Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: A Goldwater message

Tuesday, March 7, 2000 | 9:09 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

Gov. George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain have both been doing their best to convince Republican voters that they are the second coming of President Ronald Reagan. Although we hear them mention the names of Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln every now and then, they always return to "I'm a Reagan Republican."

For several reasons, the name of Reagan resonates with the voters of today who want to be known as conservatives. The good qualities of Roosevelt and Lincoln are difficult for an egocentric society to appreciate or at least put into the context of modern-day living. Reagan, a lovable individual, is still with us and any of his political and presidential shortcomings are easily overlooked.

Reagan and political conservatism are grasped to the bosoms of large numbers of Republicans with Bush and McCain wanting to snuggle into their hearts and minds. Bush has added the word "compassionate" to the title of Republican or Reagan conservative. Because the reputation of some conservatives has included a sharp edge of social negativism and a narrow view of governmental responsibility, he found it necessary to add "compassionate." Wise Democrats, hoping to win elections, have had to, for the same reasons, distinguish themselves from the extreme left. Office seekers, at either extreme, seldom win general elections.

Conservatives feel comfortable with Reagan, but most of them know that their modern-day movement goes back to the time Reagan was still trying to figure out if he was a Republican or Democrat. The first person to define conservatism and carry its flag into political combat was the late Barry Goldwater. Although both Goldwater and modern conservatism crashed when taking off in 1964, he was the standard-bearer. Later he returned for three more productive terms in the Senate as a conservative leader.

Reagan, because of Goldwater's courage, picked up some of the conservative pieces 16 years later and carried them into the White House. The conservatives needed Reagan more than he needed them, so they continue to cling to his image two decades later. In 1992 along came Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, who won by forcing the liberal Democrats back toward the center of the political spectrum. The Democrats had, like the Republicans, learned that it's necessary to get elected before occupying the White House.

This year it's Bush using words to show he isn't an extremist and McCain who has been willing to openly challenge the extreme religious right now muscling the GOP to outlandish positions. McCain's willingness to challenge both Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell really stirred things up in recent weeks. Robertson had attacked former GOP Sen. Warren Rudman, McCain's election chairman, as a "vicious bigot" because he hasn't swallowed all of Pat's political nonsense. McCain responded sharply, and now some Republicans say he will lose their support because he was too tough. The truth has shocked them.

Goldwater, after serving his country and the Senate for almost 50 years, took a look at the religious right challenged recently by fellow Arizonan McCain. In 1988 Goldwater looked into the future and in his book predicted the problems his party could face and wrote:

"There are also divisions among traditionalists, especially among some old-timers like myself and the Moral Majority. I once said that the Rev. Jerry Falwell needed a swift kick in the ass. That's shorthand for my reservations about various Moral Majority preachings and practices, including their emphasis on money. Although Falwell is no longer the formal leader of the Moral Majority, he is still the real force behind it.

"Falwell, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggart, and other TV evangelists are not the only or necessarily the best representatives of the moral America in which most of us believe. Some of these checkbook clergy are too busy collecting money, Rolls-Royces and private jets. Their lives are clothed in the materialist ethic."

It would be wise for the people, from both parties, to do a little more thinking and reading. The Republicans shocked by McCain could start by reading "Goldwater" published by Doubleday.