The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The good Lord raised this mighty Republic to be a home for the brave and to flourish as the land of the free-not to stagnate in the swampland of collectivism, not to cringe before the bully of communism.

Now, my fellow Americans, the tide has been running against freedom. Our people have followed false prophets. We must, and we shall, return to proven ways– not because they are old, but because they are true. We must, and we shall, set the tide running again in the cause of freedom. And this party, with its every action, every word, every breath, and every heartbeat, has but a single resolve, and that is freedom – freedom made orderly for this nation by our constitutional government; freedom under a government limited by laws of nature and of nature’s God; freedom – balanced so that liberty lacking order will not become the slavery of the prison cell; balanced so that liberty lacking order will not become the license of the mob and of the jungle.

Now, we Americans understand freedom. We have earned it, we have lived for it, and we have died for it. This Nation and its people are freedom’s model in a searching world. We can be freedom’s missionaries in a doubting world. But, ladies and gentlemen, first we must renew freedom’s mission in our own hearts and in our own homes.

During four futile years, the administration which we shall replace has distorted and lost that faith. It has talked and talked and talked and talked the words of freedom. Now, failures cement the wall of shame in Berlin. Failures blot the sands of shame at the Bay of Pigs. Failures mark the slow death of freedom in Laos. Failures infest the jungles of Vietnam. And failures haunt the houses of our once great alliances and undermine the greatest bulwark ever erected by free nations – the NATO community. Failures proclaim lost leadership, obscure purpose, weakening wills, and the risk of inciting our sworn enemies to new aggressions and to new excesses. Because of this administration we are tonight a world divided – we are a Nation becalmed. We have lost the brisk pace of diversity and the genius of individual creativity. We are plodding at a pace set by centralized planning, red tape, rules without responsibility, and regimentation without recourse.

Rather than useful jobs in our country, people have been offered bureaucratic “make work,” rather than moral leadership, they have been given bread and circuses, spectacles, and, yes, they have even been given scandals. Tonight there is violence in our streets, corruption in our highest offices, aimlessness among our youth, anxiety among our elders and there is a virtual despair among the many who look beyond material success for the inner meaning of their lives. Where examples of morality should be set, the opposite is seen. Small men, seeking great wealth or power, have too often and too long turned even the highest levels of public service into mere personal opportunity.

Now, certainly, simple honesty is not too much to demand of men in government. We find it in most. Republicans demand it from everyone. They demand it from everyone no matter how exalted or protected his position might be. The growing menace in our country tonight, to personal safety, to life, to limb and property, in homes, in churches, on the playgrounds, and places of business, particularly in our great cities, is the mounting concern, or should be, of every thoughtful citizen in the United States.” – Barry Goldwater – Excerpt from his 1964 Republican convention acceptance speech




5 Comments

  1. Sad to say, but I was just a little to young to vote for Barry because the voting age was still 21 back then, and I suppose my one vote wouldn’t have made any difference, but I truly believe Barry would have ranked right in there with Reagan and Trump as one of our greatest Presidents. Guess we’ll never know! Trekker Out

  2. Today’s quote initiated my interest in ‘Barry’ as he preferred to be called.

    According to his home (area, not state since he was born before Arizona became one of these united states) magazine ARIZONA HIGHWAYS, Barry was an excellent photographer first, and a bureaucrat second.
    Examples of his camera art are exquisite!

    ARIZONA HIGHWAYS magazine dedicated their December 2018 issue to his photographs.
    Perhaps after this phase of this Economic Lock-Down is ‘lifted’, you could check the back-stacks at a library for this, and other, issues of this excellent magazine.

  3. Sadly, not much has changed. Trump could have given this exact same speech in 2016. For 2020 he could add the ongoing coup d’etat that has been waged against him since before he took office. Just think of what could have happened had congress just done it’s job. Think of the sabotage executed by Paul Ryan from Jan 2017 to Jan 2019. Paul Ryan is a traitor to his country, to his Wisconsin congressional district, and to the American people. He is working diligently to do to Fox News what he did to Trump. What a scumbag!

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