A dim-but-important anniversary in the history of the Republican Party was not observed and barely mentioned during its national convention last week: July 16, 1964, when Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater led his fellow conservatives to triumph over the moderate GOP "establishment" they had long battled and accepted their nomination for president, declaring: "I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."
Some who recall those words say they are most appropriate today in the Republican Party of Donald Trump.
Others say that the "extremism" of which Goldwater was accused — notably an aggressive stand for liberty in the world and smaller government at home — have been reduced to the point of being invisible in the Trumpian party platform of 2024.
But Goldwater’s words about extremism were strong medicine. Speechwriter Karl Hess sculpted the acceptance speech, but the two sentences about extremism and moderation came from another source: conservative scholar and Claremont University professor Harry Jaffa, who in 1996 showed me a note from Goldwater thanking him for the memorable phrase.
Jaffa and others have noted that the concept of "extremism in the defense of liberty" has been sounded by others from the ancient Greeks to novelist Taylor Caldwell.
Some historians and biographies say that the downhill trek for Goldwater that ended with him carrying five southern states and his home state of Arizona — not to mention a record low of the popular vote (37 percent) for a major party nominee — began with those words. They were also part of the reason moderates such as Govs. Nelson Rockefeller of New York and George Romney of Michigan shunned their nominee.
But Goldwater also got the last laugh. His fervent backers on the right took over many state and local GOP organizations. A California delegate to the San Francisco convention, actor Ronald Reagan, made a nationally-televised and very powerful speech for Goldwater in October of ’64 entitled "A Time for Choosing."
It was the most successful fund-raising event deployed by the Goldwater campaign and two years later, Reagan was elected governor of California in a landslide.
The rest, as they say, is history.
As for the "extremism" speech, memories are still strong among conservatives who were around then.
"I only wish I was there for it," Rep. Joe Wilson, R.-S.C. told Newsmax last week during the Milwaukee convention, but quickly added that, as a teenager, he did make it to the "Draft Goldwater" rally in Washington, D.C., in 1963 and met actors Chill Wills, William Lundigan, and Walter Brennan — all fervent backers of the Arizonan.
"Goldwater’s words were fine with me," recalled Tom Winter, co-owner of the national conservative weekly Human Events for a quarter century. Winter also noted that at the time he heard the nominee’s words, he was with Bill Schulz (future executive editor of Reader’s Digest) and "we cheered the way Goldwater took a shot at the moderate 'wets.'"
Winter’s partner at Human Events, Allan Ryskind, told us "I was with my Dad (screenwriter Morrie Ryskind) at his hotel in San Francisco and we watched Goldwater on television deliver his speech. I later went to the convention floor and ran into (Conservative Book Club owner) Neil McCaffrey, who told me those words would be used against Goldwater. They were."
Trump, said Ryskind, "is in the same position Goldwater was. The party establishment won’t support him and his words are used against him."
(I worked for Human Events from 1979 through 2013 and Ryskind and Winter were my bosses).
Trump has said much — if not more — that is as controversial as Goldwater hailing extremism in the defense of liberty.
As a genuine political outsider, he is, in many ways, more removed from the GOP establishment than the Arizona senator was in his day. But the party’s establishment is a pale version of what it was in 1964. Trump’s adherents have increasingly taken over the state and national party apparatus. Such erstwhile establishment powers as George W. Bush and his brother Jeb, former House Speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan, and 2012 nominee Mitt Romney (who still fiercely defends father George’s refusal to back Goldwater in ’64) are now out of power and were absent from the convention that nominated Trump.
The Republican Party is essentially a more populist party and, for the most part, passionately committed to Trump.
Does the Republican Party today embody "extremism in the defense of liberty?"
Where the platform on which Goldwater ran condemned the Democratic Administration for "a violent thrust [of] Federal power into the free market," Trump and the current platform strongly favor tariffs. The 1964 platform called on America to "advance freedom throughout the world as a vital condition of orderly human progress, universal justice, and the security of the American people."
The present platform mentions next-to-nothing on U.S. involvement abroad, notably in Ukraine. In 1964, Goldwater and the Republicans regarded "NATO as indispensable for the prevention of war and the protection of freedom."
In 2024, NATO is mentioned by Trump and most Republicans only in terms of getting its members to increase their dues and pay them.
"Party activists today would probably echo Goldwater’s words about extremism in the defense of liberty, but they now have a radically different meaning," Henry Olson, author of the much-praised book "The Working-Class Republican," told Newsmax, "This is no longer the party, or the conservative movement, that prioritizes repealing laws over government action to protect livelihoods or traditional values. It seems as though the Republican activist today is very much into extreme action to protect American values, which they would easily define as their liberties. It's just not directed against the welfare state per se as in 1964."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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