Barry Goldwater

Barry Goldwater was born on January 2, 1909 in the USA's Arizona Territory.  It would not become the 48th state until February 14, 1912.  His father, Baron Goldwater, was a wealthy Jewish businessman who owned Goldwater's, "a leading upscale department store in Phoenix."  His mother, Hattie, grew up in a New England Episcopalian family and raised her son in her faith.  

Barry Goldwater attended the University of Arizona for one year.  Then, in 1930, he took over the family business with the death of his father.  

During World War II, Barry Goldwater served as an Army Air  Corp pilot who flew supplies between the USA and India.  After the war, as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserves, he desegregated the Arizona Air National Guard and then pushed the Pentagon to do the same with the US military.

In 1949, Barry Goldwater was elected as a Republican to the Phoenix City Council.  In 1952, he was elected to the United States Senate and reelected in 1958.  

In 1964, Barry Goldwater became a candidate for President of the United States.  He represented the conservative wing of the Republican Party.  Barry was opposed by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, who represented the Party's moderate/liberal wing (which doesn't exist today).  By winning the winner take all California primary (on June 2, 1964), he secured the Republican nomination.

On June 18, 1964, Barry Goldwater announced on the Senate floor that, despite his personal opposition to discrimination of any kind, he would vote against the 1964 Civil Rights Bill.  He especially opposed the public accommodations portion of the bill which would forbid hotels and restaurants from denying service to anyone based on race, color, religion or national origin.  He believed it was an unconstitutional "usurpation of power by the federal government."  I was troubled by his decision.

On July 15, 1964 (fifty-four years ago today), Barry Goldwater received the Republican nomination for president at its convention at the Cow Palace, in Daly City, California, just south of San Francisco.  During his acceptance speech, Barry uttered the memorable phrase, "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice."  Was he saying "the ends justify the means?"  To me, extremism is an ugly word, no matter what the context.

For his Vice Presidential running mate, Barry Goldwater chose William Miller, a Republican Congressman from New York's 40th District.  Shortly after the convention, the team of Goldwater and Miller began their election campaign with visits to Phoenix, Barry's home town, and suburban Buffalo, Miller's.  

At the time, I was home in Oswego on vacation after my freshman year at Penn.  I joined a group of local Young Republicans on a bus trip to welcome the Republican presidential candidate to New York State.  I went to see Barry Goldwater, not as a curiosity seeker, but as a rabid Republican, which I was in my former life.  Why I have been a Democrat for many years since is a story for another post.

Barry Goldwater and I crossed paths again a few months later when he made a campaign speech at Penn.  He was escorted by the homecoming queen and fellow sophomore, Candice Bergen, who would later become a model, an actress and a college drop-out.  

Barry Goldwater lost the 1964 election by a landslide to the incumbent president, Lyndon Johnson (at 19, I was not yet eligible to vote).  He would be reelected to the Senate in 1968 and would stay until his retirement in January of 1987.  Barry was replaced in the US Senate by another Arizona Republican, military pilot and stand up guy,  John McCain.  It was Goldwater's influence in 1974 that convinced President Nixon to resign and end the Watergate nightmare.  Barry died of complications from a stroke on May 29, 1998 at 89 years of age.