Golden Anniversary for Goldwater

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the release of Barry Goldwater’s highly influential book, “The Conscience of a Conservative.” Known as “Mr. Conservative” Goldwater put down in a little over 100 pages the key principles to an entire political movement. Phyllis Schlaffly has stated, “It is hard to overestimate the importance of Barry Goldwater to the Conservative Movement. If there hadn’t been a Barry Goldwater, there wouldn’t have been a Ronald Reagan.”

Goldwater was a five term U.S. Senator from Arizona and the 1964 Republican nominee for President. Though losing in a landslide to Johnson, Goldwater’s candidacy launched the careers of countless conservative activists including the Gipper himself. Reagan, a democrat until 1962—who often said, “I didn’t leave the democrat party, the democrat party left me”-- gave a televised speech on behalf of Goldwater on the evening of Oct. 27, 1964 entitled, “A Time For Choosing.” Known also as the “Rendezvous With Destiny” speech, it lit-up the switch boards of the network and brought in millions of dollars for Goldwater. The oratory skills of “The Great Communicator” were revealed that night and the governorship of California became the immediate pathway for Reagan’s entry upon the national, political stage. The speech is readily available for viewing on YouTube.

Looking back through the pages of Goldwater’s book, one can find many timeless principles that speak to the issues of today, and especially, the Tea Party Movement. It seems rather prophetic in its warnings about the growth of government, the loss of freedom, the threat of high taxes, the dangers of appeasing our enemies and the corrupting influences of: big labor unions, welfare entitlement programs, corporate subsidies and a Supreme Court that ignores the clear meaning of the Constitution.

Goldwater declared, “The Conservative approach is nothing more or less than an attempt to apply wisdom, experience and the revealed truths of the past to the problems of today-- principles [that] are derived from the nature of man, and from the truths that God has revealed about His creation.” These are the self-evident truths of the Founders.

Russell Kirk believed that, “If one million people would read this book, it would change the world.” Well, with nearly 4 million copies in print and the enduring legacy of the Reagan Revolution and the victory in the Cold War, we now know that Kirk too was prophetic.

The undeniable truth is that these principles today haven’t changed at all, we have! This is why the Bible instructs us to “renew our minds daily.” The tendency is for our human minds to wander and deviate from moral absolutes. Thus, being a Conservative means constantly going back to recalibrate ourselves according to the core principles of this Judeo-Christian worldview that deems government- the imposition of force- a necessary evil.

Goldwater outlines the primary directive of American politics: Constitutionalism. In this discipline, he advocates for the “conservation” of individual liberty in opposition to its natural enemy- government. “Throughout history,” Goldwater explains, “government has proved to be the chief instrument for thwarting man’s liberty. Government represents power in the hands of some men to control and regulate the lives of other men…the Constitution [therefore] is an instrument, above all, for limiting the functions of government.” This attitude is in complete agreement with today’s Tea Party activists. In a way, the Tea Parties are just the latest manifestation of reasserting this American creed.

The opposing political view from the Left tends to see “freedom” differently, as a chaotic sphere of exploitation and cruelty towards mankind. So, it’s natural for them to consider the role of government in a completely different light- as the constructive instrument for social engineering and the progressive liberation FROM freedom and towards collectivist paternalism. Unfortunately, history demonstrates conclusively that such controls are neither desirable nor constructive once put into actual practice. Simply put, investing more power into a centralized authoritarian state does not produce happiness and good tidings for all. As Goldwater expressed it, “The framers of the Constitution…were not only students of history, but victims of it: they knew from vivid, personal experience that freedom depends on effective restraints against the accumulation of power in a single authority. And that is what the Constitution is: a system of restraints against the natural tendency of government to expand in the direction of absolutism.”

As the saying goes, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” In this era of dramatic change and misplaced hope, it’s comforting to find some eternal truths that can lead us, once again, back to the Right Track! In your heart, you know Conservatism is right. (email comments to: WFC83197@aol.com)