One of my favorite politicians in all of American history is Barry Goldwater. It was his ability to speak his mind, whatever the consequences, that made him both a horrible candidate for any national office, and a man I would cheerfully call one of the few truly decent men I’ve ever heard of.

We are told that many people lack skills and cannot find jobs because they do not have an education. It’s like saying that people have big feet because they wear big shoes. The fact is that most people who have no skills have no education for the same reason–low intelligence or ambition.

I may not totally agree with this (the implied spirit of the comment is that people who have no skills are therefore stupid), but I cherish the candor that the man had who said it.

I’m reading a book, titled A Glorious Disaster, written by J. William Middendorf II (treasurer to Goldwater’s failed bid for the presidency in 1964, United States Ambassador to the European Union from 1985 to 87, Secretary of the Navy under Nixon, Ford, and Reagan, among other titles). In it, he, as an insider to the candidate’s run, gives a very frank discussion of what went right and what went wrong. It’s a dense novel, but a good one. Through it, I’ve been getting a really good picture of who Goldwater was as a man, which is often glossed over.

In your heart, you know he’s right.

- 1964 Presidential Campaign slogan

p. Which, of course, is precisely what Goldwater wanted; when he was challenging for the Republican nomination in 1963 against Nelson Rockefeller and a Romney (George W. Romney, the current creepy Republican Mitt Romney’s father), he made certain that his personal life, his hobbies, et al, were not to be made into the issue of the day. He said it was to be an election of principles, not personalities.

Of course, one of the reasons the 1964 election was such a landslide (with a 22.6% lead over Goldwater, LBJ’s election was the fourth largest margin of victory in the popular vote for president) was that Goldwater did not focus on his personal life. His love of photography. Of amateur radio. Of UFOs (in 1988, he told Larry King that he believes the US government is holding back evidence of UFOs).

He laid the foundation for the election of Reagan in 1981.

Barry died in 1998 at the age of 89. And if he were alive today, looking at the incarnation of the Republican Party today…

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 I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of “conservatism.”

The “preachers” who have taken control of the Republican party (as he predicted they would) have undone all the things that Goldwater fought to build into the Republican party. He believed in compromise, in the political system, in freedom’s ability to give a you and me power over our different destinies. He believed in people. And to see the division today would have pissed him off royally.

You don’t have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight.

You don’t have to be a Republican to enjoy the man or this book. I bought it initially for my father who, in the 60s, was a member of the ‘Hippies for Goldwater’ grassroots campaign in Washington state. My father has always appreciated people who speak their minds. That’s the way I was raised.

And though I consider myself exceedingly socially liberal, I can’t help but agree with lots of stuff that Goldwater stood for back in the 60s. Some of the same things that Ron Paul stands for today. It’s strange to think that what was considered right-wing extremism in the ’60s sounds an awful lot like a moderate Democrat’s views today. Tell the government to stop telling me how to run my life. Smaller government makes a more efficient government. A man should have the right to be in charge of his own success.

Maybe I should throw my support behind Hillary Clinton. She was, after all, a supporter of Goldwater.