Early in his career, he was a staunch supporter of the military but not so much towards the end of his career.
Ronald Reagan gave Goldwater magnificent support in 1964. Goldwater participated in shameful attacks on Reagan in 1976, asking California primary voters whether they really wanted Reagan's finger on the nuclear button (the very attack made on Goldwater in 1964 by LBJ). He did this in support of Establishment RINO Gerald Ford who never met a principle that he would not abandon in service to the Wall Street trust fund babies.
Goldwater was NEVER a social issue conservative. He was publicly supportive of homosexuals and their behavior, and bragged of taking a daughter or grand daughter for an abortion and that anyone who did not like it could kiss his backside. Those unrepented stands alone would mark him as a social revolutionary. His first wife, Peggy, was a long-time Planned Barrenhood activist, founding an Arizona affiliate in 1937 and serving until her death in 1985. I believe she was a national director for most of that time.
Goldwater was not a patch on Ronaldus Maximus's backside. Where Reagan made mistakes, he had the integrity to own up to it. RR signed a permissive abortion bill as governor BUT conceded promptly that it was a mistake to have done so, petitioned unsuccessfully for a ballot question to reverse the legislation, and, as POTUS, wrote a pro-life book and addressed the annual Pro-Life March by telephone hookup every year. By contrast, Goldwater got worse as he grew older.
The Conscience of a Conservative was actually written by Brent Bozell who was no social revolutionary and is indeed well worth reading. Phyllis Schlafly has her own, far more admirable place in conservative movement history than does Goldwater. She is well worth reading in her own right. That she wrote A Choice not an Echo does not cleanse Goldwater's sins and particularly not those then yet to be committed.
Added to each conservative's reading list should be The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich von Hayek, everything by Ludwig von Mises, and, for Catholics, anything by the late Fr. Malachi Martin. Also James I. Robertson's Stonewall, one of the very best biographies ever written.
Thanks.
Hmmm. I knew that Goldwater turned (further?) left, in his later years, but I’d never heard most of these other things. Especially about his wife and the abortion issue(s). Very enlightening. Thanks.
Barry Goldwater was never the conservative that people imagined him to be and he got worse as he grew older.
One minor quibble (which has nothing to do with your thesis). The Conscience of a Conservative was actually written by Brent Bozell.... It was always my understanding it was written by one of his speechwriters, and Libertarian activist, Karl Hess. But you may be right. No biggie.
My very first vote for President was for Goldwater while sitting on a foot locker at FT Hood, TX. I voted for him because I thought he believed in the principles outlined in Conscience.... Pity he never really did.