I never swooned over Frank Sinatra. When Beatlemania hit the United States, I wasn’t one of the Fab Four’s screaming fans. In fact, I have written only one fan letter in my entire life, and that was five years ago, to Barry Goldwater.
I never swooned over Frank Sinatra. When Beatlemania hit the United States, I wasn’t one of the Fab Four’s screaming fans. In fact, I have written only one fan letter in my entire life, and that was five years ago, to Barry Goldwater.
Barry Goldwater died last week, and both the country and genuine conservatives are the poorer for his passing.
Unlike so many who call themselves conservative today, Goldwater was consistent. He believed in limited government, and that meant limited government. Those who carp that he had become "liberal" in his later years betray their ignorance of what he always stood for: the right of individuals to make their own decisions free of the interference of the state. To Goldwater, government did not belong either in your boardroom or your bedroom.
In Conscience of a Conservative, Goldwater emphasized what too many public officials and others have forgotten: the United States is a republic, not a democracy. In our constitutional republic, the majority does not always rule; the actions of even democratically elected representatives are limited by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Liberty, Goldwater knew, is fundamentally about process rather than content. In a free country, government protects the right of each citizen to make his own moral/political/intellectual decisions; government does not concern itself with the content of those decisions unless and until someone else’s rights are infringed.
Back in the 1960’s, I disagreed with Goldwater on one important issue: passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. I had gone to college in the South and seen first-hand the extent of racism and the evils of segregation. I was prepared to infringe the rights of those who would deny employment, housing and public accomodation to black citizens. Goldwater wasn’t. Unlike other opponents of that law, however, Goldwater’s opposition was based upon principle, not bigotry. He acknowledged the immorality of segregation, but warned of the consequences of disturbing the balance of power between the rapidly expanding federal government and the states.
His consistent application of the libertarian principle impelled support for women’s reproductive freedom and equal rights for gays and lesbians. It was just after he uttered his famous line about gays in the military ("you don’t have to be straight, you just have to shoot straight") that I wrote my fan letter. I told him how disturbed I was by the ascendence in our party of extremists who call themselves conservative while advocating use of government power to further a theocratic agenda. I told him how much I admired his consistency, and shared an essay that would later become part of my book, What’s a Nice Republican Girl Like Me Doing at the ACLU?
His response came within a week, and I will always treasure it.
After some kind words about the substance of my essay, Goldwater wrote "It’s wonderful that we have so many religious people in our party. They need to leave their theologies in their churches. Sincerely, Barry Goldwater."