Far-Right Vanguard by John S. Huntington

Author:John S. Huntington [Huntington, John S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780812253474
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Published: 2021-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Republican Party’s ideological schism prohibited a unified front for Goldwater. Major GOP figures such as Rockefeller and Romney refused to endorse Goldwater, though Nixon campaigned on Goldwater’s behalf. Incumbent president Lyndon Johnson portrayed Goldwater as a foreign policy extremist during a time when global events, such as China’s first nuclear test, seemed to call for restraint rather than hawkishness. To make matters worse, Goldwater’s connection to ultraconservative activists alienated many voters—an October poll showed a scant 16 percent approval rating, compared to 49 percent disapproval, for the Birch Society. Even though Goldwater tried to tamp down his far-right supporters, the stench of radicalism emanated from his campaign.170

On Election Day, November 3, 1964, Johnson overpowered Goldwater. “Landslide” Lyndon won the popular vote by a margin of around sixteen million votes, netting a 61 percent to 39 percent victory. The electoral college returns were even more devastating. Goldwater garnered a scant 52 electoral votes compared to Johnson’s titanic 486. It was the biggest electoral avalanche since Franklin Roosevelt trounced Alfred Landon in 1936. Johnson’s victory was a microcosm of Democratic gains across the nation. Republicans lost seats in the Senate and House and within state legislatures, though the GOP did gain a handful of governorships. “The decimation of the Republican Party in Congress will make life on Capitol Hill much easier for Lyndon B. Johnson,” wrote journalist Philip W. McKinsey.171 As groups such as Americans for Democratic Action moved to push Johnson further to the left, liberalism, it seemed, remained hegemonic.172

The election of 1964 prompted a flurry of autopsies on the state of conservatism. Many commentators announced that conservatism, as a viable political ideology, had breathed its last. Historian Richard Hofstadter argued that the Goldwater movement stemmed from “the animosities and passions of a small minority,” a symptom of a “paranoid style” of American politics.173 James Reston of the New York Times wrote, “Barry Goldwater not only lost the Presidential election yesterday but the conservative cause as well.”174 “Of all the lessons the election returns taught,” suggested journalist Robert J. Donovan, “the clearest is that the Republican Party, if it is ever to win again, must nominate a candidate who can attract the votes of Democrats and independents as well as Republicans.”175 According to the postmortems, not only had conservatism been crushed, voters had exiled it to the political periphery. Goldwater blamed Johnson’s “ruthless” behavior, an apathetic citizenry, GOP backstabbing, and a biased liberal media for his overwhelming defeat.176 After the shock had worn off, the Republican Party took steps to empower moderates and unmoor itself from Goldwater. Roscoe Drummond of the Los Angeles Times put it bluntly, “Thus ends the Republican Party’s experiment with extreme conservatism.”177

However, Goldwater’s campaign was a crucial moment for the ascent of modern conservatism, despite contemporary obituaries that relegated right-wing thought to the historical dustbin. Goldwater won his home state of Arizona, but he also notched victories in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. As Brady predicted, the South shocked the country. It was the

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