What Did Barry Goldwater Leave Us?
The Libertarianism of ‘Mr. Conservative’ and its Place in America’s Political Future
Known as “Mr. Conservative,” Barry Goldwater played a pivotal role in convincing President Nixon to resign in 1974 and in reorganizing the Pentagon in 1986. But even more than what he did, there’s what he said: According to William F. Buckley Jr., Goldwater was a “crystallizer” who helped translate conservative ideas in simple and effective terms.
Indeed the power of Goldwater’s words figured prominently in his 1998 New York Times obituary, which described him as “recklessly candid”—a five-term U.S. Senator who “rarely engaged in understatement,” whether decrying the impact of the …
