Liberty MavenBarry Goldwater, Liberty Hero
November 7th, 2008 12:52 am | by Marc Gallagher | Published in Libertarianism, Liberty, Politics, Ron Paul, barry goldwater | 4 Responses
Barry Goldwater
We continue our series of Liberty Maven’s Liberty Heroes list with Barry Goldwater. Goldwater was known as “Mr. Conservative”. He is credited with sparking the resurgence of the conservative political mindset in the 1960’s. He is also credited with having an impact on the libertarian movement. He is known for speaking his mind which reminds me of a certain doctor from Texas, Ron Paul. The best way to know Barry Goldwater is to read his book, “Conscience of a Conservative
The main area (and it’s an important one) where Goldwater could not be considered in line with Ron Paul’s view of liberty was with foreign policy. He was an interventionist and supported the cold war wholeheartedly. Indeed, this is the precise position Lyndon Johnson attacked with the now famous “Daisy” advertisement. Many point to this as the reason Johnson was able to defeat Goldwater in a landslide in the 1964 election.
Goldwater was quite libertarian on social issues. He supported legalizing medicinal marijuana, getting the federal government out of the abortion debate, and was quite vocal against the religious right in the early 1980’s. Below are a few choice quotes from our liberty hero Barry Goldwater.
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!”
“The income tax created more criminals than any other single act of government.”
“I’m frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in “A,” “B,” “C” and “D.” Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?”
“The big thing is to make this country, along with every other country in the world with a few exceptions, quit discriminating against people just because they’re gay. You don’t have to agree with it, but they have a constitutional right to be gay. And that’s what brings me into it.”
“Hubert Humphrey talks so fast that listening to him is like trying to read Playboy magazine with your wife turning the pages.”
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November 7th, 2008 at 1:30 pm (#)
Well, Gallagher, it’s like this:
According to your definitions and bias, no neocon is any friend of liberty.
Leo Strauss, the author of Natural Right and History, The City and Man, Liberalism:Ancient and Modern and many other works, was the founding Father of the neocons, with his followers such as Wolfowitz, Yoo, and many others in the Bush II administration.
But there’s another more senior so-called student of Strauss’. He’s the author of The Crisi of the HOuse Divided, that little work that made the other neocons, the neoConfederates, howl, along with his more recent A New Birth of Freedom.
But he’s also the author of the first of the quotes you put up in your article above–indeed, it is rumored that he wrote much more of Goldwater’s famous 1964 acceptance speech from which this quote is taken.
Now how can a friend of liberty have a neocon writin his speeches and also, giving him advice (Jaffa was also a close advisor to Reagan)
In a word, Goldwater may have been a friend of liberty, as long as you ignore many of his positions that were not so libertarian–which is the same treatment you mete out to other so-called libertarians from Jefferson onwards.
We do not have a record of what Goldwater would have done as President, but we do have what Reagan did, and if nothing else, he expanded and increased the power of the federal government, for all of his talk about states rights–just like Jefferson.
When are you going to stop making libertarians out of realistic and wise statesmen like Jefferson, Reagan and Goldwater who all knew that the libertarian stuff was but only a small part of the whole enterprise of statesmanship and politics?
No, I do not think that you will ever learn.
November 7th, 2008 at 1:54 pm (#)
RBurnett,
Wow. I can’t wait to read your reaction to the future liberty heroes we have planned if you react this way to Goldwater.
Also, you are condemning Goldwater for what Reagan ended up doing. I think that is unfair and unrealistic.
Could you post your own list of liberty heroes? I’m curious who, in your eyes, has risen to the level of your perfection.
I imagine your own name may be the only one on your list.
Enjoy,
Marc
November 7th, 2008 at 2:52 pm (#)
Liberty heroes:
Aristotle, Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, (even Martin Luther), AlFarabi (the Moslem political thinker), Marsislius of Padua, Moses Maimonides, Machiavelli (even with warts and all), Hobbes, Locke, Adam Smith, Rousseau, Madison, Hamilton, Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, Goldwater, Reagan–all great minds or statesmen, all mindfull of the whole picture
Not on the list: Ayn Rand, von Mises, Hayek, Milton Friedman, Rothbard
And finally, on the list of liberty heroes: Leo Strauss, Harry Jaffa, Harvey Mansfield, Joseph Cropsey Herbert Storing and Martin Diamond.
My condemnation, as you would call it, of what Reagan did, which was the right things to do, is justified because Reagan himself used Goldwater as one of his heroes, and stated that he was following in Goldwater’s path.
You imagine in error, yet again.
November 18th, 2008 at 8:57 pm (#)
[...] the first Planned Parenthood branch in Phoenix). He was pro-equality for gays. He believed that morality had no place in government, even once remarking that: “I’m frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this [...]