True, his speech still applies today. That’s what I’d like my political party to get back in touch wth.
My grandfather was a delegate to that GOP convention, albeit the “wrong kind”. Ronald Reagan gave the keynote speech to the ‘64 GOP convention, one of his best of all.
How much better would this country had been today if only Goldwater had won in 1964.
JFK is more popular among Freepers than Goldwater; it’s been hard to hold out against the propaganda machine for 40 years. That’s why Gingrich on taking over as Speaker in 1994 quotes FDR, JFK and Truman instead of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Goldwater.
BTTT
I would love to hear one elected Republican - any elected Republican - speak these words today.
I wonder how he would feel if he could what became of his beloved G.O.P.
I was a senior in high school and Press Chairman for the Young Republicans of Harris County (Houston, Texas) in 1964 when he ran...
And I got to shake The Great Man’s hand at old Colt .45 Stadium when he spoke there. I didn’t wash my hand nor did my feet touch the ground for several weeks afterwards!
BTW my Dad then worked for Brown & Root, a big LBJ supporter, but Dad just told me to do as I believed...
Gadzooks! It would have been a much better world... had we elected him President in 1964!
BTW #2 Later my Dad told me he voted for Goldwater... But to keep it under my hat on the job.
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!”
And I remember that twerp, Hunter Thompson, writing in FEAR AND LOATHING ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL that he was absolutely terrified by the rise that Goldwater got out of the crowd when he said that.
I met him and shook his hand in 1972 at Paradise Valley High School in Scotsdale Arizona...
I was awestruck as a kid, and he was a ‘has-been’ to the world at that time.
What a great, great man!
Barry’s Boys
(June Reizner)
We’re the bright young men
Who want to go back to nineteen-ten
We’re Barry’s boys.
We’re the kids with a cause
Yes a government like grandmama’s
We’re Barry’s boys.
We’re the new kind of youth at your Alma Mater
Back to silver standards and solid Goldwater
Back to when the poor were poor and rich were rich
And you felt so damn secure just knowing which were which.
We’re the kids who agree
To be social without security
We’re Barry’s boys
‘Cause his hat’s in the ring
Where Westbrook Pegler* once was king
Now he’s too left wing
So if you don’t recognize any old Red China
Or Canada, or Britain, or South Carolina
You too can join the crew
Tippecanoe and Nixon too
Back to Barry
Back to cash and carry
Back to Barry’s boys.
(spoken)
Why did the chicken cross the road?
To get from the left to the right.
Roses are red, violets are blue
Walter Lippmann’s a pinko, too.
A-na-ka-nee, ka-nah, ka-nay
Let’s investigate the PTA.
Barry, Barry, make your bid
I love John Birch, but oh you kid.
Mother, mother, wear a grin
And don’t complain, or we’ll turn you in.
Hold the presses, stop the mail
The Pentagon’s having a one-cent sale.
What’s the latest news statistic?
Hootenannies are socialistic.
Shut the door and lock and latch it
Here comes Lizzie with a brand new hatchet
(sung)
We’re the kids full of nerve
As long as it’s conserv-
ative we’re Barry’s boys
And we can’t comprehend
Why our parents aren’t friend-
lier to Barry’s boys
Why Dad once crusaded for Sacco/Vanzetti
Now all we’re doing is doing the same for John Paul Getty
Our parents emulated Roosevelt and Farley
But we just want to grow up to be like Ev and Charley**
No college days with Socrates and Plato
When you’re Barry’s boys
You just organize parades for the abolishment of NATO
And the rest
The entire West
So let’s go back to the days when men were men
And start the First World War all over again
That’s right you tell ‘em son
Isolationism can be fun
Back to Barry
Back to cash and carry
Back to Barry
(Spoken)
And remember, “An American first, and a politician second.”
Spoken like a true American politician
Back with Barry
Not with Lyndon, Ike or Harry
Back with Barry’s boys.
Copyright Mills Music Inc (ASCAP)
recorded by The Chad Mitchell Trio
on Reflecting, Mercury SR 60891 / MG 20891,
1964
Notes:
*Westbrook PeglerRightist polemicist, 1930s to the early 1960s
**Ev and CharleySenator Everett Dirksen (R-Ill.) and Charles A. Halleck (R-Ind.), GOP congressional leaders, 1961-1965
Tom Delay has a Goldwater speech in his book. It may have been this one. My grandson has the book now, so I can’t check.
I live in Arizona... I just so happened to have a trip to work one day interrupted by his funeral procession.
Arizona and the Nation lost a great man.
Later on he was pro-abortion, but I forgive the man for that, because of all else he accomplished.