Granted it's a wikipedia source, but it's well cited:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_goldwater

Quote :

"By the 1980s, with Ronald Reagan as president and the growing involvement of the religious right in conservative politics, Goldwater's libertarian views on personal issues were revealed, which he believed were an integral part of true conservativism. Goldwater viewed abortion as a matter of personal choice, not intended for government intervention. As a passionate defender of personal liberty, he saw the religious right's views as an encroachment on personal privacy and individual liberties. In his 1980 Senate reelection campaign, Goldwater won support from religious conservatives but in his final term voted consistently to uphold legalized abortion and, in 1981, gave a speech on how he was angry about the bullying of American politicians by religious organizations, and would "fight them every step of the way".[14] Goldwater also disagreed with the Reagan administration on certain aspects of foreign policy (e.g. he opposed the decision to mine Nicaraguan harbors). Notwithstanding his prior differences with Dwight Eisenhower, Goldwater in a 1986 interview rated him the best of the seven Presidents with whom he had worked. After his retirement in 1987, Goldwater described the conservative Arizona Governor Evan Mecham as “hardheaded” and called on him to resign, and two years later stated that the Republican Party had been taken over by a “bunch of kooks.” In a 1994 interview with the Washington Post the retired senator said, “When you say “radical right” today, I think of these moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others who are trying to take the Republican Party and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss politics goodbye.” In response to Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell's opposition to the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court, of which Falwell had said, “Every good Christian should be concerned,” Goldwater retorted: “I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass.”[15] Goldwater also had harsh words for his onetime political protege, President Reagan, particularly after the Iran-Contra Affair became public in 1986. Journalist Robert MacNeil, a friend of Goldwater's from the 1964 Presidential campaign, recalled interviewing him in his office shortly afterward. "He was sitting in his office with his hands on his cane...and he said to me, 'Well, aren't you going to ask me about the Iran arms sales?' It had just been announced that the Reagan administration had sold arms to Iran. And I said, 'Well, if I asked you, what would you say?' He said, 'I'd say it's the goddamn stupidest foreign policy blunder this country's ever made!'"[16], though aside from the Iran-Contra scandal, Goldwater thought nonetheless that Reagan was a good president.[17] Also, in 1988 during that year's presidential campaign, he pointedly told vice-presidential nominee Dan Quayle at a campaign event in Arizona "I want you to go back and tell George Bush to start talking about the issues." [4] Some of Goldwater's statements in the 1990s aggravated many social conservatives. He... urged Republicans to lay off Clinton over the Whitewater scandal, and criticized the military's ban on homosexuals: “Everyone knows that gays have served honorably in the military since at least the time of Julius Caesar.”[18] He also said, “You don't have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight.” A few years before his death he went so far as to address the right wing, "Do not associate my name with anything you do. You are extremists, and you've hurt the Republican Party much more than the Democrats have."[19] In 1996 he told Bob Dole, whose own presidential campaign received lukewarm support from conservative Republicans: “We're the new liberals of the Republican Party. Can you imagine that?” In that same year, with Senator Dennis DeConcini, Goldwater endorsed an Arizona initiative to legalize medical marijuana against the will of social conservatives.[20]"

Positions:

1) Hated the right-wing, thought they were a detriment to the GOP

2) Supported abortion rights, felt it was a "personal issue"

3) supported the legalization of marijauna


No surprise that his son Barry Jr. supports Ron Paul. I think I'd like to see a return to Barry Goldwater conservatism, as so many right-wing pundits have suggested

[Edited on January 6, 2008 at 11:07 PM. Reason : d]

1/6/2008 11:06:59 PM

I've always liked Goldwater Conservativism ever since I read theDuke saying something about it and then googled it.

1/6/2008 11:13:51 PM

Loved the war.

1/6/2008 11:18:55 PM

Goldwater wrestled the GOP party away from Eastern liberal republicans in '64. He was attacked not only by liberals but from many of what what we call today RHINOs. He was painted as an extremist who would plunge us into a nuclear war.

The eastern liberal republicans got the party back away from Goldwater after his defeat and have never let go of their grip. That's why you'll see them run candidates like Bush, who appears like a western conservative..but is actually a Maine "conservative"

And now you have liberal republicans fighting with evangelicals over the scraps of what was once a great party..a former bastion of true conservatism.

1/6/2008 11:26:47 PM

Goldwater is pretty much my favorite politician, ever.

Funny you made this thread today--I just picked up my copy of Conscience Of A Conservative this morning. I got it probably 10-15 years ago, but it was above my level at the time (not cognitively, but with my background knowledge of history and politics at the time, I only made it a little ways into the book before I lost interest). I read the first couple of chapters this morning, and will actually be able to fully digest everything, appreciate, and finish the book this time.

another funny thing...to be so regimented in many ways, I've noticed that many of my peers in the military lean towards this sort of political thought. For that matter, a lot of my favorite politicians are former military: Goldwater, McCain, Ron Paul, Teddy Roosevelt, etc.

[Edited on January 7, 2008 at 12:10 AM. Reason : ^ he was opposed by lots of people--not just Rockefeller Republicans and RINOs]

1/7/2008 12:09:26 AM