Goldwater, Barry (1909–1998)

Barry Goldwater, senator from Arizona from 1953 to 1965 and 1969 to 1987, was the most libertarian of all the major candidates running for president in the 20th century. As the Republican nominee in 1964, he proposed a voluntary option for social security, termination of the farm subsidy program, privatizing parts of the Tennessee Valley Authority, and keeping welfare “a private concern.” No one [Page 212]should have been surprised by his antigovernment crusade given what he had written in his 1960 best-selling manifesto, The Conscience of a Conservative. The turn to freedom in America will come, he maintained, when the people put in public office those who pledge to enforce the Constitution, restore the Republic, and proclaim: “My aim is not to pass laws, but ...