My Pick
Posted on June 26th, 2009
by Jack Ross |
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Barry Goldwater’s Conscience of a Conservative. Hard as it is to not join in the dumping on Carson Sand, having not ever read Frank Meyer George’s comment on his bad writing rings very true. And I just figured out how I could say so, which is the echo of Meyer in Conscience.
In short, however politically necessary it may have been, Conscience of a Conservative was the crucial pivot by which conservatism - and fusionism in particular - was dumbed down into the formulaic lower taxes and stronger national defense, get government off your back and enforce family values. I read Conscience when I was a teenage unsophisticated Clintonite during the 2000 election, and even then I could totally relate to it as something on the James Carville-Mary Matalin level of political discourse which was all I had advanced to at that tender age.
As for Barry himself, I was completely disillusioned of the Paul campaign wrapping itself in his mantle when they replayed his Cow Palace speech on C-SPAN the weekend before the last Republican convention, you can see for yourself, much more Harry Jaffa than Karl Hess.
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I second this pick, Jack. I thought about commenting on the original post, but realized that enough time had passed since I last read Conscience that I didn’t want to risk treating it unjustly. Now I don’t feel so bad.
I had no idea “Mozart Was a Red” had been filmed, Jack. Thanks for that.
You’re off a bit on the matter of Goldwater and Ron Paul. The Paul campaign ended well before the convention. That there was Goldwater nostalgia around the time of the Rally for the Republic, held in conjunction with the Republican convention, is down largely to Barry Goldwater Jr. being an important speaker at that event. Paul has never tried to present himself as Goldwater, and he’s been very clear about not having much in common with Goldwater’s foreign policy.
Conscience gets bogged down in 1960s policies, but it’s still the best campaign book I know of, and a pretty good primer on a certain kind of libertarian-conservatism. Leave out the foreign-policy chapter, and one could do worse. (Indeed, the Republicans have ever since.)
I was not talking about any specific event, and yes of course I understood the factor of his son’s involvement. It may have been the best campaign book ever, but that’s not saying much.
Read the book again, it’s a new release. In addition I put out a documentary call Mr. Conservative Goldwater on Goldwater and is availabl through Amazon and netfick’s Check it out