The Conscience of a Conservative

The Conscience of a Conservative
by Barry M. Goldwater; CC Goldwater, editor; Sean Wilentz, introduction; George F. Will, foreword; and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., afterword.

Princeton University Press, 2007.

This new edition of Goldwater’s classic statement of conservative principles is one of the volumes in a series of reissues selected for The James Madison Library in American Politics. I was initially drawn to it by the prospect of George F. Will and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., facing off in the forward and afterward, respectively. One imagines a steel-cage death match at the next Wrestlemania…

The reality is that their comments and Goldwater’s text are important and thought-provoking. Indeed, the book may be more important today than it was when it originally appeared. As Will and Kennedy both point out, the principles of conservatism—and even the very label “conservative”—have been hijacked by the modern Republican party's leaders and their talk-radio hangers-on. They both correctly point out that Barry Goldwater would be at the very least disgusted and more likely horrified by what is happening today in the name of conservatism. That's because as he saw it, the single function of the American system should be to maximize the freedom enjoyed as a birthright by every individual in order to allow each individual to achieve to his or her maximum potential.

The book explicates that principle clearly and succinctly. Goldwater believed that freedom was the highest value in American society—freedom from law, freedom from government, freedom from anybody else's vision but one’s own. The book is almost certainly the definitive modern statement of the quintessentially American notion of self-reliance.

Not surprisingly, most of the specific policy positions Goldwater takes in the book are at the least dated and many are now moot. However, his statement of the essential conservative philosophy still resonates. It has an oddly compelling power to stir even those—like me—who don’t consider themselves conservatives.

It is obvious that there is virtually nothing being done in the name of conservatism today that fits the definition Goldwater establishes. This is because the big government conservatives and their religious and social conservative allies are interested in expanding government power over individuals in order to achieve the social aims they seek, while the neoconservative chicken-hawks are interested in projecting American military power to every corner of the world to achieve the geopolitical aims they seek. None of these people have the least interest in maximizing individual liberty. The conservative movement that Goldwater galvanized has been so radically recast as to be unrecognizable.

In addition, Goldwater was an exemplar of the kind of politics that simply don't exist today. He was passionate in his beliefs, often abrupt and even abrasive in his delivery, and occasionally profane. But he was never mean, small, or personally insulting. Indeed, in the run-up to the 1964 election, Goldwater and President John Kennedy were thinking of travelling together around the country to engage in dozens of debates about the issues of the day. What an odd idea: The people running for President should talk about the issues and argue directly with one another. No American flag lapel-pin loyalty tests, no religious tub-thumping, no dirty tricks; just real political dialog.

Liberal, conservative, or anything else—this book is well worth reading. Here is the seminal work by perhaps the last national-level politician who actually said what he believed and actually believed what he said.