But we must always ask ourselves, "Where were you upon St. Crispin's Day?" Goldwater was there, fighting the good fight, with a lot of spirit, humor and energy. Ronald Reagan was an incredible force in politics, but his ascendancy didn't occur in a vacuum. Goldwater helped to make him possible. Yes, Reagan brought down the Berlin Wall, but Goldwater struck a few big blows himself.

RIP
-Ptmcg@aol.com

6/1/98
Actually, I was to young to have memories of Sen. Goldwater's presidential campaign, but I heard about it. One commentator said that never has so much villification and slime been thrown upon a good and decent man (Goldwater). He was accused of trying to blow up the world (the little girl picking flowers), trying to give the Sudetenland back to Germany, abolishing Social Security (a good idea); etc..

The liberal commentators did get their wish and Johnson was re elected. I'm not going to repeat that well known joke ("I voted for Goldwater and you're right") about the aftermath of the Goldwater campaign, but I am pretty sure Barry Goldwater would have ended the Vietnam war and would have put some stop to the muck that has infected our country.

There is a silver lining from this though, when Jimmy Carter tried to pull the same garbage on Ronald Reagan at least most people didn't buy it.
-Bradley

6/1/98
Being a 'seasoned citizen' as Rush calls us, I had the honor of voting for Sen. Goldwater back in '64. 34 years later I'm still proud of that vote. As his slogan stated, 'in my heart I knew he was right'.

I firmly believe that if Sen. Goldwater had won that election, the country would be a far better place. If you don't think this is true, and if you're old enough, compare the pre-1964 America with the present. The 60's flower children didn't go away. They cleaned up, got haircuts and are presently a large part of the Administration This would not have happened had Goldwater won.

Senator Goldwater never tested the political winds. He was consistent in his beliefs and history will prove him right. The only active politician I can think of that might compare favorably to Sen. Goldwater is Sen. Helms from my adopted state of North Carolina. Helms, like Goldwater, never swaps principle for votes. President Reagan was in Goldwater's league but Reagan really was the 'Great Communicator', a gift that Sen. Goldwater lacked.

In our hearts we still know he was right.
-Carl Conner

6/1/98
If,as is the case, with Goldwater going liberal after a lifetime of the right, should we not then discount leftwingers who give us a death bed conversion to the right?
-George Milosovich

6/1/98
AuH2O Mr. Goldwater is the last conservative Republican Presidential Nominee to be defeated in this half of the Twentieth Century. He was defeated through the efforts of "moderate" Republicans who would not stand for conservatives having any say in Governing of America and have nominated a solid string of losers stretching from Hoover to Dole. How much better would the world be if Barry Goldwater had won?
-GKFranke@concentric.net

6/1/98
Barry Goldwater on Friedrich Hayek

" ... during my years in the Senate, I was much influenced by the work of Professor F. A. Hayek, author of The Road to Serfdom".

U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater in Goldwater, 1988, p. 110.

Lee Edwards in Goldwater: The Man Who Made a Revolution, 1995, p. 281.

The page includes quotes on Hayek by Reagan, Thatcher, Friedman, Sowell, Kristol, and many others.
-Greg Ransom, Dept. of Social Science, Mira Costa College

6/1/98
My earliest political memory is of Barry Goldwater's acceptance speech in 1964. "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.....Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." It was the first time in my life that anyone had stood up in public and said what I believed. I have not always agreed with Senator Goldwater since, but I still reread The Conscience of a Conservative now and then, and still march to beat of his drum..

I believed in 1964, and believe now, that if Goldwater had been elected the little girl could still have picked her daisies in peace, and Vietnam, as we know it now, would never have happened. I am still proud to be one of the 10 million that never had to say we were sorry.
-Jeff Garrison, pgarris1@elp.rr.com

6/1/98
I realize that my comments about Barry Goldwater will go against the grain of what most people on this board will say about the man. I think the man was a false idol who was completely unworthy of the adoration he received from the conservative movement. In his later years he repudiated many of the things he claimed to stand for in the conservative movement. He came out in favor of abortion and gays in the military. And there was never a prominent Republican he wouldn't badmouth.

Another thing that disturbed me about Goldwater and was never clearly explained by the man himself was his close association with mob figures such as Willie Bioff, Gus Greenbaum, and Moe Dalitz. It was rumored that the Phoenix mob bankrolled Goldwater's first Senate race in 1952 against George MacFarland. I guess this is a job for future biographers and historians.

I guess the only thing I admire about Goldwater is that he did pave the way for Ronald Reagan. For that we can indeed thank the man.
-Joe H. Roberts, Jr.

6/1/98
I like to think that the Viet Nam war would've been resolved much sooner & more favorably than it was had he been elected president back in '64, instead of that other guy. Still, his defeat eventually created the national hunger for Reagan & his much-needed policies less than 2 decades later.
-John Suits

6/1/98
With the passing of Barry Goldwater, Esquire, the consevative movement has lost an unshakable voice of integrity. Goldwater's unflinching views on individual freedom, offended the social conservative movement at large. Perhaps if a Goldwater-type figure were active in politics today, the schism between social conservative and libertarian would dwarf the present conflict between Buchanan and the conservative elite. I welcome any comments or ideas.
-LKS1276@aol.com

6/1/98
Barry Goldwater was a real American with high principles and values. He knew, keenly, the real world with its gore (no pun intended) and beauty. He seems to be sadly one of our last statesmen. His oratory could be sizzling but if you took the time to seek the meaning of his words you knew he was sincere, insiteful, honest and a bastion of integrety in an abiss of imoral, unprincipled skulldugery. American politics today is swimming in a sea of unprincipled, unethical feases. America should morn his loss.
-LMBAY1@aol.com

6/1/98
A great man. A great loss.
-pollar

6/1/98
I am proud to say that I cast my first vote in a presidential election for Barry Goldwater. Much has been said about Barry's "growth" since 1964, and the fact that even liberals came to respect him. I don't think that Barry ever grew away from his conservative-libertarian principles in the least. He just enunciated more of them. Libertarian ideas always seem to shock Republicans of other stripes.

On one side we have the good, gray, pragmatic, "economic" Republicans who never saw a principle they would not compromise. This group thinks that anyone with ideology is at best a fool and at worst, dangerous. (These Republicans are especially prevalent here in Ohio. Wheel, deal, and backslap on the golf course is the daily agenda. I call them the sans-a-belt crowd.)

On the other side is the religious right--mostly fundamentalists who have appropriated the words "Christian" and "conservative" to themselves. Of course, they were able to do that mainly because of the willing abrogation of these words by other groups. I find that this bunch to be not much different from the far left in their desire to use the power of government to control people's speech, and to make them behave in "moral" ways. "Moral" of course is defined by biblical literalists. Republicans should pay heed to Barry Goldwater's warnings about the religious right. Strategists should note how rapidly they take a powder when faced with the prospect of voting for a candidate who swerves in the least from their agenda. Also, I recall reading that about 40% of this group regularly vote Democratic.

Republicans should have learned from Barry's campaign in 1964 just how far the left and its "moderate" apologists will go to stifle conservative speech and to prevent conservatives from holding office. They will do and say anything, which is OK because theirs is the righteous cause. Those with common sense, such as Goldwater, must be silenced. The left relies on sensation and emotion to carry their agenda, hence, common sense, reason, and logic are the enemy. Still, Republicans bend over again and again saying: Oh, they'll play fair this time. B.S.!

Even so, I, like Barry, support and vote for Republicans because I believe the party is the only practical vehicle for conservative-libertarian ideas. That is why I am pleased when candidates such as Christy Todd Whitman and Olympia Snowe win elections. It strengthens the power of the only party that will entertain the principles I believe in.
-Robert Davisson

6/1/98
It's just too bad that the current Republicans can't have half the stature, morals, and dedication to the right principles that Mr. Goldwater had. He may have been the map maker for the Republican Party, but the current bunch can't read the map.
-RWCraft@aol.com

6/1/98
To the Memory of Barry M. Goldwater:

My father will be 90 on June 15. He immigrated from Hungary (now Slovakia) in 1914 with his mother where they joined his father in Gary, Indiana. Only of learning of the ultimate passing of my own father will bring greater sadness to my heart than learning of the death of Barry Morris Goldwater. I only met Senator Goldwater once, in 1967 at a YAF Convention in Los Angeles, where I served on the Resolutions Committee. He was the keynote speaker.

I was 12 years old in 1964. I read The Conscience of A Conservative due to the pro-Goldwater conversations I had overheard, and butted into, with the father and grandfather of a neighborhood friend. I took the initiative to volunteer to walk precincts for the Goldwater campaign.

At one home where I announced that "I am a volunteer for the Goldwater campaign, are there any unregistered Republicans living here?" [I was 5 feet one and one-half inches tall at 12 years, seven months] I heard a voice inside shout to someone else, "Do you see how young they are getting them now?!" I don't recall that they ever answered the door. Of course my own parents were and are still today social democrats and they must have thought that their only son was going through some sort of rebellion.

Only L. von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Leonard E. Read, William F. Buckley Jr and Robert H. W. Welch Jr had more of an impact on my philosophy of life. But, it started with you and I will always love you for what you did for me and for what you gave to your country. I will miss you. I love you.

Your Countryman and Political Son,

-Zak Arthur Klemmer