An American Original

In San Francisco 34 years ago, Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater accepted the Republican nomination for president by declaring, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” The words chilled millions of Americans, Democrats portrayed him as a dangerous warmonger and Goldwater was overwhelmingly rejected by voters that November.

Today, Goldwater is being fondly remembered and memorialized by the entire American political community following his death Friday at 89. President Clinton called him an American original. Goldwater was praised for his independence, integrity and patriotism.

In recent years, political leaders of all stripes went on pilgrimage to Goldwater’s hilltop Arizona home to pay tribute to the crusty, often-profane elder statesman and to ask for his advice.

Often vilified in 1964; widely beloved in 1998. What changed--America or Goldwater? Both, in fact. Goldwater’s vigorous espousal of conservative politics helped reshape the American political landscape. And Goldwater himself mellowed as time passed.

But Goldwater remained true to his core conservative beliefs, as when he castigated the GOP’s religious right in recent years for confusing religion and moral issues such as abortion with political philosophy.

The blunt-speaking man with a craggy face, gravel voice and silver hair was a product of the frontier. He was born in Arizona before it became a state. He became a World War II pilot and a politician who relished a stiff drink of whiskey and had a gift for speech-making.

Goldwater did not create the conservative movement. But he brought to it a charismatic leadership that sparked it to life, particularly in the South and West. The Goldwater movement led directly to Ronald Reagan’s entry into California politics in 1966 and ultimately to the Reagan Revolution that dominated American politics through the 1980s.

Goldwater was an old-fashioned pol. He said exactly what he thought and believed, regardless of the consequences. He could rip into a fellow senator’s political position one minute and share a drink and a laugh with him the next. Friendship and loyalty knew no party lines. Goldwater loved his family, his state and his country. Nothing very extreme about those values.