New York Sun columnist John Avlon looks at the lingering question: if conservative icon Barry Goldwater was alive would he recognize conservativism today and be considered a “real” Republican?
It’s a question that might have been considered sacrilegious even a decade ago. But as the Republican Party searches for its soul, post-Tom DeLay and in advance of the 2006 and 2008 elections, it is a question worth contemplating.
Because there are plenty of reasons to suggest that the godfather of the modern conservative movement would find the current Republican Party an inhospitable place. And that says a lot about the drift of the Republican Party toward the big-government religious right and away from its libertarian roots.
He goes on to cite a host of indications that Goldwater, in fact, wouldn’t be accepted a “real” Republican by some in his party (certainly many of the conservative talk show hosts don’t sound anything like Goldwater).
Goldwater’s libertarian instincts would make him considered liberal by current Republican Party powerbrokers. This, in turn, raises questions about the role and influence of libertarians in the party that so many previously considered their natural home.
But it’s the conclusion to his piece that’s so haunting — and, most likely, highly accurate:
Clearly, fault lines exist. Traveling across the country, I continue to be struck by the number of Republicans who now feel alienated from their party. One such voice belonged to Jeanne Ralston of Clay County, Mo., whom I met on the 2004 campaign trail. A self-described “William F. Buckley groupie in college,” she was similarly inspired by Goldwater at the time. But when I interviewed her in 2004, she was sounding like a spurned lover. “I’m a Republican because I want less government in my life,” she said. “Now they want to come into my house and tell me whether or not I can have an abortion. I call that government interference at the highest level. Some people say I’m leaving the party, but the party’s left me with this radical right-wing agenda.”
Consciously or not, Ms. Ralston echoed the words of Ronald Reagan in 1964, when he left the Democratic Party, inspired by the libertarian common sense of Goldwater’s campaign. It is not too late to heal such a rupture, but as the party enters a debate about its future direction, those who seek to define the party by hunting for heretics – whether by attacking Bill Weld’s candidacy for governor in New York or dismissing possible presidential campaigns by John McCain or Rudy Giuliani on the grounds that they are too “liberal” on one or two issues – ought to be restrained by the recognition that Barry Goldwater would not meet their litmus test. When a founder of a movement is seen as a heretic by hard-line true believers, history tells us that it can spur a serious crisis of faith.
McCain? Deep down inside you know he can’t be trusted. Giuliani? On abortion and other issues he can’t be trusted. So to many McCain (perhaps less so these days), Giuliani and Goldwater would be considered RINOS. But perhaps they are something a bit different: WOs (wise owls).
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.