Posted by profg on June 16, 19100 at 21:32:56:
DAILY SYNDICATED COLUMN - 06/14/2000
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The Goldwater Strategy
by William Greene, ConservativeHQ.com
http://www.conservativehq.com/chq/displayarticle?articleId=1553
Stop me if you've heard this one -- there's this contingent of movement
conservatives complaining that "we've been had," that the liberal
"establishment" Republicans are controlling the party, and that the GOP
"heir apparent" to the presidential nomination is, well, okay, but "we
can tell he's just not really one of us."
In fact, they say, there is someone out there who IS "one of us," who is
popular in the conservative movement, and who takes a "no compromise"
stance on conservative issues, but he's relatively unknown in the
general population, and he doesn't stand a chance of winning the
Republican party nomination, even though his name is in the running;
he's even a 100-to-1 longshot that he'd be picked as the V.P. nominee.
You say you have heard this one? I'll bet you haven't. I'm talking about
events from 40 years ago. And those events could hold the key to a
resurgence of conservative leadership and control of the GOP.
I recently had a great conversation over dinner with a good friend of
mine and longtime conservative movement activist, David Franke, who was
intimately involved in the Barry Goldwater campaign (and who went on to
help found YAF, the Young Americans for Freedom). I'm not talking about
the Goldwater campaign in 1964, when he won the presidential nomination;
I'm talking about the one in 1960, when he didn't stand a snowball's
chance in hell of winning it. What was important at that time was the
long-term goal of conservative victory, and the means by which his
supporters achieved that victory.
I call it the Goldwater Strategy. Movement conservatives, pay close
attention.
In 1960, the Republican party was controlled by its "East coast
establishment" wing ("moderates," as liberals like to call them). In
fact, many who were truly conservative were "Dixiecrats" (southern
Democrats). Eisenhower had been President for 8 years, and his Vice
President, Richard Nixon, was poised to receive the party's nomination
that year in Chicago. He was a shoe-in; even most conservative leaders
got behind him, in order to defeat the liberal Democrats like John
Kennedy.
But there was a new breed of conservatives that had sprung up in the
preceding few years; they were young, idealistic, energetic, and
determined to eventually "take over" the GOP and steer it away from its
establishment liberalism. To achieve this more quickly, they latched
onto the Senator from Arizona -- one of the only Republicans to publicly
dissent from Ike's statist policies -- and they made it their goal to
bring this hayseed from the southwest to the attention of a broad
public, and make him a nationally-known figure and the spokesman of the
conservative movement.
These young conservatives would follow Goldwater around to all of his
speeches and rallies, demonstrating for him at any Republican event they
could find. They knew that Nixon would win the presidential nomination
easily, so they formed the Youth For Goldwater For Vice President
(followed quickly by the adults' Draft Goldwater organization), and made
as much noise as they could to attract attention to their ideological
spokesperson. They realized they had to do something to forcefully bring
Goldwater before the public; they didn't believe for a moment that Nixon
would actually pick him as his running mate, but that wasn't a necessary
element of their strategy. They were long-term players, with an
immediate goal in sight: the 1960 GOP convention.
At the convention, it was a foregone conclusion that Nixon would be
nominated; however, the Goldwater group had the backing of at least two
state delegations, Arizona (of course) and South Carolina (the heart of
Dixiecrat country). They put out a ton of propaganda to delegates and
the press about why Nixon should pick a true conservative as his V.P.
running mate (and that Goldwater was that true conservative), again with
the goal of getting Goldwater out there in the public's eye. Since they
couldn't nominate contenders for V.P., they nominated Goldwater for
President from the floor.
And then an interesting thing happened, which caught the Nixon team --
who had tried so hard to make sure everything in the convention was
tightly planned and under serious control -- completely offguard: a
"spontaneous" demonstration for Goldwater erupted on the convention
floor. It appeared that he had a groundswell of support!
In fact, what really happened was that, thanks to those two state
delegations from Arizona and South Carolina, hundreds of kids were snuck
in "under the tent flaps" of the convention staging area. They were
given false ID tags, and got onto the floor during the nomination, where
they broke into their demonstration.
The staged show of support took everyone by surprise, and had its
intended effect: Goldwater asked for permission to address the
convention, and permission was granted.
And what did he say? Did he rail against the blatantly non-conservative
party platform which Nixon had surrendered to Gov. Nelson Rockefeller,
whom William Batchelder described as "the archetypal east coast
'moderate' establishment Republican"? Did he call for all true
conservatives to walk out and leave the GOP?
No, he gave his second most famous speech (after his 1964 "extremism in
the defense of liberty" acceptance speech) and said that conservatives
should "grow up," that they had lost that round, and that they should
pull together, defeat the Democrats, go home, take over the party, and
come together again in 1964 to adopt a truly conservative platform. And
that's exactly what they did. (What they didn't realize, as Batchelder
noted, was that "moderate" Republicans would do "whatever it took,
including supporting the duplicitous President Lyndon B. Johnson, to
stop Senator Goldwater's presidential candidacy and the attendant
ascendancy of American conservatism.")
Goldwater, representing the new conservatives, had finally appeared
before a national audience. The appearance was positive; he was viewed
as a peacemaker and a "Party Man;" and he was able to talk about the
true conservative message. This set him up for four years later, when
the movement had expanded and his support was stronger, to win the GOP
nomination. The conservative movement then moved from the Goldwater
organization, to YAF, to the New Right, to the Reagan Revolution, to the
Contract With America and the takeover of Congress.
So what lesson can movement conservatives, especially the die-hard
supporters of today's icon of the right, Alan Keyes, learn from the
Goldwater Strategy? A lot of it they've already learned, and are doing
fairly well.
They've made him a nationally-known figure, bringing him to the
attention of a broad public via the current presidential race. They've
given shape to today's conservative movement and ideas through their
incredibly strong internet and grroots activism, publishing Keyes'
thoughts and ruminations on every issue important to Americans despite
the blackout imposed on him by the liberal press. (Goldwater's original
supporters had to do the same thing, understanding that they had to have
something that told the public what they were doing and why. For them,
it was Goldwater's little book, "Conscience of a Conservative" --
ghost-written by Brent Bozell, father of L. Brent Bozell III - that was
published by their alternative presses and widely distributed at every
opportunity.)
Just like the movement conservatives 40 years ago, they have a
conservative politician who is "one of us" and popular amongst
conservatives, who takes a consistently "no compromise" stance on most
conservative issues, and who has the opportunity to grab the attention
of a broad public in a positive way.
He's taking a small, but potentially vocal, delegation with him to the
upcoming GOP convention. He will (indeed, he must) be given the
opportunity to address that convention, and his support will be shown to
be both deep and wide. The question is, what will he do, especially if
the "moderate" Republicans have their way with the party platform,
and/or George W. Bush picks a running mate who falls short of truly
conservative criteria?
Will he, as he has publicly threatened, call for conservatives to
abandon the GOP, ensuring a liberal Democratic victory in the fall?
Or will he continue to follow the little-known but tried-and-true
Goldwater Strategy, and call for conservatives to "grow up," that we've
lost this round, and that we should pull together, defeat the Democrats,
go home, take over the party, and come together again in 2004 to adopt a
truly conservative platform?
Ambador Keyes has an opportunity before him that could be of great
benefit to the conservative movement, and to movement conservatives,
just like Senator Goldwater did. In a few weeks, he could signal the end
of conservative influence for years; or he could set the stage for a
conservative victory down the road that would tear down the wall that
liberals have ed to keep "right-wingers" from winning for some time
now.
Dr. Keyes, tear down this wall.
+++++++++++++++
Dr. William Greene is VP for Internet Development at ConservativeHQ.com,
Inc. He has been active in the Republican and Libertarian Parties; he
headed N.C. Students for Ron Paul in 1988, and was a 1996 GOP nominee
for FL. House of Representatives. He sports a Keyes sticker on his
bumper, and can be reached at William.Greene@ConservativeHQ.com.
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