Sorry, but Reagan was the great evil maestro of the 80s- om this side of the Atlantic.

But if it were not for Dean, we would never have known of Nixon’s involvement in Watergate. Others from that scandal and from Iran-Contra have rehabilitated their careers and no one even brings their prior crimes up-Gordon Liddy , Oliver North, Admiral Poindexter, Elliot Abrams, Caspar Weinberger, etc.

Really Reagan was as guilty as Nixon, but the stonewall held and the public was disinterested , so the Teflon President never was held accountable. Can you imagine in this day and age a president selling arms to Iran? If a Democrat did that there would have been charges of high treason.

Thus, for the American Conservative, there is no difficulty in identifying the day’s overriding political challenge: it is to preserve and extend freedom.

While I think Goldwater might have been correct on one point of policy or another, this isn’t an answer. It throws us back to Hobbes and Locke and the idea of the social contract which creates government. The question for democratic governments is not simply freedom or no freedom, but whose freedom.

Do companies have the freedom to dispose of waste harmful to people? Or do people have the freedom to live in an environment as free as possible from polutants?

Do people have the freedom to place international phone calls without fear of being recorded? Or do people have the freedom to live in the state with less fear of being the victim of an international terrorist conspiracy?

Such choices are the toughest for governments to make, and there is no real way to “maximize freedom” because it is something close to a zero sum game. Ever time you protect one persons freedom, you inevitably limit someone elses. This does not mean that there is not a right way to draw that line, but simply looking to freedom alone cannot find you that answer most of the time.

The Source for Goldwater, WFB, Reagan, et.al.: Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind

http://www.amazon.com/Conservative-Mind-Burke-Eliot/dp/0895261715

Burke is the touchstone, Santanyana makes an appearance, as does Coleridge. The book is very dangerous, you will not find it on the shelf of any poli-sci faculty in America.

Re: Dean. Consider the source. His self-rehab campaign began very shortly after Nixon died, fortunately Dean’s complicity didn’t go to the grave with Dick. Expiation for the sins of the father (and son).

“Permanent majority?” Golly, like the Democrats wouldn’t love getting theirs (1932-1994) back? They’re on track to win the Pres, so good liberals will be voting for Fred Thompson, I presume, in 2008. “Authoritarian?” A very unserious, ahistorical meme. A racist meme as well (”It’s the Joooooozzzzz, oh wait can’t say that, ok, it’s the Christianzzzzzz”)

Cosmo: In what party were the mayors of those cities? (nb: I’m from Boston, a tough part.) What was the majority party in Congress? (see above)

.. or so the traffic controllers think.

When did you read it if I may ask and… did it influence you a lot?

Ronald Reagan is widely considered to be the heir to Barry Goldwater, dating back to the famous speech he made at the Republican Convention the year Goldwater ran for president. Goldwater stressed the need for smaller government, a sentiment that Reagan also agreed with at the time, despite his prior history as a New Deal Democrat…

And then what did Reagan do as president. He expanded the power of government. He ramped up the War on (some) Drugs. He (along with a Democratic-controlled House and a Republican-controled Senate) drove up deficits. He vastly expanded Social Security. He didn’t abolish a single cabinet (as he had promised to do), and in fact added one (Dept. of Veterans Affairs).

Conservative Republicans praise Reagan as being an icon of American conservatism. But the fact of the matter is that under Reagan, conservatism abandoned the smaller government “libertarian� definition that Goldwater had believed in (and Reagan had espoused during his campaign).

Very good points, and I do not consider Reagan to be the heir of Goldwater in that regard: I do consider him as the heir in so far that he ran on many policies favored by Goldwater and by the simple fact that without Goldwater, Reagan would not have become President. Also: his stance re. the Soviet Union was of course very Goldwaterish.

Modern-day conservatism is no longer defined by the ideals espoused by Goldwater. The Goldwater wing of the Republican Party displaced the more liberal Rockefeller wing, only to see itself quickly displaced by the neoconservative and social conservatives–many of whom were former Democrats.

You are again right. Goldwater fought against the Rockefeller wing (what we could call more centrist nowadays) and, after that happened, neo and social conservatives took over, while Goldwater opposed that development very strongly.

Quite ironic of course.

Currentlt The Conscience of a Conservative is being used as toiletpaper by the GOP, and it started with Regan whom Goldwater came to dislike greatly.

Ronald Reagan is widely considered to be the heir to Barry Goldwater, dating back to the famous speech he made at the Republican Convention the year Goldwater ran for president. Goldwater stressed the need for smaller government, a sentiment that Reagan also agreed with at the time, despite his prior history as a New Deal Democrat.

Then when Reagan ran for president in 1976 and particularly in 1980, Reagan made the smaller government message the central theme of his campaign. In fact, Reagan more or less campaigned on libertarianism, giving his famous quip, “Government isn’t the solution to the problem. Government is the problem.”

And then what did Reagan do as president. He expanded the power of government. He ramped up the War on (some) Drugs. He (along with a Democratic-controlled House and a Republican-controled Senate) drove up deficits. He vastly expanded Social Security. He didn’t abolish a single cabinet (as he had promised to do), and in fact added one (Dept. of Veterans Affairs).

Conservative Republicans praise Reagan as being an icon of American conservatism. But the fact of the matter is that under Reagan, conservatism abandoned the smaller government “libertarian” definition that Goldwater had believed in (and Reagan had espoused during his campaign).

I doubt that Goldwater would still be welcomed in the Republican Party if he were still alive today. Goldwater had an acrimonious relationship with the Religious Right and was concerned that its growing influence over his party would undermine the push for smaller government.

Sadly, he was right.

Modern-day conservatism is no longer defined by the ideals espoused by Goldwater. The Goldwater wing of the Republican Party displaced the more liberal Rockefeller wing, only to see itself quickly displaced by the neoconservative and social conservatives–many of whom were former Democrats.