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Goldwater Says Democrats are Socialists

Oct. 9, 1964 - Senator Barry Goldwater returned to warmer political latitudes yesterday and said he wished the Democratic party would change its name to the “Socialist party” because “that’s what they are.”

As he campaigned from the Texas plains to the Rio Grande to his hometown of Phoenix, Ariz., he found receptive conservative audiences for such assertions.

In the meantime, a source intimately familiar with the Republican Presidential candidate’s thinking said that Goldwater believed the “gut issue” of the campaign to be President Johnson’s integrity.

In Goldwater’s view, this issue can be graphically stated: Would you want to buy a used car from Lyndon Johnson?

The gibe was not original with Goldwater. It was used during the 1960 Presidential campaign — by the Democrats against the Republican candidate, Richard Nixon.

At the municipal auditorium in Lubbock, Texas, yesterday, a capacity crowd of 11,000 persons roared “viva, olé” as Goldwater took the stand.

The Senator heaped scorn on Johnson, saying: “When he comes out here and puts high-heeled boots on and a 10-gallon hat and calls you ‘pardner,’ he sounds like a conservative banker. But back in Washington, when he wears plain old shoes and says ‘how do you do,’ he speaks an entirely different language. He’s a radical liberal.”

He added that “whether he likes it or not — or even knows it — he’s backing Socialism.”

Somewhat wistfully, Goldwater said:

“Oh, I wish these two parties could fight this out on proper grounds. I wish the opposition party would accept the term ‘Socialist party’ because, whether they know it or not, or like it or not, that is the road they are on. We are not calling these people something evil; we are merely calling them what they are.”

At El Paso, Goldwater warned his audience that to disarm unilaterally was the surest way to get the nation into what he called “World War IV.” This was at least the third time he had referred to World War IV, but he has not explained what happened to World War III.



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© 2024 by Joe Rubenstein

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