""When all is said and done the author is claiming that todays conservatism is a shell of what it once was (Goldwater days).""
you mean when it lost an election 60-40 and carried 5 states? Goldwater got fewer electoral votes than Wallace did 4 years later.
"He says conservatives should give up their "lite" version and return to the Goldwater brand.""
I recall Goldwater voted AGAINST the 1964 tax cut. He also ended his career as a rabid pro-choicer
I agree. I was merely giving my interpretation of what the author said.