Barry Goldwater was "Mr. Republican to many members of the party in the early 1960s. The conservative wing of the party had complained for years that they had been overlooked, starting the Thomas E. Dewey who ran and lost in 1944 and 1948. Eisenhower had won elections, but they did not view him as a true conservative. Goldwater got his shot in 1964, but it didn't come easily. The liberal wing of the party, led by New York Governor, Nelson Rockefeller, bitterly opposed Goldwater. I remember the night in 1964 at the Republican convention when Rockefeller spoke to a chorus boos. He described the nomination of Goldwater as a takeover by forces that were alien to Republicanism. Goldwater lost in a landslide to Lyndon Johnson. Despite that, his buttons were colorful and featured many get slogans. One Goldwater slogan was "In your heart you know he's right." One billboard in Atlantic City New Jersey featured that slogan. The Democrats paid of a sign that went under it which read, "Yes, extreme right." A less tactful response was, "In your guts you know he's nuts. That button, in red, is shown at the bottom of this case. It has long been favorite piece. It often brings more than $400 in political items auctions. And in an effort to please both sides, here is the Johnson box.
That is understandable. Before this point, the Republican Party was the party of New York and the Northeast states. This precipitated in a radical repolarization and reorientation of the parties, which culminated in Nixon winning in the next election. (It could be argued it really started with Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, when the Democratic Party began taking off in a different direction, which allowed Goldwater, and then Nixon, to begin making some inroads to appeal to the South) Why wasn't Goldwater able to win the election? Two reasons. First, Kennedy's recent assassination engendered lots of sympathy and popularity for Lyndon B. Johnson, who was seen as Kennedy's successor. And then Goldwater was a little bit too Libertarian and in favor of limiting government's role, at a time when many Americans still had recent memory of the Great Depression. Goldwater was also anti-communist to the point of openly stating in his book that America should not be afraid to risk World War III to win the cold war. This was heavily exploited by LBJ, quite hypocritically, considering LBJ's love for warmongering - but it worked.
One of my favorite Goldwater quotes “Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.” Turns out that he was absolutely correct.
That would be 1981-1993 under the presidencies of Reagan and Bush (Sr). The influence of Evangelical Christians on politics was waning by the time of George Bush (Jr's) second term. In my opinion I think the 2007 Recession pretty much marked the end. It still had some symbolic influence by the time of Trump's election (2016 ) but by then it was clear its influence was weak, almost completely overridden by other political concerns. If you look at the demographic statistics in society, the Evangelicals have suffered a greater decline than any other major Christian group. Pretty much the last two political issues that Evangelicals still have any influence at all over is support for Israel and abortion (and the last is only in a few states). So I would say that even though you could say that Goldwater's prediction was correct, that era of time that he predicted in politics is mostly over. If you want to talk about the main group who "won't compromise", that's mostly on the progressive Left side these days. Goldwater had Jewish descent, was raised Episcopalian, but likely was atheist-leaning.
Texas sued to prevent a woman with a non viable fetus from getting an abortion....don't tell me that the the evangelicals political power is waning.
I am no fan of the extreme religious right, but they are part of the GOP. I would hope that you are no fan of the antisemitic left, but they are part of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. When there are only two parties, there will be elements within the group you don’t like. If they become too dominant, you have to oppose them or leave.
The two are not remotely related. There are anti semitic people on the left and on the right. The the religious fundamentalists are a right wing issue. The mainstream right wing embraces the religious fundamentalists. You don't see main stream Democratic lawmakers/politicians advocating for antisemitic laws, or passing antisemitic laws. You DO see main stream Republican lawmakers/politicians advocating for anti science laws, anti gay laws, anti abortion laws, anti transgender laws most often in the name of right wing Christian fundametalism.
I was in High School in 1964, too young to vote. Back then you had to be 21. But I backed Barry. Goldwater knew and I came to realize that after JFK assassination, no republicans could ever defeat LBJ. The 1964 election was less than a year after JFK death. The country wasn’t ready to change presidents again in that short of time. After JFK’s death, Goldwater toyed with withdrawing from the presidential race. But continued as he thought he owed all his voters and supporters that. As for my politics, I have always said I was a Goldwater conservative with some of Ross Perot thrown in. More of a traditional conservative. Not to be confused with today’s conservatism if conservatism is the right word. Not a religious or social conservative or a neo-conservative or any other type of conservatism which I consider anathema to traditional conservatism or perhaps, Goldwater’s conservatism. Goldwater was once known as the father of conservatism, but most of today’s conservatives view him more as a libertarian than a conservative.
The Democrats have a long association with Jewish people. Jews were at the forefront of the civil rights movement, and bigotry from religious fundamentalists and stereotypes about them, sadly from the general population, pushed them toward the Democratic Party. That will change if more than a few young Democrats support Muslin bigots like Omar and Tlaib. AOC lent her support to them despite the large Jewish voting block in the New York City area.
It probably goes back to the progressive policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Depression, and then Truman due to his position of supporting Israel. Eisenhower was a brief exception, being elected from the Republican Party platform. But many would say that the real turning point was John F. Kennedy, since he came from a Catholic background, which was seen as outside the mainstream traditional norm, and since he was progressive. We can see that in the elections between 1932 and 1964, the candidate who ended up winning happened to be those who were favored by the majority of Jews, with the exception of Eisenhower, who was a Republican. But Eisenhower was still able to get 36 and then 40% of the Jewish vote, which was impressive.
Yea, they are all mine plus many, many more from elections starting at 1824. Before that, the right to vote was limited to White Male property owners. Andrew Jackson, who first ran in 1824, saw that and issued campaign tokens during his run for president that year. You are free to condemn The United States for not expanding voting rights. When you study history, you learn that freedom is an ever expanding process, unless the progressives / Marxists / fascists gain control. My articles have been published in many venues. Not bad for a knuckle dragging conservative.
