A Conservative I Respect
I watched the HBO documentary on Goldwater last night and I have to admit to myself that I have always respected the guy, the man who started the modern Conservative movement sure as hell wouldn't recognize it today though. Despite the fact that Goldwater was hawkish to the extreme, he couldn't have done much worse in Vietnam than LBJ, but Johnson did a brave thing by signing the Civil Rights Act which to Goldwaters shame he did not support but to his credit, Goldwater was against the religious right, he despised Falwell and even at one time said he would kick his ass! Not many in the GOP would say that today. He was pro choice, and in his last term in the Senate came out for gays in the military, he was pro 2nd amendment, and had a strong libertarian Western self reliant bent. Hell thats a Republican that I can respect. He was nuts and scary with all of his nuke talk in the 60's but as he aged I think he came about, I wish for the sake of the country that more Republicans would use him as a model for Conservatism and give a big FU to the religious nutters that have a stranglehold on that party today.
posted by Elvez73 at 5:38 PM
6 Comments:
Thanks for posting this. The guy truly was more than a few cuts above the crap his party calls "leadership" nowadays. Can you imagine what he would have thought about the Terri Schiavo fiasco and the way in which the GOP responded in an exagerrated way that must have been meant to kowtow to the Christian fundamentalists? Eeeek!!! And they way Bush spends? Barry must be rolling in his grave. As Nietszche said, "The last Christian died on the cross." In that vein, I would say, "The first and last true modern conservative politician was Goldwater."
Great comment, I had forgotten that Nietszche quote, I truly do not have much of a problem with my friends of the Non fundamentalist conservative ilk. Well we disagree on tax cuts for millionaires etc, but they are thinking reasoned folks for the most part, the religious right conservatives are so wacked out that you cannot talk sense to them, they are doing god's work and there is no room for compromise. Scary bunch.
I agree. Goldwater had his faults but at least he was a true, consistent conservative.
Did you happen to watch Real Time with Bill Maher last night? He interviewed his grandaughter (the person who made the film).
I usually catch Maher, but I missed him last night, I will have to see if it is on demand on my cable. Maher is always interesting, but it seems like this season he hasn't been able to attract many conservatives, I think they are deathly afraid of his format, because if he has even one halfway intelligent liberal on the panel the right winger always looks stupid, that and the fact that the rats are deserting the W ship as we speak.
Is Maher still on HBO? I so wish we could watch his program. I used to love "Politically Incorrect", especially when he would get Anne Coulter on the show and make her look like an absolute stark raving idiot (not that she needs much help to look that way, in my opinion.)
At least we get Comedy Central... I don't know what I would do some evenings without the Colbert Report and Jon Stewart. Maybe get housework done? Nah, better to watch TV!
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