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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Jules Witcover
As the 2012
Then, as now, the air was filled with far-right conservative demands for restraints in the size and reach of government, capsulated in Goldwater's rousing call to the delegates: "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."
The Goldwater-dominated convention, mirrored today in the tea-party elements that have found a home in the
The reigning Republican hero of the day, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, visibly registered shock at the explosion of hate that flowed through the packed Cow Palace on the shores of the Pacific just south of the city. Goldwater punctuated the mood by choosing little-known but conspicuously partisan Congressman William E. Miller of upstate New York as his running mate because, he explained, "he drives Lyndon Johnson (the Democratic nominee) nuts."
To the surprise of few, Goldwater and Miller were trounced in November by the ticket of LBJ and Hubert Humphrey. But the Goldwater dream lived on in other Republican hearts, including that of Ronald Reagan. In a rousing speech endorsing Goldwater later in the campaign, he gave what proved to be the launching pad for his own political climb to the governorship of California and then the presidency.
Reagan was later credited with having almost single-handedly pulled the
Like the old rabid Barry forces who survived amid the demise of the liberal Republicanism of Nelson Rockefeller and cohorts, the newer recruits have also adopted an uncompromising style and agenda that have brought the party to its current state. More prudently, however, they cling to the safer Reagan rather than to the quirky Goldwater as their patron saint.
The man who will be nominated in Tampa, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, was widely associated with the moderate wing of the
It will open amid considerable distraction and chagrin over the inane remarks of the Republican Senate nominee in Missouri, Rep. Todd Akin, espousing the unqualified abolition of abortion even in the case of what he bumblingly called "legitimate rape." Akin so far has rejected the call of Romney and his prospective running mate, Paul Ryan, to withdraw from the
At the same time, however, the writers of the convention platform meeting in Tampa last week went ahead and adopted Akin's position on rape, if not his loony rationale, in its 2012 platform two days after he had blurted it out in a local television interview. The plank to be voted on by the convention continues the previous party position, saying "we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed."
The plank thus allows for no exception in cases of rape, though Romney himself has said he would favor that exception. The timing of the Akin embarrassment could not have been more unfortunate for a party that increasingly takes on the mantle of extremism that old Barry so proudly asserted nearly half a century ago.
AMERICAN POLITICS
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The Goldwater Legacy | Politics
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