Goldwater, Barry Morris

▪ 1999

      American politician (b. Jan. 1, 1909, Phoenix, Ariz.—d. May 29, 1998, Phoenix), was considered the founder and icon of the modern conservative movement in the U.S. He served (1953-64 and 1969-87) as a U.S. senator and in 1964 was the Republican Party's presidential candidate. He lost to Lyndon Johnson in a landslide, however, after his statement that "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" caused him to be portrayed as a dangerous warmonger; one Democratic television commercial began with a small girl counting daisy petals as she plucked them, and ended with a missile-launch countdown and a mushroom cloud. Goldwater dropped out (1929) of the University of Arizona after his freshman year, went to work for Goldwater's, Inc., the family department store chain, and in 1937 became the company's president. There he instituted a number of progressive policies, such as health and life insurance plans and profit sharing. During World War II he served in the Army Air Force, and after the war he organized the Arizona Air National Guard, serving as chief of staff until 1952. By the time he retired from the reserves, he had attained the rank of major general. Goldwater entered politics in 1949 with a successful run for the Phoenix City Council. In an upset, he won (1952) the U.S. Senate seat of Majority Leader Ernest MacFarland. In 1954 Goldwater was one of only 22 senators who voted against the censure of Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the aftermath of the Army-McCarthy hearings, an action that was popular in Arizona and helped him gain reelection in 1958. His book, The Conscience of a Conservative (1960), reflected his philosophy—that the government should not interfere with individuals' lives and that communism should be vanquished. After his defeat in the 1964 presidential race, Goldwater returned to Arizona, but he won his Senate seat back in 1968. In later years his support of abortion rights and the service of homosexuals in the armed forces upset many conservatives, but he steadfastly maintained his belief in the right of individuals to be free from government interference.

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