This is one of those liberal historical lies (they DO know better) masquerading as history.
The fact is that Barry Goldwater had voted for every civil rights bill up until the 1964 one, which contained the seeds of wat would become the Affirmative Action program. Goldwater said it was unconstitutional, and it was. He alsopredicted that it would result in racial preferences an quotas and even made a gentlemen's bet with Senator Humphrey that it would. Barry was right, as usual.
Barry was wrong. He wasn’t a racist, but he was wrong on that issue, and he admitted it in later years. As did William F. Buckley. No matter how the bill was corrupted later on, how is the basic idea of equal rights for all Americans unconstitutional?