Yup
From 'Out of Place' by Corey Robin:Goldwater rejected racism (though not nationalism), but try as he might, when discussing freedom he could not resist the tug of feudalism. He called states' rights "the cornerstone" of liberty, "our chief bulwark against the encroachment of individual freedom" by the federal government. In theory, states protected individuals rather than groups. But who in 1960 were these individuals?
Goldwater claimed that they were anyone and everyone, that states' rights had nothing to do with Jim Crow. Yet even he was forced to admit that the South's position on segregation "is, today, the most conspicuous expression of the principle" of states' rights. The rhetoric of states' rights threw up a cordon around white privilege. While surely the most noxious plank in the conservative platform--eventually, it was abandoned--Goldwater's argument for states' rights fit squarely within a tradition that sees freedom as a shield for inequality and a surrogate for mass feudalism.
From Ian Smith of Rhodesia's wikipedia entry:
In December 1967 Barry Goldwater, Senator from Arizona and Republican candidate for the 1964 presidential election, praised Smith in an interview with Harvey Ward in Salisbury, saying, "We need more men like Ian Smith, I think, in the world today. We have too few leaders and I'd like to see him multiplied a little bit, and spread around."
(That last quote is something else I don't remember seeing in Rick Perlstein's Goldwater bio. But then, Rick was far too kind to the old bastard.)
posted by RETARDO MONTALBAN @ 9:32 PM
<< Home