It had been a tough row to hoe for Republicans lately. Since FDR in the 1930s, the government had been getting bigger and bigger, and the rights of individuals and local governments had been shrinking.
People were not happy, at least according to the Republican party.
Tired of higher taxes, increased governmental spending, and far-reaching federal programs like those introduced in LBJ's Great Society, Barry Goldwater was speaking for a generation of Republicans when he got up in San Francisco's Cow Palace and gave this speech. He wasted no time and minced no words telling his audience exactly what he thought the Democrats had done wrong—and would continue to do wrong if President Johnson was reelected.
To listen to Goldwater, the entire nation was in a state of serious despair, clinging to their freedom like a Kardashian clings to fame, on the verge of being turned into communist automatons in their own country.
He pledged to come in like a wrecking ball and take down the deceitful and heavy-handed government the Democrats had created. In a room full of Republicans, his words fell on sympathetic ears. In the general election, however, not everyone was as dissatisfied as BG might have hoped.
Happy days were definitely not here again for the party of Goldwater.
Questions About Dissatisfaction
- Check out the nomination acceptance speeches from recent GOP presidential nominees like Donald Trump, Mitt Romney, and John McCain. How do they use the concept of dissatisfaction to gain support for their candidacy? What similarities and differences are there between their approaches and Barry Goldwater's?
- What do you think Barry meant when he said that there was a "virtual despair among the many who look beyond material success for the inner meaning of their lives" (32)?
- How might a Democrat respond to Barry's assertions about how Democratic POTUSes are seriously messing up the country?
- Would BG have done better in the general election if he hadn't been so hard on Democrats in this speech? Was it a no-go no matter what he said?
Chew on This
Barry presents valid concerns about the governmental overreach and decreases in individual liberty that took place during the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations.
The the only people complaining about the progress America was making in the 1960s were Goldwater's Republican cronies. They couldn't stand it that Great Society programs were making life better for lots of Americans.