Joe Biden Channels the Soul of Barry Goldwater
President’s Nuclear Brinksmanship in Ukraine Akin to Aggressive Foreign Policy of Reactionary 1964 Republican Presidential Nominee — OPINION
Barry Goldwater is considered the father of the modern conservative movement. Goldwater won the 1964 Republican Presidential nomination despite being opposed by the GOP Establishment, including former President Dwight Eisenhower.
Goldwater’s main opponent for the nomination was New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, a liberal Republican in the days when the Grand Old Party still had liberals. (Liberal Republicans included President Theodore Roosevelt, U.S. Senator Robert La Follotte of Wisconsin and former California Governor Earl Warren, the 1948 GOP Vice Presidential nominee who was serving as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1964.)
In the November election, the incumbent Lyndon Baines Johnson easily defeated Senator Goldwater in one of the biggest landslides in history. With 61.1% of the popular vote, LBJ won 44 states and the District of Columbia, good for 484 votes in the Electoral College.
Along with his native home state of Arizona, Goldwater — who had voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — won five states in the deep South, racking up 52 EC votes with his 38.5% share of the popular vote.
Sixteen years after his crushing defeat, one of his political acolytes, Ronald Reagan was elected President, an outcome the mainstream press of 1980 did not anticipate.
Though originally registered as a Democrat and active as a liberal, Reagan shifted parties in 1962. He endorsed Goldwater for President and gave a speech that was televised as a campaign ad in October 1964.
EXTREMISM & NUCLEAR BRINKSMANSHIP
The biggest issue during the 1964 Republican presidential nomination season was whether Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater would trigger a nuclear holocaust if elected President of the United States.
It was the main issue in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary that Goldwater lost to a write-in candidate who not only did not campaign, but was not even in the United States; it was the main issue during the subsequent primaries; and it was the main issue during the GOP convention held in San Francisco and during the general election overwhelmingly won by incumbent president Lyndon Johnson in November.
In his acceptance speech, Goldwater told the Republican delegates, “I would remind you, that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice,” and was interrupted by great applause. Goldwater said “Thank you” to the crowd twice, before finishing with, “and let me remind you also, that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
An arch-conservative, Goldwater was seen by contemporaries as being unafraid to ally himself with the reactionary right. Many liberal and moderate Republicans criticized the Senator from Arizona during the ’64 campaign for refusing to repudiate nuclear first strike against the Soviet Union and talking about challenging the Soviets in Eastern Europe.
During the 1980 presidential debate, Jimmy Carter attempted to portray Ronald Reagan as a Goldwateresque/Doctor Strangelover of nuclear war.
“Inflation, unemployment, the cities — all very important issues. But they pale into insignificance, in the life and duties of a president, when compared to the control of nuclear weapons.”
Carter went on to say, “I had a discussion with my daughter Amy the other day, before I came here to ask her what the most important issue was. She said she thought nuclear weaponry.”
Carter’s obviously scripted observation was out of place in a question about economic policy. He tried to paint Reagan as a threat to nuclear arms control, but Reagan came off as the more aggressive and assured candidate, which many people likely thought was a prerequisite to be a successful commander in chief.
Carter’s public perception for effectiveness as a chief executive suffered from the year-long(+) debacle of the Iranian hostage crisis. Reagan was elected President, an outcome the mainstream press of 1980 did not entertain until after the TV debate, a tie when Carter still lead Reagan in most polls.
Ronald Reagan was a hardliner in name and reputation, but proved more flexible in dealing with the Soviet Union than Joe Biden has proved in dealing with Russia.
In his reckless provocation of Russia, Joe Biden has proven to be more Barry Goldwater than Ronald Reagan.
Goldwater told crowds in 1964 that the United States should not be afraid of taking on the USSR in Eastern Europe and lobbing a few missiles at the Soviets.
Joe Biden, whom Seymour Hersh reports ordered the destruction of the Nord Stream Pipeline, channels the soul of reactionary Republican Barry Goldwater GOP Presidential standard-bearer circa 1964.