[Libertarian Billy Graham]

they were big, capital C Communists, not laughable cranks, and these well-armed thugs

Yes, I was scared of them too, just like the generation before was afraid of the Fascists. I was the only one who voted for Wallace in '68 in my 5th grade class. But, then I figured out that the US government's job was not to protect overseas "interests" and empire and slay monsters abroad. By the way, I think Goldwater may have come around more later on some of these old conservative ways of looking at things, but I think if he was elected in '64 "they" probably would have scared him into doing anything they wanted, just like they did Wilson, Roosevelt, and Reagan--but you never know.

were expanding their evil influence everywhere

Where? Even when I was voting for Wallace I was smart enough to know that they were right here, all around! We had had an unconstitutional income tax for 50 years at that point--so the commies were entrenched in the USA. Why did we need to raise more unconstitutional taxes to protect unconstitutional imperial enterprizes, when the USA was in many ways just as communistic and fascistic as the "monsters" threatening our unconstitutional empire.

[headsonpikes]

While it is true that American Socialism is in the long run a much greater threat to Americans, in the short run it's the foreign totalitarians, whether Commie or Islamofascist, who are more likely to nuke NY.

I was in 6th grade when the Russians crushed the Hungarians - that's the event that awoke me to the bigger world. I'll never forget the front-page picture of Budapest kids my age hurling Molotov cocktails at the T-54s!