Restructuring the Republican Party After Defeat: The Goldwater Model, Part 1

By Jerry Ryburg

With the election of Sen. Barack Hussein Obama(D-IL) as our nations 44^th president, along with stinging Republican defeats in the senate, congress, and gubernatorial races, the Democrats have sent a sharp message to the Republicans, and have effectively declared the GOP out of order and out of touch with the desires of this country. Most of us never thought we would ever see the day where a platform of relaxed border patrols, class warfare, socialism, and tax hikes during times of economic crisis would win a national election, but that is exactly what we have seen before our very eyes.

The bad news first: We’re in this for at least four years; the good news: These next four years should be plenty enough time for the GOP to revive its base with considerable, pivotal reforms within the party to regain control, and thrust this country back to its roots. I’m calling on all libertarians, independents, republicans, and anyone else who identifies themselves with the conservative cause to rise up, and let’s get to work as soon as we can. We can either call on our GOP politicians to uncompromisingly adopt our conservative values, or we can raise up new leaders to take on the task. My fellow brothers and sisters, let me introduce you to what I call The Goldwater Model.

Before Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater was the major voice of conservatism, and was an influential leader in the early conservative revival which paved the way for Reagan to be elected president in 1980. The Goldwater Institute of Phoenix, AZ, which prides itself of being “devoted to the principles championed by the late Senator Barry Goldwater such as ‘individual rights, economic freedom, and a government of strictly limited powers,’" is just one political “think tank” paying tribute to his legacy to this day.

What is the first step the Republican Party can take? The GOP needs to distance itself from the so-called “Religious Right.” The GOP has been completely taken over by those evangelicals and “Christians” who are determined to turn this country into a theocracy with the GOP as its head. There are so many issues which this country needs to tackle in which we do not need the Religious Right(RR) to distract with other issues. The irony of the RR is that they are not conservative, nor libertarian, as evidenced for their demands for federal laws banning abortion, gay marriage, drug use, euthanasia, etc. The RR asks for “big government” laws to forward their agenda, thus negating “individual rights” of the states, as well as their fellow Americans.

Goldwater himself warned of such a thing in 1994 in an interview with the Washington Post, saying, “When you say ‘radical right’ today, I think of these moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others who are trying to take the Republican party and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss politics goodbye.” In criticizing the Moral Majority organization led by the late Jerry Falwell for opposing the nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court bench, Goldwater said, “Every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass.” And finally, when he observed the state of the GOP, being hijacked by the RR, he said, “Do not associate my name with anything you do. You are extremists, and you've hurt the Republican party much more than the Democrats have.”

What the RR needs to understand is that their “issues” do not have any pivotal effect whatsoever in the major issues which frame our policy-making which govern this country in a way defending the Constitution. Abortion, drugs, gay marriage, etc. are just smokescreens distracting our lawmakers from tackling the real issues i.e. terrorism, the financial crisis, economy, taxes, border patrol, etc. The RR needs to realize that their “hot button” issues, are issues to be discussed within their families, churches, and study groups, and private schools--they should not be legislated at the federal level.

Finally, my message to the RR is this: While there is much chatter about how the Democratic Party is not the same as it used to be, the same can be said, if not more emphatically, about the GOP. I am not criticizing the positions of the RR as evil, radical, or out of touch. On a personal basis, I would side with the RR on many issues, yet only on a local and state level. My request to the RR is simply to step aside, and let us shape the policies which made the GOP a once great party and reclaim our country the way our founding fathers intended. Whether the RR likes it or not, the policies of the RR are secondary, maybe even tertiary, concerns which can be dealt with later, after our reconstruction. Otherwise, the Dems will always look at the GOP as Barry Goldwater said in 1989—that the GOP has been taken over by a “bunch of kooks.”

My last piece of advice is one of my favorite quotes of all times: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” – George Santayana.

Let us not forget! Now, let’s get to work.