“After the last eight years, there’s a lot of clean up do”

Posted on | October 23, 2008 | Comments Off

Interesting article passed by me this morning. It was written by CC Goldwater, the granddaughter of Barry Goldwater. The Goldwaters are long-time conservatives and hardcore Republicans.

Barry Goldwater was the 5 term Senator from Arizona and candidate for the presidency who died in 1998. He can be described as the original maverick in some ways – the maverick both McCain and Palin are claiming to be. They should read up a bit on Goldwater and understand what a maverick really is. You never had to interpret what Goldwater said and I suppose that is why he got into so much trouble. I didn’t agree with his beliefs on a number of issues; however, I respected his integrity and belief in the US Constitution. He is still seen as the epitome of Republican conservatism and strong libertarian.

Love him or hate him, he acted according to his conscience. He desegregated his own department stores and helped desegregate his home town’s schools and restaurants before it was an issue in the Federal government. When he went first took office as Senator, he took a black woman with him to be his assistant. Yet, this same man voted down the 1964 Civil Rights Act because he believed it was unconstitutional. His views on how to fight the Vietnam War are still shocking to me – he advocated using nuclear weapons and was a strong opponent of Communism. A man of his times when it came to fighting the Red Tide – the same red threat McCain-Palin ticket are desperately resurrecting by the way in their use of Anti-American rhetoric.

Goldwater didn’t like the neo-Conservatives that were running Washington by the end of his life. He said in a 1994 interview with the LA Times

A lot of so-called conservatives today don’t know what the word means, … They think I’ve turned liberal because I believe a woman has a right to an abortion. That’s a decision that’s up to the pregnant woman, not up to the pope or some do-gooders or the religious right. It’s not a conservative issue at all.

In a side note, his wife was involved in setting up Planned Parenthood in the 1930′s, that same group so vilified by the current conservative crop. There were certain things the government had no right in interfering in, and to his dieing days, he spoke out about it. What did he really believe about abortion? Who knows, this was a private issue to him.

This deeply conservative man so believed in the rights of the individuals, he fought to allow gays to serve in the US military and he also fought for a Federal bill that would end the discrimination of gays: “You don’t have to agree with it, but they have a constitutional right to be gay. And that’s what brings me into it”. How does this square with Sarah Palin’s admission she would love to have a Constitutional amendment on gay marriages and her ties with the Family Research Council who state on their own website they believe “that homosexual conduct is harmful to the persons who engage in it and to society at large, and can never be affirmed.” Sarah Palin is no maverick and she would gleefully trample on the rights of others in order to push through her own narrow agenda. Rights? They are what she will determine them to be.

Now where does this take us in terms of the current election? CC Goldwater, on behalf of the Goldwater family issued a press release this week: Why McCain Has Lost Our Vote. It is a stinging rebuke of the McCain-Palin ticket, coming from McCain’s own state:

There always have been a glimmer of hope that someday, someone would “race through the gate” full steam in Goldwater style. Unfortunately, this hasn’t happened, and the Republican brand has been tarnished in a shameless effort to gain votes and appeal to the lowest emotion, fear. Nothing about McCain, except for maybe a uniform, compares to the same ideology of what Goldwater stood for as a politician. The McCain/Palin plan is to appear diverse and inclusive, using women and minorities to push an agenda that makes us all financially vulnerable, fearful, and less safe….

After the last eight years, there’s a lot of clean up do. Roll up your sleeves, Senators Obama and Biden, and we Goldwaters will roll ours up with you.

I said in a previous post that I don’t trust polls. Let’s hope they are right and McCain-Palin get the thumping in the polls they so rightfully deserve. Any candidate that stirs up the mob mentality to win an election is capable of anything and we should be very concerned. Mobs are the antithesis of democracy and the Republicans should take their leaders to task for indulging in this dangerous tactic.

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