Liberals Strike Back at Goldwater Win

In 1963, the prevailing mythology of the Left held there never had been and never could be a genuine movement toward conservatism among young people serious about politics. When an avowed backer of Barry Goldwater was elected chairman of the huge Young Republican National Federation, therefore, the event was viewed as an outrage against decency which must have been the result of subterfuge and violence. The Liberal press accordingly portrayed the ’63 YR convention in San Francisco as the handiwork of right-wing radicals, extremists, racists, John Birchers, and assorted maniacs who had thwarted the aspirations of the majority.

In 1965, the mythology holds that the only possible course for the Republican Party is to “modernize” itself with all deUberate speed and embrace such saviors of the Republic as George Romney and William Scranton and John Lindsay.

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M. Stanton Evans

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In 1963, the prevailing mythology of the Left held there never had been and never could be a genuine movement toward conservatism among young people serious about politics. When an avowed backer of Barry Goldwater was elected chairman of the huge Young Republican National Federation, therefore, the event was viewed as an outrage against decency which must have been the result of subterfuge and violence. The Liberal press accordingly portrayed the ’63 YR convention in San Francisco as the handiwork of right-wing radicals, extremists, racists, John Birchers, and assorted maniacs who had thwarted the aspirations of the majority.

In 1965, the mythology holds that the only possible course for the Republican Party is to “modernize” itself with all deUberate speed and embrace such saviors of the Republic as George Romney and William Scranton and John Lindsay.