Conservative 'Godfather' Was Really an Old-Fashioned Libertarian
Conservatives have had a major influence on the Republican Party since that tumultuous 1964 convention and have dominated it since Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980. Indeed, their grip on the Party of Lincoln tightened dramatically during the 1990s while Democrat Bill Clinton was in the White House, with three distinct factions in the conservative majority -- foreign-policy neocons, social-policy Christian rightists and economic-policy supply-siders and taxophobics -- calling the shots.
These three factions over the years have moved farther and farther to the right -- much farther than Goldwater ever did. To call these people "conservatives" is a gross misnomer; they're really hard-line right-wing ideologues.
Goldwater, in fact, was an old-fashioned libertarian, who was excoriated by the Christian Right for viewing abortion as a matter of personal choice, outside the purview of government. As a passionate defender of personal liberty, he saw the Christian Right's views on abortion as an encroachment on personal privacy and individual liberties.
In his 1980 Senate re-election campaign, Goldwater won support from religious conservatives, but throughout his final term voted consistently to uphold abortion rights and, in 1981, gave a speech on how he was angry about what he called "the bullying of American politicians" by Christian Right organizations, and vowed to "fight them every step of the way."
A few years before his death in 1998, Goldwater 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."
Fast-Forward to '08: Right-Wing Ideologues Launch 'Stop McCain' Movement
Indeed, McCain -- who won Goldwater's Senate seat in 1986 after his mentor retired -- has drawn the ire of the right-wing ideologues over illegal immigration, campaign finance reform, stem-cell research, and even same-sex marriage. Right-wing radio talk-show hosts, including Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, have been attacking him relentlessly for weeks.
Another right-wing pundit, columnist and author Ann Coulter, even went so far as to pledge to campaign for Clinton -- yes, Clinton -- if McCain is the GOP nominee. This blogger is not making this up. One of the most hard-line right-wing polemicists in the country -- who absolutely hates liberals and despises Democrats -- has publicly declared that she'd rather support Hillary Clinton than John McCain!
Appearing on Fox News Channel's "Hannity and Colmes," Coulter said that she would campaign for Clinton because McCain is not only bad for Republicans, "he is bad for the country.
"If you are looking at substance rather than if there is an 'R' or a 'D' after his name," Coulter said, "manifestly, if he's [McCain] our [GOP] candidate, then Hillary is going to be our girl, because she's more conservative than he is. I think she would be stronger on the war on terrorism."
Limbaugh insists that McCain's popularity with moderates and independents has been drawn from a "fractured" conservative base and an uninspiring field of candidates on the Republican side. "He is not the choice of conservatives, as opposed to the choice of the Republican establishment -- and that distinction is key," Limbaugh said on his show last week.
"The Republican establishment, which has long sought to rid the party of conservative influence since Reagan, is feeling a victory today as well as our friends in the media," Limbaugh continued.
According to exit-poll numbers, among voters who identify as conservative, McCain has consistently lost -- but so far, they've been outvoted by Republicans and independents who figure that McCain is the only GOP candidate who can defeat the Democrats in November. Even in Florida -- whose GOP primary was closed to independents -- moderates still outvoted conservatives, who backed Romney.
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