Barry Goldwater was pro-choice, pro-LGBTQQ, and told the remains of his following to eject the Religious Right from the GOP due to what he called a blatant theocratic matrix of power that would destroy politics in America, essentially pre-saging the modern debacle of the Republican Party by 25 years. His sort of populist cowboy demeanor combined with austerity economic theory under the guise of anti-intellectual cherry picking of the Constitution was akin to the Ron and Rand Paul dog and pony show we witness today. Ronald Reagan was able to shape himself into a President by pretending to be Goldwater's second coming. Martin Luther King Jr. said that he found his views suicidal and the compliment to bigotry and racism, even though Goldwater fancied himself as opposed to racism.
The film skirts the major reason why Goldwater matters at all, regardless of his bogus theories of Conservatism: the Goldwater election flipped the Democratic Solid South to the GOP. Four years after making a fool of himself, Goldwater watched Nixon hire the same politicos and staff from the 64 Draft Goldwater organizations, who told bitter whites that they were a 'Silent Majority' of decent Americans, not bigots and racists who were angry about the end of an apartheid society.
A shrill and absurdly bizarre film that looks damned good and has great interview subjects, despite the fact that Goldwater is a real source of modern political stupidity and deadlock.
The film skirts the major reason why Goldwater matters at all, regardless of his bogus theories of Conservatism: the Goldwater election flipped the Democratic Solid South to the GOP. Four years after making a fool of himself, Goldwater watched Nixon hire the same politicos and staff from the 64 Draft Goldwater organizations, who told bitter whites that they were a 'Silent Majority' of decent Americans, not bigots and racists who were angry about the end of an apartheid society.
A shrill and absurdly bizarre film that looks damned good and has great interview subjects, despite the fact that Goldwater is a real source of modern political stupidity and deadlock.