would never have voted for George W. Bush? http://bra
As I recall, Americans rejected Goldwater's heartless vision for the country by a margin exceded only by that of the the Dukakis debacle. His campaign slogan was "In your heart, you know he's right," which was quickly parodied as "In your guts, you know he's nuts," I further recollect that the Goldwater campaign introduced negative advertising into the political process with its unsubtle shots of empty beer cans being hurled from a speeding limosine.
Actually, it is not generalizations that have allowed "liberals" to take over the party, it was creepy, right wing hack jobs who want our nation to sink into a land of Bush Kings and Cindy Queens that has destroyed the Republican brand. It is the demise of the middle class, the blind greed and corruption that had destroyed your party... and you, sir, have help destroy the party by your complacency. Congratulations, the Republican Party can become part of history, destroyed from within by its own ideology without logic or reason.
Hopefully, another party can take its place -- although I disagree with almost everything Ron Paul says, he has my respect because he is, unlike you, not a greedy, underhanded crook.
God Bless America! and forgive the indiscretions of its ideologues. We are now, hopefully, at the end of ideology Daniel Bell foresaw. It is the 21st Century; and there are new paradigms birthed through intellects drawn from a common globally dispersed human gene pool not the fictitious racial, tribal, religious, class or nationally stratified pools. Maybe we can "move on" to become our brothers' keepers as we all tend the planet rather than live in fear of boundary-less rugged individualism consuming one another as we destroy the meaning of life and the planet.
This is one of the best stated arguments put forth for the demise of the Republican Party.
A business making over $250,000 a year is not a small business !!!!!!!
Small businesses make $50,000 like an Independent Trucker or a restraunt owner who make $78,000 a year. That is a small business after expenses !
Mr. Goldwater, Jr., maybe I can add a different view for you to consider.
I tell you this as a Granddaughter who is very close to her Grandparents.
My Grandparents and I have a completely different relationship than they do with their children.
Maybe it's because they didn't raise me, we are great friends and we have an openness that is sometimes envied and not always understood by their own kids.
Your niece CC might actually have some insight into your Father that you will never be able to understand.
Her relationship was on a different level with him, and she probably was indeed more "in tune" to his feelings and beliefs.
Just some food for thought...
Mr. Goldwater, Jr., maybe I can add a different view for you to consider.
I tell you this as a Granddaughter who is very close to her Grandparents.
My Grandparents and I have a completely different relationship than they do with their children.
Maybe it's because they didn't raise me, we are great friends and we have an openness that is sometimes envied and not always understood by their own kids.
Your niece CC might actually have some insight into your Father that you will never be able to understand.
Her relationship was on a different level with him, and she probably was indeed more "in tune" to his feelings than you would know or understand.
Just some food for thought...
I have read Conscience of a Conservative more than once. And I respectfully disagree. Barry Goldwater was a man of integrity. A man of conviction. A man of steadfast perseverance who didn't waste time with political nonsense. Granted, he might not agree with many of Obama's positions, but he would certainly choose him over McCain.
McCain is the epitome of every Goldwater was against. His smear tactics, his lies, his silly little character attacks, his switching of postions, his constant display of confusion, his contradictions, his lack of honesty, his choice of VP's, just to name a few.
Barry Goldwater would never cow-tow to the extremist in his party. He would never stoop to the level that McCain has drowned himself in. He would never make hasty, rash decisions. He would never call his opponent (directly or indirectly) such names as terrorist, socialist, etc..
Unless Barry Goldwater Jr. knows something I don't know, Barry Goldwater Sr. would never support a man who has disgraced the GOP name and conservatism in general like McCain has. He would never support anyone who taken political campaigning to the lowest of lows. Never.
Excellent post, WyomingJack! I was a young adult when I first read "Conscience Of A Conservative" by Barry Goldwater Sr. and the first vote I ever got to cast (when I turned 21, in 1964) was for Barry. And, your point that the Republican Party (and especially John McCain) have morphed what once was a highly principled political party into a wealthy white boys club, populated by thieves (Abramoff, Delay) and influence-peddlers, most of who can be found working for the McCain campaign organization.
You may not be aware of it WyomingJack, but in those days, Barry Goldwater (Sr.) wrote a column for the Arizona Republic on a regular basis. One day Barry wrote about how the label of "maverick" was farcical. Barry was often referred to as a "maverick" and I suppose he disliked it. He wrote that it was easy for a person to appear to be a maverick and in his straight-shootin' manner debunked the myth to his readers. Essentially, all one had to do to be branded a "maverick" was to buck the party establishment on one or two 'hot button' issues. The press would then refer to the person as a "maverick" and the die was cast. That John McCain has cynically milked this "maverick" meme for all it's worth is indicative of his (McCain's) lack of principle.
Your last paragraph is so on-target I feel it should be shouted from the rooftops. Again, great post!
The former Congressman , Barry Goldwater, Junior , was a supporter of Ron Paul for president. He campaigned for him and was one of the main event speakers at Ron Paul's Rally For The Republic in Minneapolis. Paul favored an immediate call to withdraw all our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. Paul wants to bring our troops home from every corner of the globe. The only exceptions would be those assigned to embassy duty. Goldwater was at the rally and defended Ron Paul's call to bring the troops home. I and thousands applauded as he embraced Ron Paul's call to bring our troops home right away. The Rally attracted 12,000 people.
C.C. Goldwater's dissatifaction with Senator John McCain is one thing. Goldwater should be aware of a gallup Poll that a only 7% of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States. Paul endorsed Chuck Baldwin for president. Baldwin is the Constitution Party's nominee.
Democrats have run Congress for 2 years , but couldn't vote against the Bailout . They have sat on their hands while police state laws have sailed thru under "W."
Both Goldwaters are wrong. Neither Obama nor McCain will end the war. Forget about tax relief from those two. And forget about overturning those police state laws you people have been so concerned with. Only a new Congress can restore them. I expect that that new Congress is coming. Maybe not this election but look out for the next one!
why wouldnt Obama end it? he has to run again in 4 years. that would be his opponents #1 issue if its still unresolved. if he wants to go the full 8, ending the iraq portion of the war is tantamount.
He'll end Iraq but almost certainly will start one somewhere else.
Look at Obama's voting record since he became a Senator. He's consistently voted to continue funding the war. Why would he end it? He'll just find another angle to keep selling it.
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