Barry Goldwater quotes

[afleitch]

A hero of mine He was a REAL Republican.

On the Moral Majority:
"I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass."

On Big Government:
"Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have."

On Gays in the Military:
"You don't have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight."

On the political witchhunt:
"If everybody in this town connected with politics had to leave town because of chasing women and drinking, you would have no government."

On religion:
''I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?''

And his most famous:

''I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.''

[phk]

"I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass."

[Schmitz in 1972]

Barry Goldwater on peanut butter: "If you don't mind smelling like peanut butter for 2 or 3 days, peanut butter is darn good shaving cream"

[Jake]

He was a closet religious

[MHS2002]

He was a closet religious

He was a Republican. Therefore, he supported the policies of a religious.

[David S]

I never liked Goldwater when he was in office because he was a big hawk on the Vietnam war. Also at the time I was a left wing socialist. Today I would still oppose his military views, but I would agree on his economic philosophy.
Some quotes I like:

Nixon was the most dishonest individual I have ever met in my life. He lied to his wife, his family, his friends, his colleagues in the Congress, lifetime members of his own political party, the American people and the world.

The income tax created more criminals than any other single act of government.

[Richard]

Also at the time I was a left wing socialist.

[bgwah]

I never liked Goldwater when he was in office because he was a big hawk on the Vietnam war. Also at the time I was a left wing socialist. Today I would still oppose his military views, but I would agree on his economic philosophy.
Some quotes I like:

Nixon was the most dishonest individual I have ever met in my life. He lied to his wife, his family, his friends, his colleagues in the Congress, lifetime members of his own political party, the American people and the world.

The income tax created more criminals than any other single act of government.

Haha, so what was it? Some "socialist" phase? This happens to more than a few people, being socialist at a young age but then going the other way during their mid-life.

[ATFFL]

Barry Goldwater on peanut butter: "If you don't mind smelling like peanut butter for 2 or 3 days, peanut butter is darn good shaving cream"

Um . . . OK.

[MaC]

seems there's hardly anyone on this forum who doesn't like the guy.  I'd vote for him any day over any of the "modern" party candidates.  Even if the LP put a guy up against him, I'd vote Goldwater.

[Moooooo]

"If I had inherited the mess that Johnson got into, I would have said to North Vietnam, by dropping leaflets out of B-52s, 'You quit the war in three days or the next time these babies come over there going to drop some big bombs on you.' And I'd make a swamp out of North Vietnam ... I'd rather kill a hell of a lot of North Vietnamese than one American and we've lost enough of them"

[Moooooo]

"I could have ended the war in a month. I could have made North Vietnam look like a mud puddle."

[Ebowed]

"Hubert Humphrey talks so fast that listening to him is like trying to read Playboy magazine with your wife turning the pages."

"To insist on strength is not war-mongering. It is peace-mongering."

"I think any man in business would be foolish to fool around with his secretary. If it's somebody else's secretary, fine."

[Erc]

Letter from Goldwater to Johnson, 1960, upon his acceptance of the VP Nomination (I'm paraphrasing here as I saw it in Johnson's library).


"I did respect and admire you, Lyndon, and I knew you were bound for great things.  I do not think so anymore."


Probably botched the quote horribly.

[David S]

Also at the time I was a left wing socialist.

I think I've told this before but anyway I was raised in a liberal left wing Democratic household. I grew up believing that was the proper thing to be. The gun rights issue started moving me away from the Democrats. Ronald Reagan helped to convince me that big government was not the solution to our problems. A number of others helped to move me first toward the Republicans and then to the Libertarians after the Republicans started acting like Democrats.