Goldwater, Barry (1909–1998)

BARRY GOLDWATER, born in Phoenix, Arizona Territory, served five terms as Republican senator for Arizona (1953–64 and 1969–86). In 1964, he was the Republican Party's presidential candidate, losing in a landslide against the incumbent president, Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson, with only 39 percent of the popular vote. His winning of five states in the deep south, plus his home state, however, foreshadowed the realignment of southern whites to the Republican Party. After a period of “me-too-Republicanism,” Goldwater's antigovernment conservatism and fierce anti-communism signaled the rebirth of the Republican Party as America's conservative voice.

Coming from a very assimilated Jewish background, Goldwater converted to Episcopalianism when he got married. As a businessman, he grew up to be a free-market conservative, celebrating the “rugged individualism” of the west ...