# Barry Goldwater Barry Morris Goldwater (1909–1998) was a five-term **U.S. Senator from Arizona** (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the **1964 Republican presidential nominee** — the man whose campaign tested movement conservatism at the national level for the first time, lost in a historic landslide (486–52 in the [[Electoral College]]), and in losing **built the infrastructure that won everything afterward.** Goldwater matters for the KB at three levels: as the **prototype** for the conservative presidential candidate (the template Reagan perfected); as the **catalyst** for the conservative institutional buildout (his 1964 donor lists became the foundation of the direct-mail revolution); and as the **test case** for the relationship between movement conservatism and its JBS companion track (Goldwater's base included JBS volunteers, and the question of what to do about that association shaped the Buckley excommunication and the coalition's self-definition for fifty years). ## Background - Born January 2, 1909, in Phoenix, Arizona Territory (three years before Arizona statehood) - Family: Goldwater's department store, founded by his grandfather Michel Goldwasser, a Jewish immigrant from Poland who arrived in Arizona during the Gold Rush era. The family was one of the most prominent in Arizona; Goldwater was raised Episcopalian (his mother's faith) despite his paternal Jewish heritage - Attended Staunton Military Academy; one year at the University of Arizona before leaving to run the family business after his father's death - Served in WWII as a pilot (Air Transport Command, ferrying aircraft and supplies); remained in the [[Air Force]] Reserve, eventually reaching Major General — the highest military rank held by any major-party presidential nominee until that point - Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1952 on Eisenhower's coattails; re-elected 1958 - Chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee (1955–1956) - Married Margaret "Peggy" Johnson in 1934; divorced 1985; four children - Died May 29, 1998, in Paradise Valley, Arizona, at age 89 ## *The Conscience of a Conservative* (1960) The book that made Goldwater a national conservative figure — and one of the most consequential political books of the 20th century. In reality, the book was **ghostwritten by [[L. Brent Bozell Jr.]]** (William F. Buckley Jr.'s brother-in-law) and published through **[[Clarence Manion]]'s** Victor Publishing Company. Manion, a former Notre Dame Law School dean and conservative radio broadcaster, arranged the publication and distribution, partly through JBS-adjacent chapter networks. The book sold 3.5 million copies and laid out the movement-conservative position on every major issue: limited government, states' rights, anti-communism, opposition to the [[New Deal]] regulatory state, and the primacy of individual liberty. Its famous formulation — "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice... moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue" (from Goldwater's 1964 acceptance speech, not the book, but the same intellectual tradition) — became the movement's rallying cry. The book's publishing pipeline — ghostwritten by a Buckley-circle intellectual, published by a Manion-circle broadcaster, distributed through JBS-adjacent networks — illustrates the **entanglement** between the respectable and conspiratorial wings of the right that Buckley was simultaneously trying to manage. ## The 1964 Campaign Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign was the foundational event of modern movement conservatism: **The nomination fight:** Goldwater defeated New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller (the liberal-Republican establishment candidate) in a bitter primary that split the party along ideological lines. The Goldwater delegate operation — organized by F. Clifton White and staffed significantly by [[Young Americans for Freedom]] volunteers and JBS-adjacent activists — demonstrated that the conservative grassroots could outvote the establishment in a caucus-and-convention system. This was the first time the movement's organizational infrastructure was tested at national scale. **The general election:** Goldwater lost to Lyndon Johnson in one of the most lopsided elections in American history — 61.1% to 38.5%, 486 to 52 in the Electoral College. Goldwater carried only his home state of Arizona and five Deep South states (the first time those states had voted Republican since Reconstruction, a harbinger of the partisan realignment to come). **Why the loss mattered more than the loss:** The 1964 campaign produced three lasting consequences that ultimately outweighed the defeat: 1. **The donor list.** Goldwater's campaign pioneered **small-dollar direct-mail fundraising** at national scale, building a list of hundreds of thousands of conservative donors. [[Richard Viguerie]] obtained this mailing list after the election and used it as the foundation of the direct-mail revolution that funded the entire [[New Right]] infrastructure of the 1970s — [[Heritage Foundation]], [[Moral Majority]], Conservative Caucus, and dozens of other organizations. 2. **The volunteer army.** The 3.5 million Goldwater primary voters and the tens of thousands of campaign volunteers constituted a **trained cadre** of conservative activists who went on to staff every conservative institution of the next three decades. The Reagan campaigns, the Moral Majority, the Heritage Foundation, YAF, the ACU — all drew personnel from the 1964 Goldwater army. 3. **The Southern realignment.** Goldwater's five Deep South states demonstrated that a conservative Republican could break the Democrats' Solid South — the realization that eventually produced Nixon's [[Southern Strategy]], Reagan's 1980 Southern sweep, and the permanent Republican capture of the former Confederacy. ## The JBS Problem Goldwater's relationship with the [[John Birch Society]] is the defining case study in movement conservatism's relationship with its conspiratorial base: - Goldwater was **not a Bircher** — he was a Buckley-faction Western libertarian who rejected Welch's conspiracy theories - But a significant share of his **volunteer base** was drawn from JBS chapters and JBS-adjacent networks - Goldwater initially resisted Buckley's pressure to denounce Welch, telling Buckley privately that he couldn't afford to alienate "some of his best workers" - Eventually Goldwater was persuaded to distance himself from the Society while retaining individual JBS members as volunteers — the **"we don't reject the members, we reject the leadership"** formula that Buckley's 1962 editorial also employed This compromise — distance from the leadership, acceptance of the base — was the structural formula that held the coalition together for fifty years. It was also the formula that collapsed in 2016, when the base stopped accepting the leadership's polite distance from its own beliefs. ## Later Career Goldwater returned to the Senate in 1968 and served until 1987. His later career was marked by increasingly **libertarian** positions that put him at odds with the Religious Right wing of the coalition he had helped create: - Supported abortion rights and reproductive freedom - Supported gay rights, including gays serving in the military (famously saying "you don't have to be straight to shoot straight") - Criticized the Religious Right, particularly [[Jerry Falwell]], saying: "Every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass" - Supported the medical use of marijuana - Grew critical of the conservative movement's social-conservative turn These positions make Goldwater a complicated figure for the contemporary right. The man who launched movement conservatism as a national political force ended his career opposing the religious-right wing that movement conservatism had incorporated. His libertarianism was genuine and consistent — which means it eventually conflicted with the coalition he had helped build. ## Notable Quotes - [[Barry Goldwater - extremism in defense of liberty]] — 1964 RNC acceptance speech. The hinge line marking movement conservatism's capture of the GOP and its embrace of ideological purity over moderation. ## See Also - [[William F. Buckley Jr.]] — The intellectual architect whose coalition Goldwater's campaign tested at scale - [[Clarence Manion]] — The broadcaster who published *Conscience of a Conservative* and helped build Goldwater's early network - [[Richard Viguerie]] — The direct-mail pioneer who used the Goldwater donor list to fund the New Right - [[Ronald Reagan]] — The candidate who perfected the Goldwater formula and won - [[Young Americans for Freedom]] — The youth organization that staffed the Goldwater campaign - [[American Conservative Union]] — The organization founded in Goldwater's aftermath - [[Movement Conservatism]] — The coalition Goldwater's campaign built the infrastructure for - [[Old Right Ecosystem]] — The JBS companion track whose volunteers staffed Goldwater's army