A Speech Revisited: Extremism in the Defense of Liberty is No Vice

The situation our nation faces in 2018 suggests that history truly does need examination using a different lens.

In my humble opinion (IMHO), it is a tragedy that everybody tends to quote the atheist (aka communist, IMHO) from Spain Jorge Agustin Nicolas Ruiz de Santayana y Borras (aka George Santayana) born in 1863, when he supposedly said, “Those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it,” rather than quoting Edmund Burke (Anglo-Irish statesman; staunch supporter of the American Revolution) born in 1729 when he said, “People will not look forward to prosperity who never look backward to their ancestors,” in his book The Reflections on the French Revolution, written in 1790.

Another tragedy is the short shrift that is given to Barry Goldwater (the great libertarian leaning Republican candidate for President in 1964) versus the democrat, socialist, communist (IMHO) former President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Go back in history to the Republican national convention in San Francisco where Barry Goldwater gave a speech that was filled with inspiration and wonderful small r republican principles … the very principles that are burning right now, in the ongoing march forward of the destructive socialist policies of Lyndon Baines Johnson.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/may98/goldwaterspeech.htm?noredirect=on

Maybe by reviewing some of Barry Goldwater’s motivating clarity of purpose we can re-ignite some of the pride he had for the Republican Party and for the United States of America, re-ignite the flame to restore American principles and enforce constitutional limitations upon our bloated government bureaucracy, and thereby douse the flames of anarchy that have been signed, sealed and delivered by men like Johnson with his Great (socialist) Society (IMHO).

Early in Goldwater’s speech, he said, and I quote: “The good Lord raised this mighty Republic to be a home for the brave and to flourish as a land of the free – not to stagnate in the swampland of collectivism, not to cringe before the bullying of communism.” End quote.

Yet today, we stand on the very edge of the fine line between Liberty and the bullying of communism.  Make no mistake about it, the stakes are huge, our opponents never sleep, and we must be braver than brave if we are to ever again truly stand free. We cannot let our American Republic burn when so many men have spent blood, sweat and tears to protect and defend her.

Candidate Goldwater went on to say, “Now certainly simple honesty is not too much to demand of men in government.”

I envision Mr. Goldwater rolling over in his grave in the year 2018 where it is now almost as if honesty is a thread-bare old coat left to catch fire in a dusty broken down attic somewhere in the recesses of our mind, possibly never to be worn again.

Haven’t we reached a time where the pendulum has to stop in its tracks, where we must grab hold of it, pull it back to center, then get behind it and push it to the side where pride and honesty, love of God and safe streets are cherished again, not mocked?

Barry Goldwater had something to say about safe streets in this almost forgotten but truly memorable speech.  He said, “History shows us – it demonstrates that nothing prepares the way for tyranny more than the failure of public officials to keep the streets safe from bullies and marauders.”

Imagine that, elected officials focusing on the most important constitutional duty of government at all levels – protecting the citizenry from outside aggression and inside insurrection.  Our politicians need to be reminded that the protection of our streets is their primary responsibility, and the citizenry needs to know that if our elected officials choose to continue to ignore their primary responsibility, we must find men and women who understand this constitutional mandate, so that they put a stop to the burning of our cities.

Barry Goldwater went on to list what he considered to be the essence of republicanism.  He said, “The cause of republicanism was to resist concentration of power and to ensure that power remains in the hands of the people.”  He said that, “the cause of republicanism is to restore a clear understanding of the tyranny of man over man in the world at large, to dispel the foggy thinking which avoids hard decisions in the delusion that a world of conflict will somehow mysteriously resolve itself into a world of harmony if we just don’t rock the boat or irritate the forces of aggression – and this,” he said, “is hogwash.”

Are you listening President Trump, Senate Majority Leader McConnell, House Speaker Ryan … Attorney General Sessions?  The list goes on.  Are you listening?  You should be.

And then, near the end of this must-read speech, Mr. Goldwater went on to say, “I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.”

Before the mobs of 2018 find faux support in these words of wisdom, the extremism we see on our streets today is not defending liberty but destroying liberty (IMHO).

I have read that Barry Goldwater was known for his alleged “blunt comments,” and the partisan media of his day used every tool in their box to destroy his character and thereby destroy his chances to become the 36^th President of the United States.  In the lens of history, I only wish that he had been elected President so that we would not still today be burdened with the unrealistic, unsustainable, in fact destructive policies of President Lyndon Johnson.

The modern day Republican Party would do well to go back, study their own history, and reclaim the glory that must have been alive during the founding of our blessed nation; that great men like Edmund Burke were able to see from across the ocean, and great men like Barry Goldwater were able to identify.

This is our day; we are living what will become history to generations yet born.  We must find a way to rewrite the American Dream and put out the flames of anarchy.