Barry Goldwater and His Philosophy

I first published this in 2007, but I decided to haul it out of the archives and to add a "Word History" to it, since I did not always include a "Word History" with every article back then. In these times of such terrible political division in America, the Goldwater-Humphrey relationship of a bygone era is important to recall. Further, Barry Goldwater would NEVER have allowed himself to be tied to the agendas of Grover Norquist,* the NRA,** or to certain so called religious groups, that seem anything but religious. I cannot imagine Goldwater signing pledges and vowing to never deviate from "their" demands, if those demands were not in the best interests of the overall country. Nor would Goldwater have proposed or endorsed ideas, only to change positions simply because a Democratic president supported those same ideas.

* Grover Norquist is the head of "Americans for Tax Reform," a cleverly disguised name, intended I'm sure, to confuse the public about the group's real intention; the continued redistribution of income from the poor and middle class to the wealthiest Americans.

** The National Rifle Association, often called "the most powerful lobby in America," and a group that has become so extreme, that if someone proposed restrictions on individuals owning a 150 mm cannon and placing it in their back yard, they would claim it to be unconstitutional. So we now have Americans legally walking around with assault weapons and being able to carry concealed weapons into bars and restaurants in Ohio. Since we've returned to the "Wild West," we need a Marshal Dillon to clean up the mess. No, restrictions on certain weapons won't stop all killings, but it might stop some, and remember, the lives saved might be yours or your loved ones. Think about it.

The article is below.

Sunday August 5, 2007

I was watching a program on C-Span about Barry Goldwater. For those of you who don't know that name, Goldwater was a long time Republican senator from Arizona and the Republican nominee for President in 1964. He lost that election to Lyndon Johnson in a landslide. Goldwater was a conservative, but he was kind of a libertarian on some issues. Just for the record, I liked Barry Goldwater, and I'll tell you why. When people asked him a question, he didn't have to stop and think about what his political adviser told him to say,  nor did he have to recall what the latest polls showed on the subject at hand. He gave an answer. That answer might not have been politically correct, but he gave an answer from his own beliefs. He was not a phony. His language was a bit "crusty," especially for those times, when the list of "no-no words" was much longer than it is today. And, it should be noted, he didn't always save his criticisms for Democrats, but some Republicans were also recipients of his sharp barbs. It was Goldwater who led a Republican group to the White House in August of 1974 to tell President Richard Nixon that he had to resign for the good of the country. At some later point, if I remember correctly, Goldwater referred to Nixon as "a lying s-of a-!"

Now, if you noticed, I said I liked Barry Goldwater. I didn't say I agreed with him on many things, but I liked him in the sense that I respected him. I recall reading many years ago, that Goldwater and Hubert Humphrey were great friends. Humphrey was a Democratic senator from Minnesota, who had also served as vice president under Lyndon Johnson. He was a liberal, to keep the terms simple. You would have thought that these two men would have been like oil and water with their different political views, but they were friends and they respected one another. They did battle on the field of politics, but at day's end, they went to dinner together.

Many years ago, when C-Span had just recently started, there was a political cartoonist on the air one day. I can't recall his name, but he was well known in those times, and I believe he had just retired. He was famous for his satirical cartoons and for skewering politicians from both political parties. The interviewer commented about such, and then asked him if, in all of his years as a political cartoonist, he'd ever known a truthful politician. He answered that he could name two, Edmund Muskie and Barry Goldwater. If I remember right, he said that while he didn't particularly agree with Goldwater on many things, he had respect for him.

To me, Goldwater was trying to hold onto a world that no longer existed in the aggregate, as it had prior to the Great Depression. He was a bold critic of New Deal programs and of government programs in general. As is sometimes said, everything has a purpose, and we need the Barry Goldwaters of the world too. Without them, the opposite point of view would run amok. It's all about some kind of balance. So we have this clash of ideas and philosophies. Neither side completely wins in America (or at least hasn't), and even highly popular FDR had his problems when the public felt he was going too far. The congressional elections of 1938 saw the Republicans come roaring back from the pit of political exile. Part of the reason why was, Roosevelt made an effort to purge critics from his own party, and even more, he attempted to pack the Supreme Court so that his programs would go unchallenged. Americans saw all of this, and they didn't like it.  They liked FDR, but they let him know enough was enough.

Goldwater was sort of the "John Wayne" of American politics of the 1960s and 1970s, and in fact, Wayne strongly supported Goldwater's presidential bid in 1964. He wanted us to stand on our own, and if we fell down, to get up, dust ourselves off and keep going. That's an admirable philosophy, but people need help at times, and in my opinion, that help can sometimes only come from government at some level, and on that point, I have to distance myself from Goldwater. Call me a liberal, or what ever you want to call me, I can take it, I have broad shoulders. In an ideal world Goldwater would have been right, but we don't live in an ideal world. Reality can be harsh, and often is. Government has a role in trying to help people to get back on their feet and to get them back into the game of life.

So Barry, I salute you for your blunt honesty and integrity, things we sorely miss in our current era. I appreciate your philosophy, even while I don't totally agree with it.

WORD HISTORY:

Arm-This is the now generally obsolete adjective^ meaning "poor," which was gradually overtaken and replaced by the word "poor" beginning in the 1200s. It goes back to Indo European "orbh," and the variant "orhm," the meaning of which seems to have varied from "ill and destitute," to "abandoned." This gave Old Germanic "arma," with the same varied meanings. This then gave Old English "earm," which later became "arm." Common throughout the other Germanic languages: German, Low German Saxon, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian all have "arm," with the meaning "poor." West Frisian has "earm," the same spelling as the Old English word, and Icelandic has "armur."

^ It is still used in some dialects in the United Kingdom.