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most absurd fantasies- a Goldwater presidency unrolling itself like a
bad thriller, cabinets full of Walkers and Tellers, condoned vigilantism
everywhere-with the aid of some reasonable remedy. But I'm afraid
that a dose of crackpot realism right now might be toxic. Of course,
the Republican presidential campaign may emerge as such a political
fiasco that, on the morning after election night, we will be asking
ourselves what corny, literary, European misrepresentation of American
political realities could have led us to be afraid, in the first place, that
Goldwater would do much better than Landon? But even if it does,
even
if
the pompous cliches about the utter workability of our two–
party system are reinforced, the whole affair ,of Goldwater's nomina–
tion-the man, his parody of a running-mate and his backers all being
regurgitated into World Events at a moment like this with the force
of a sick joke-is one of the most morally disgu-sting events in American
history.
JACK LUDWIG
The Movement
William Rusher, publisher of
The National Review,
under–
standably high these days, recently put it this way: "The conservative
movement found Senator Goldwater, Senator Goldwater found the
movement; it was like the meeting of the Blue and the White Nile."
Rusher also added-significantly, I think-that "what the liberals had
better understand is that we're here to stay, that we're a serious force
in American political life, with respectable politicians and intellectual
organs
at
OUT
command"
(unfortunately the italics are only mine).
The Rightist attitudes are old; what's new is the organization, the
escalating of crankiness and resentment into a "conservative philosophy."
Newer still is success. The key word is
win. Win
in Korea,
win
in Viet–
nam,
win
in San Francisco. Fanaticism merges with teleology. Tax
nuts, Roosevelt-haters, TVA-haters, Kennedy-haters, anti-Communist cru–
saders, pasters-of-"Red"-labels-on-Polish-hams, fluoridophobes, veterans
yearning for the good exciting
win
days, old maids afraid of rape by a
Negro, pinchy property owners, county political hacks, unrequited pre–
cinct captains are told by Barry, "Together we can win." San Francisco
is the demonstration. The despised and rejected, who for years had to
tuck away their crotchets and join the elegant Republican toffs from Bos-