Barry Goldwater Saw a Way Out of the Wilderness

Barry Goldwater was acquainted with political setbacks. The morning after the 1964 presidential election, he could count the states he had won on two hands. Harder to number were the Americans who had spent that fall knocking on doors for the first time because a senator from Arizona had given voice to something they believed. Goldwater had asked them to help Americans reclaim power from Washington.

After the loss, Goldwater urged his supporters not to give up the fight for free markets, smaller government, and the American family. It was the collective conviction that Americans could build better lives for their families if they could keep more of what they earned and decide for themselves how to raise their children that kept these people invested in American politics.