Showing posts with label Joanne Goldwater. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joanne Goldwater. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Barry Goldwater daughter will vote Democrat

I am strictly a progressive in the truest sense of the word, but I have great admiration for Barry Goldwater as a man and a statesman.  Not just a politician like many of the hacks in Congress and running for president these days, but one who has the wisdom to lead and who wants only the best for the citizens of this country.  Would he turn over in his grave knowing that his eldest daughter, Joanne Goldwater is voting for a Democrat?  Don’t think so and here’s why.


Joanne Goldwater with Carmona
Ms. Goldwater, who must know her dad’s politics, says Jeff Flake, who is running in Arizona against Democrat Richard Carmona for Jon Kyl’s Senate seat, does not practice her father’s “brand of conservatism,” nor does she think the modern day Republican Party does.  Barry Goldwater was credited with sparking the resurgence of the conservative movement in the 1960s pushing the GOP further right with his famous statement:

"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.  And ... moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."

But Goldwater’s extremism didn’t come off like that of today’s Republican fanatics, particularly the Tea Party.  And that is how a statesman separates himself from the run-of-the-mill politicians that are running Congress today.  I agreed very little with most of his views and told him so at a signing of his book, Conscience of a Conservative in Phoenix in 1960.  I was a bleeding liberal in those days and the Senator commented that there was still time to change.

Goldwater lost to Lyndon Johnson in 1964 in one of the largest landslides in history.  Goldwater was not a supporter of the religious right, commenting in his book, "I am a conservative Republican, but I believe in democracy and the separation of church and state.  The conservative movement is founded on the simple tenet that people have the right to live life as they please as long as they don't hurt anyone else in the process."  Today would turn him over in his grave.

Richar Carmona on his politics:

On this same issue he said, "I don't have any respect for the Religious Right.  There is no place in this country for practicing religion in politics.  That goes for Falwell, Robertson and all the rest of these political preachers.  They are a detriment to the country."  In fact, in Conscience of a Conservative he commented, "Every good Christian should line up and kick Jerry Falwell's ass."  He always spoke his mind and oh, if only he had been a progressive.

Richard Carmona
So if Arizona’s Jeff Flake isn’t a true conservative in the genuine sense of the word, then what would you label Mitt Romney?  So far I have found no comments from Joanne Goldwater re. Mitt Romney’s candidacy for President.  Most would agree, Barry Goldwater would never flip-flop on the issues like Romney and Obama Senior Adviser David Plouffe even said:

“…he {Romney} is the most radical conservative since Barry Goldwater. You can’t kind of have it both ways. Barry Goldwater was not a flip flopping phony. And so, if you’re going to say that Romney is a flip flopping phony, you can’t say that he’s a hard right conservative.”

Any way you look at this, Mitt Romney appears to be attempting to be just what the voters want him to be, with no real vision for how he would run this country.  On the other hand, we know what Barack Obama stands for, and, as Flip Wilson used to say, “You get what you see.”  Obama made a comment recently that I thought really humbled him. 

He said after he wins his second term that hopefully the Republicans that have made it their mission for the last four years just to get rid of him will change their tactics and at least meet him half way. 

No animosity or revenge in his remark, just the statement of a man who wants the best for the U.S. and is asking for the support of the opposing party which, so far, has been the party of NO to everything he proposed.  Things are looking up for the President while Romney continues to implode by simply opening his mouth.  In the latest Electoral Vote count by Huffington Post, it has Obama at 332 votes, Romney with 191.  You need 270 to win.

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