Whose Goldwater?

Daniel McCarthy doesn't buy the Claremont Institute's efforts to reframe Barry Goldwater as a Bush conservative.

Comments

[John]

Wasn’t it Goldwater that said a soldier doesn’t have to BE straight; he only has to SHOOT straight?

And didn’t he say something about Jerry Falwell needing a good swift kick in the ass?

Doesn’t sound too Bushy to me.

[VM]

wasn’t claremont the group that interpreted Spider Man as a defense of the neocon/ muscular, interventionalist foreign policy?

um. no they weren’t. but they seem to buy into the contradiction of “limited domestic government, domestic spying, expand war on terror, empire abroad” contradiction…..

it’s like the NRO trying to claim that bush’s economics are “supply side” and how they invoke the Laffer Curve at every opportunity… just a bunch of talking points that their lemmings don’t understand, but they cite. 🙁 steam steam.

[andy]

In the afternoon before the senator?s appearance, there was a briefing to review a television ad that supporters had put together to exploit the ever-present, always popular issue of moral decline in America. It was the sort of slimy self-righteous imagery that has come to dominate American politics today. It showed topless (but appropriately censored) women at a public beach

It is never appropriate for topless women to be censored.

[JB Allen]

McCarthy’s critique of Busch’s article is mostly sound, but I think that the dichotomy raised in these pieces regarding the role of Goldwater’s religious beliefs in his politics(“Goldwater’s religious views were key politics” vs. “Goldwater’s views weren’t so important”) misses the point somewhat. Goldwater’s position on religion in society was a conservative one (religion is an important part of our core traditional values and habits), whereas Bush’s position is an evangelical and fundamentalist one (religion is a commitment to improving the world in accordance with one’s beliefs, even at the risk of trampling core traditional values and habits). I think that this difference is key in understanding the political actions of the two figures.

[joe]

Goldwater took credit for a book that somebody else wrote for him? Man, not exactly a profile in courage there!

…

Why is everyone looking at me like that?

[Twba]

Joe’s still got it.

[Ruthless]

My first vote for US Prez was for AuH2O.

I’ll never forget Barry’s son at Sigma Chi down at Vanderbilt being introduced by the fraternity prez, Chuck Muckenfuss.