Jim Austin

His previous columns are archived HERE.

JIM AUSTIN

The Birth and Death of Honest Conservatism

PUTNEY, VT | If you get HBO you should tune into "Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater" produced by his granddaughter CC Goldwater. It's certainly an homage to a man who started the conservative political movement in this country.

I remember him as a man who shot from the lip to the extent that he sabotaged his own bid for the presidency in 1964. He was widely quoted as saying that the USA would be much better off if the entire East Coast was sawn off and left to float into the Atlantic.

He also scared a lot of people when he said, "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no sin." Extremism was interpreted as nuclear warfare. Sounds like a maniac, doesn't he?

He was far from it. Throughout his tenure in the Senate he remained a man of integrity. He refused to kowtow to the emerging Christian Right and said that they had no place in politics. He knew that using religion to drum up votes was immoral, if not strictly illegal. He thought that what Jerry Falwell needed was a "boot in the ass." Can you imagine any politician saying such a thing today?

Today's politician is much more likely to kiss the ass of anyone who can influence voters rather than use their boot. Goldwater flew up in my estimation in the film when, in one of his clips, he denounced those who would politicize abortion or deny the rights of homosexuals. He merely stated what was clear in the constitution; that people in this country should be free to associate with anyone they wish or have sex with any consenting adult.

He also thought abortion was between a woman and her conscience and should not be used as a political football. Instead of hiding his Jewish heritage (his father was Jewish) he would say things like,

"I went to a golf club where they wouldn't let Jews play, and I said, "I'm only half Jewish. Can I play nine holes?"

Today, the Republican Party is anything but candid on practically any subject. They have perverted and subverted until you are a traitor if you disagree with them. You are a terrorist if you don't go along with their war plans and a murderer if you believe in a woman's right to have an abortion.

If you want homosexuals to have equal rights you are a threat to the institution of marriage. The Republican hierarchy is creepy little men and women hatching plots against our freedoms from their slimy little committee rooms. Spy on the public, torture detainees, secret prisons in other countries -- no squalid filthy trick is beneath them.

To hold on to power and advance their agenda they will, and do, sacrifice our young people on the streets of Baghdad even as the citizens of that city murder each other in sectarian violence. In the name of fighting terrorism they have spawned thousands more terrorists.

They are bailing the boat with the teacup while shooting holes in the hull with a cannon.

Lately, after a long run of declining poll numbers Bush's popularity polls are starting to rise. Why is that do you suppose? He hasn't done anything different. His speeches are just as rabid defending of the indefensible.

I hate to be cynical but I do believe that it is the lowering of gas prices that have put Bush onto the road to recovery. Can that be the bellwether for the American voting public? Do we only care about how much of a bite the pump takes out of our wallets?

Let me assure you that you can never underestimate the capricious, selfish, and chronically ignorant psyche of the American voting public.

Am I saying that the American politician lives and thrives in a pit of corruption while the American voter is an imbecile? Yes, that about covers it.

The black and white images of Goldwater answering questions forthrightly without filtering his words through a phalanx of advisors is a refreshing revelation. He was a true conservative. A conservative who really believed that less government was better government.

Today's Republican says "less government" when it suits them and then taps our phones, restricts the right of women to choose, and tells gays they can't have the same rights as straights.

I remember the Goldwater campaign of '64. The country was still reeling from the assassination of John Kennedy and the Johnson campaign caught the Goldwater people off guard by introducing the use of attack ads.

Goldwater called Johnson personally, according to the show, and said he would sue Johnson if he didn't pull one particularly evil TV assault. Johnson complied.

Barry Goldwater's conservatism is as outdated as the buggy whip. Honesty and a belief in the good sense of the American voter is a thing of the past. Now we need investigative reporters to plumb the secret agendas of prevaricating politicians and the American voter, far from having the good sense to recognize their schemes, is just a retarded child ready to be manipulated by the Svengalis in Congress.