The Johnson forces skillfully used shock over the Kennedy assassination to fuel a mendacious assault on the supposed right-wing atmosphere of hate that, it was alleged, bore responsibility for President Kennedy's death. What, then, happened? In part, an inept campaign led to electoral rout, but the major cause lay elsewhere. Ronald Reagan, an ardent supporter of Goldwater during the campaign, won the presidency on a platform that resembled Goldwater's and the Arizona senator's sharp assault on the welfare state, once dismissed as extremist, is today a commonplace. Why did Goldwater fail? Was his cause one with at most a minority appeal to the American public? Our author, though decidedly not a Goldwater partisan, thinks otherwise.
Goldwater's remarkable act of defiance had for him an unhappy outcome: Lyndon Johnson, a quintessential practitioner of New Deal politics, trounced him in the November 1964 election. (I was a high-school student at the time and can testify to how well our author evokes the atmosphere.) Perlstein brings to life those decisive days. At last, a candidate who dared to challenge the prevailing liberal consensus! Mr. 3 (Fall 2001)īEFORE THE STORM: BARRY GOLDWATER AND THE UNMAKING OF THE AMERICAN CONSENSUSīarry Goldwater's campaign for the presidency in 1964 decisively influenced American conservatism.
0 kommentar(er)
