Goldwater (O-CA) vs. Laki (I-BE)

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The American.

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Today Goldwater basically would have been a Ted Cruz who never sold out his beliefs for Trump and stuck with opposing him. So it would have ended up with him getting primaried in 2018 by a Trumpist candidate funded by the Mercer family(which if you don't know the story, the Mercer Family threatened to revoke all support of Cruz in the future if he didnt support Trump).

Goldwater would have been more of a John Kasich Republican, actually. (Today, that is, if he were alive)

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Goldwater wouldn't have agreed with Kasich on everything, but I doubt he would have backed Cruz for President over someone like Kasich. It's more than just policy positions. Cruz is extremely unprincipled, like you said, and possibly a bit too unprincipled for Barry to support him, even in a general election.

Plus it's not like Goldwater would have been that much closer to Cruz than Kasich on policy. The 1964 GOP platform was a long time ago, and Goldwater did shift a little later in life. Cruz is very much religious right. Not to mention Kasich isn't exactly a foreign policy dove or Russia-appeaser. He's a conservative Republican and not someone I would actually vote for, even if Kasich is perceived as a RINO because he's not mean enough.