barry morris goldwater
united states senator
biography
U.S. Senator Barry Morris Goldwater, was born in Phoenix, Arizona, on Jan. 1, 1909. Goldwater was elected to the Senate from Arizona in 1952. He became a spokesman for right-wing Republicans in their campaign against big government, advocating instead greater state and local powers.
He openly opposed federal welfare appropriations as socialistic and sought to curb public ownership of utilities. Goldwater was a strong anticommunist and supported American military intervention in Vietnam, criticizing efforts to achieve detente with the USSR.
Before the elections of 1964, a development was occurring in the Republican ranks known as the Goldwater boom. He was the son of a Jewish father and Protestant mother, and had become the voice of a booming Southwest with a conservative policy written in his book. The Conscience of A Conservative. Opposing the fabric of the welfare state, questioning the authority of the Supreme Court, and holding a nationalist foreign policy, he soon found himself in a "Draft Goldwater" movement headed by F. Clifton White of New York. It operated under cover for several months before coming out in early 1963.
Senator Goldwater was one of six Republicans who voted against Lyndon Johnson’s civil rights bill which was used as an issue in the upcoming campaign. In the early spring the contest for the Republican nomination had seemed open, but a well-organized write-in campaign for Henry Cabot Lodge put him ahead of Goldwater, Rockefeller, Nixon, Senator Margaret Chase, and Harold Stassen. However, in the convention states, Goldwater soon took up a lead. Republican moderates, in alarm, looked to Eisenhower to encourage a stop-Goldwater movement. Since no help came from Eisenhower, Governor William Scranton of Pennsylvania announced his intention to run. However, the Republican platform followed Goldwater’s principles. He was nominated as the presidential candidate.
Before the campaign, Goldwater conferred with Republican notables in an effort to restore unity by clarifying his views on major issues to show that he was repudiating extremism, and most present expressed approval of his explanations. He opened his campaign formally on September 3 in Prescott, Arizona, attributing to the administration appeasement in foreign affairs and disarmament in the face of Communism. However, a perception of extremism remained, and he lost the presidency.
