It’s Time For A Democratic Barry Goldwater

Extremism In Defense Of Sanity

In 1964, conservatives began their takeover of the Republican Party. They were rebelling against a Republican establishment that they viewed as risk-averse, stodgy, and unwilling to push the boundaries of American politics – and saw them as particularly afraid of pushing conservative ideas against the centrist consensus.

Ultimately their candidate, Barry Goldwater, was trounced by President Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 landslide. But Goldwaterism played the long game and ultimately led to successful candidates like Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump. More importantly, the conservative revolution was a success for the Republican Party at the congressional and state level – and especially at the Supreme Court. We live in the America shaped by the Goldwater insurgency.

Contrast this with the Democratic Party at its crisis points. After Reaganism took over, Democrats decided their problem was the left and Clinton moved to the center. He won and while he had some achievements (most notably the economy), he surely did not advance America to the left to the degree that other Democrats like Johnson and Franklin Roosevelt had. And under Clinton the right continued to amass power, eventually taking over the House in 1994.

Less than a decade later and Bush slipped into the White House. He trashed the place via the Iraq War and his mismanagement of the domestic and global economy, and Obama won in the modern equivalent of a landslide. But then again, while we got good legislation like the Affordable Care Act and policy like ending the war – Obama did not advance the progressive ball. Obama, like Clinton, was ideologically cautious to a fault. To be sure, some of that was tempering progressive idealism versus liberal realism, but too much of it was overcautious. For instance, there was no logical reason for the Recovery Act to be so conservative nor did Obama need to hem and haw as long as he did on same-sex marriage or killing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Then Trump happened, like Bush he trashed the place and we ended up with President Joe Biden. Biden easily lapped both Clinton and Obama on progressive-minded legislation, but again there was this endless caution throughout his presidency and the reluctance to embrace modern communications rhetoric, tactics, and techniques. Throughout all of the preceding presidencies, the Democratic Party embraced caution at the congressional and state level as well. Instead of embracing even a strong liberal identity, the Democrats have been in a state of stasis – holding on to a center-leftism that to be sure is a far better course of action than destructive conservatism but does not inspire voters nor provide a level of radicalism needed to take the country to the next level.

Even worse, cautious liberalism is a poor counter to the extreme conservatism descending from Goldwater that now runs the Republican Party. Conservatives are inspired, not just by demagogic leaders like Trump and G.W. Bush, but by the ideology of their movement that foolishly says government must be run like a business while also crushing the rights of women, minorities, and the LGBTQ community. Against that tide, liberalism has become a movement of protecting institutions and norms. This is has been particularly egregious under the leadership of people like Biden, Obama, and Sec. Hillary Clinton.

Radicalism vs. caution won’t hold and the 2024 election showed us that absent an event like COVID or the Great Recession, conservative radicalism motivates more people to show up. But the Democratic Party establishment, in my opinion still in a holding pattern following Reagan’s landslide in 1984, is utterly disinterested in adaptation. It is far easier for them – and I am specifically referring to figures like President Biden, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer – to blame the left or “the groups” for their losses, rather than taking a serious look at how the party fails to inspire even against the right’s dystopia.

That’s why there needs to be a Democratic equivalent of the Goldwater movement, or at least the Tea Party movement that began an insurgency within the GOP after John McCain lost to Obama.

People upset with the direction of the Democratic Party often suggest the launch of a third party, but that historically has not been viable. The two major parties have an effective stranglehold on ballot access and building a brand-new party takes time that is simply not a luxury America has.

The two major parties are actually quite weak and relatively ripe for some sort of takeover. In 2008, the Democratic establishment coalesced around Sec. Clinton as its nominee early and never saw the Trump takeover coming. After a tough primary, Obama won and secured leadership of the party despite being a nobody in 2004. Similarly, post-Obama the Republican Party establishment didn’t see Trump coming and were ready to anoint Jeb (!) Bush until Trump came down his ridiculous escalator and launched an insurgency. He has now led the party for nearly a decade and it has been molded in his racist, xenophobic mirror image.

Right now, the Democrats are at their weakest point in decades, not just in political power but in ideological leadership. Outside of opposition to conservative destruction, the party stands largely for clinging to its past accomplishments: Protecting Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare and the like. These are all noble, worthy things but people need more. They need to have some sort of idea beyond the horizon that unifies them, and history and common sense shows us that these things have to be on the left side of the aisle (universal health care, basic income, etc) and not uninspiring centrist mush.

Politics can no longer just be about the next two-to-four-year cycle for the Democrats. Short-term thinking of this variety, along with a resistance to building up a progressive media environment, gives the right power. It enables fascism. It leads to spectacles like Biden broadly smiling as he welcomes Trump into the Oval Office.

Democrats need their Goldwater. More importantly, the country needs a progressive Goldwater to take on the party, because otherwise it is another victory for conservatism and the country simply cannot take more of it. We won’t survive.

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— Oliver

Follow me, Oliver Willis, on BlueSky @owillis.bsky.social

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