Barry Goldwater, the True Conservative

At a flea market, I recently found an old book written by Barry Goldwater, titled “The True Conservative” — the original title was “The Conscience of a Conservative” – which was published in Italy during the 1960s in the issues of Il Borghese.

Nowadays, who knows who remembers Goldwater, and that he ran for the U.S. presidency in 1964 as the Republican candidate and was later defeated by Democrat Lyndon Johnson. Although he may be forgotten by most, besides being a conservative and proud Republican, Goldwater was a Libertarian through and through, and in this sense was an emblematic figure of the Western political landscape. He was libertarian on matters of civil rights and economic freedom; that is, pro-abortion, gay rights and the legalization of marijuana, and also in favor of small government.

In fact, in “The True Conservative,” Goldwater illustrates his anti-government views – that is, out of respect for the U.S. Constitution, which does not at all provide for the existence of a high-powered government, but rather one that guarantees freedoms and therefore the presence of a nonintrusive government in the lives and pockets of citizens. In this sense, Goldwater’s libertarian spirit – which is the equivalent to Republican Ron Paul’s today – was therefore conservative, meaning capable of conserving the principles of the Founding Fathers, as written in the U.S. Constitution.

Through this perspective, Goldwater was critical of requiring workers to join labor unions, which do not protect anyone but the managers themselves and their political leanings toward one candidate or another that is up for election. Moreover, he is critical of the government’s intrusive involvement in matters of agriculture, welfare and education. Goldwater singularly believed in reducing public spending, which puts everything on the shoulders of honest American workers. And therefore, he believed in minimal taxation — not in the least bit progressive, but meant to take an equal percentage of everyone’s wealth and no more. Goldwater’s spirit – incarnated in Ron Paul today, as we were saying – unfortunately represents a libertarian minority within the American Republican Party, but was and continues to be the only one equipped to stem the socio-bureaucratic, entitlement, parasitical, invasive and authoritarian incentives of the state and governments that have been typical in the U.S., with Roosevelt, Kennedy and Obama today.

Goldwater wrote something very beautiful in “The True Conservative” that encapsulates his political will:

“The turn will come when we entrust the conduct of our affairs to men who understand that their first duty as public officials is to divest themselves of the power that they have been given. It will come when Americans … decide to put the man in office who is pledged to enforce the Constitution and restore the Republic.”

A profound thought against the intrusive and authoritarian power of government. A thought belonging to someone who truly loves the fundamental law of his country, the only one capable of protecting the freedoms of citizens from the bureaucratic incentives of eternal misgoverning.