Posted on 01/29/2016 5:11:42 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
For the past few months, political observers on both the left and right have been comparing Ted Cruz to Barry Goldwater, who lost to Lyndon Johnson by a staggering 434 electoral votes in the 1964 presidential election.
The thinking goes like this: Cruz is an unyielding movement conservative, just like Goldwater. Given his strength in the South -- again, just like Goldwater -- he could very well win the Republican nomination. But ultimately Cruz is too extreme to appeal to the broader electorate, and the GOP will suffer an ideological blowout of Goldwater-like proportions in November if it selects the freshman senator from Texas as its nominee.
"What's flawed about Cruz's approach is that it's the same argument Barry Goldwater made in 1964," Iowa Republican Doug Gross recently told the New York Times. "Cruz may seem pure and virtuous within the confines of his own base, [but] you can't get elected with those voters, because there simply aren't enough of them."
Cruz's fans dismiss this analogy. As RedState's Erick Erickson wrote last month, "Every conservative candidate must withstand the 'Is he Barry Goldwater' question. Never mind that [the same trick] has been tried repeatedly by the Democrats and the only person it ever worked against was Barry Goldwater."
Yet at least one group of influential Cruz supporters is taking the Goldwater comparison seriously: the Cruz campaign team....
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
I do not believe Cruz can pivot.
Good reading.
They said the same thing about Ronaldus Magnus
Barry Goldwater was not a conservative. He was an Ayn Rand libertarian.
Cruz,s downhill slide started right after he started to campaign with the LUNATIC
As far as I can tell they still do.
They’re slightly better at hiding it.
Where does this ‘strength in the south’ thing come from? Trump is killing him everywhere. The only state I’ve seen him ahead in is Texas and the last poll I saw there only had him at 30% and Trump 25%.
California, Wisconsin, Iowa and more.
Wow, the ‘south’ sure has changed since I last checked.
I believe Cruz can pivot. But whether any conservative can win depends more on us than on the candidate. Goldwater lost because we, his supporters did not do what we needed to do.
I was YFG chair at Wheaton College, IL. I saw California primary as crucial to AUH2O or Rockefeller. I put all my attention on that primary. I contacted every student, grad student, ex-student from CA and had them register and vote absentee. Over 90 votes from Wheaton IL for Goldwater.
Black St Rep Bill Robinson recruited me and dozens of other students to move into Chicago’s inner city. I took on 3 precincts. My friends took on precincts. We tripled Nixon’s vote and Doubles Ike’s vote.
We assumed that nationwide YFG and YAF were doing the same thing...registering new voters like mad and working the precincts. We assumed that of course we would win.
Boy were we surprised when we discovered that YFG and YAF and all the Goldwater supporters did absolutely nothing to help Goldwater win. They talked to each other. But they did not sell their friends and neighbors.
The political class in DC, the Matt Lewis types, the Campaign Leadership types, try to win with an incomplete campaign. They fear they will lose control of the campaign if they enlist an army of volunteers. Thus they depend on money and TV.
Although I am pro-illegal (illegals who work) I support Cruz mostly because he is pro-Constitution and he believes in using us volunteers.
As far as I'm concerned, Suite 3505: The Story of the Draft Goldwater Movement by F. Clifton White and William J. Gill (New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1967) is not long-lost. It's on my bookshelf.
I think it statred before that. Started with the negative ads maybe.
He said he wouldn’t go negative, but he did, or his PACs did.
I am thinking negative ads are starting to lose their impact.
Dang it, I've been looking all over for that! :-)
Goldwater was running against the ghost of Saint John the Kennedy. Bathhouse Barry ain’t quite the same thing.
To compare an icon of integrity with a man elected to the US Senate as a Canadian citizen seems a bit over the top to me.
We call them Western (l)ibertarians out here.
The same school from which came Reagan, Palin, Cheney etc.
These folks seem to think nothing has happened since 1964.
Ramono s piece about Goldwater is of a completely different time. Governmnent was not yet in everyones face, religion,bedroom,kitchen,bathroom,gas tank,and backyard. But was the emergemce of what we have today that people like Goldwater warned us about. When entered Reagan who saw this comming whom I actively supported and have campaign material I developed for his efforts in Illinois in the Reagan library .
With the advent of the declaration by the democratic party at their 2012 national convention to re-remove any reference to God which was accepted then removed with jeers and boos because of the forced passage due to the chair over riding any roll call of vote its recending. We are in deep do-do. Lost our way !
Worse yet the political opposition during an election does not even comment but insists on bipartisainanship
Of all the candidates running tor president who come closest to this ? How about a billionaire who calls a communion waffer a cracker. Wants the government to order you to fill your gas tank with jumk because the establishment in Iowa emdorses him . Because he can make deals ?
Cruz, who is not perfect but has the guts to known what going om fights it. While both men love this country Cruz will and has has a record of doing what he says. Necause he knows and is concerend about the expansion of government and will fight to stop it.
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