Barry M. Goldwater

Barry M. Goldwater

Barry M. Goldwater was born on January 3rd, 1969. Barry passed away January 3rd, 1987 at 17 years old. Barry M. Goldwater was born in Arizona.

Barry M. Goldwater was an American politician who served as a senator and was a 1964 presidential nominee. He also served as a major general in the Air Force Reserve and as a writer, with over a dozen books to his name.

His book The Conscience of a Conservative was an important reference in conservative politics. If, as Oscar Wilde reckoned, homosexuality is the “love that doesn’t dare speak its name,” then we can say that Conservatism is the “political ideology that doesn’t speak the truth.” The idea is that liberals often share messages that sound comforting but may not always match reality. At the root of liberal’s political ideology are a series of fictions like all people are equal and the differences that arise in terms of intelligence or our abilities is as a result of external conditions that governments can fix and all problems both domestic and international can be fixed by government since we all have each other’s interests at heart only that we often require a bit of push to realize it.

On the other hand, Conservatism is based on a series of ugly truths derived from hard experience: that our natural state is mainly competition and not cooperation, and that because the nature of competition is so brutal, men reluctantly give up a part of their freedom to create a government that protects them from one another. Another ideology of the conservative is that governments, both domestic and international,l are the biggest threat to man, as these governments always try to find new ways to control human behaviour.

But while conservative academics are very open, you will rarely hear conservative politicians talk of their ideas in a simple, plain fashion. Their speeches are mostly dressed up in warm, soft language.

However, on rare occasions, especially during a major crisis, some leaders present conservative ideas in a very direct way. Some examples include Herbert Hoover after his presidency and George S. Patton during the Second World War. But most of these leaders were either destroyed or denied the chance to exercise real power by either power brokers or voters.
Its only against this backdrop that we must consider Goldwater’s famous book The Conscience of a Conservative. And once we understand such circumstances, can we appreciate how important the book was? It’s probably one of the most influential works of ideology ever published.

But Goldwater’s main agenda is freedom. His main observation of human nature is diversity. We are all unique, and it’s each person's responsibility to realize their full potential. When the government exercises control, it should do so at the most basic level possible.

According to Goldwater, politics is the art of achieving maximum freedom for people while maintaining an orderly and stable society. In modern times, Goldwater’s views would likely be viewed as more libertarian than traditionally conservative.

Even though Goldwater never won the presidential election, he succeeded in what George Will terms as “speculative creative failure”. The conservatives gained strong control of the Republican Party, leading to some policy successes. For example, the income tax rate dropped, the Cold War ended, and welfare programs were amended.

But despite all these achievements, the conservative style associated with Barry Goldwater has again moved to the margins of the party and no longer exerts the same level of influence.

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1. Stephen King, author of The Dark Tower Series.
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5. Walter Isaacson, author of: Steve Jobs.

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