What Happened In 1960?
By profg Posted in History — Comments (7) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
In 1960, the Republican Party was controlled by its "East coast establishment" wing ("moderates," as liberals like to call them). In fact, most of the truly "limited government" types were states' rights "Dixiecrats" (southern Democrats). Eisenhower had been President for 8 years, and his Vice President, Richard Nixon, was the "heir apparent" 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 "radical liberal" Democrats like John Kennedy.
But there was a new breed of limited-government Republicans 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 statism. To achieve this more quickly, they latched onto this 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 limited-government movement.
These young Republicans 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 was likely to 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, especially since the GOP establishment wanted nothing to do with him; 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 an almost 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 off-guard: 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 "spontaneous" (but actually carefully-planned) demonstration.
This 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 neo-conservative party platform that 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 believers in limited government to walk out and leave the GOP?
No, he gave his second-most-famous speech (after his most famous 1964 "extremism in the defense of liberty" acceptance speech) and said that those young Republicans should "grow up," that they had lost that round, and that they should pull together, go home, take over the party, and come together again in 1964 to adopt a truly limited-government platform. And that's exactly what they did. "Let's grow up conservatives!" he said. "If we want to take this Party back, and I think we can some day, let's get to work." (What they didn't realize, as Batchelder noted, was that "establishment" Republicans would also get to work, and 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 Republicans," had finally appeared before a national audience. The appearance was positive; he was able to talk about the true limited-government message before the entire country. This set him up for four years later, when the movement had expanded and his support was stronger, to win the GOP nomination. The limited-government 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.
Can history teach us anything?
----------------------------------------
Bill Greene is an Alternate Delegate from Georgia to the 2008 Republican National Convention. He is also the founder of Delegates for Ron Paul for Vice President at http://www.delegatesforronpaul.com/ .
I know it's fashionable among conservatives to trash Eisenhower, but he was truly a great President. He built up the Strategic Air Command, kept the nation at peace and relatively prosperous, and didn't buy into that "missile gap" nonsense that Kennedy tried to peddle the country. His only problem was not lowering taxes enough.
However, Ike was a pay-as-you-go type, I guess. National Defense was taken pretty seriously then.
"History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it"-Winston Churchill
And the last Republican congress for the same period.
We have done far far worse than the man from Kansas
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
Freedom of Religion not Freedom from Religion
Ike kept taxes low, kept spending down, created the interstate highway system, and stared down the USSR without blinking for 8 years. He's the most consistently underrated President of the last century.
BTW, you ever read "Six Crises" by Nixon? He talks about how he knew during the campaign that the "Missile gap" was fake, but couldn't say so because the info was classified. He said Kennedy knew it too, said it was the one and only time he was personally angry at Kennedy.
Oh, read "Winning the Long War," a book by two Heritage Foundation people for a flyover view of why he was so great. It says it pretty simply: He set up a "Guns AND butter" system and knew how to balance it and knew what it meant for the war and for America.
He was a great man.
"I will look for people in the cast of John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and my friend the late William Rehnquist – jurists of the highest caliber who know their own minds, and know the law, and know the difference." - John McCain
In fact, most of the truly "limited government" types were states' rights "Dixiecrats" (southern Democrats).
It is utterly absurd to associate segregationism with limited government.
There was a long tradition of conservatism in the Republican party prior to 1960—actual "limited government" conservatism, opposed to segregation as well as other forms of government intrusion. Please don't tar the Republican party with the sins of the Democrats.
You had me for a while, right up until this sentence
The limited-government 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.
And where exactly is this thesis taking us?
Can history teach us anything?
Perhaps you are eluding to a national convention take over by Ron Paul supporters as they did at the Nevada State Convention?
It Ain't Gonna Happen!
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity