Can some older Freeper tell me what the hell a "Goldwater Conservative" is? Idiots like Dean throw it around like all conservatives before 1964 were libertarians or liberals.
He was the first conservative candidate for president since Herbert Hoover. And especially with John Kennedy recently assassinated, the idea of a conservative in the White House was just too much for the elite opininion makers. The reaction in the media was horror and Goldwater was demonized as a hawk for a global nuclear holocaust. That's what people usually mean when they say, "Goldwater Republican". Needless to, it's not what the man was.
On the other some older Dems (and RINOs) speak approvingly of Rockefeller Republicans just to show that they tolerate dissenting opinions.