MODERN CONSERVATISM HAS MANY FATHERS. Edmund Burke of Ireland may be its originator, but in the last century, certainly, William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater were transformational figures.

Goldwater, especially, derided as he was by his opposition, warrants serious consideration. The senator from Arizona saw the dangers inherent with the New Deal redux envisioned by Lyndon Johnson, his prescient observation above being a stark reminder, and recent events in Nevada being a confirmation.

It will be 50 years ago this November that Goldwater suffered one of the largest losses in presidential election history. The Democrats celebrated, dancing on what they saw as the grave of conservatism.

Today the same are poised again to dance on the symbolic grave, as they envision victory in 2016. The continued capitulation of the Republican Party to increasingly leftist ideology assures presidential victory. Pockets of rebellion in the House, however, remain more difficult to dislodge.

But reflecting on the last 50 years, it seems we have sung dirges for conservatism before.

Early in 1963, the polls indicated a close race between Goldwater, the leading GOP candidate, and Kennedy, who had squeaked by Nixon in 1960 with a 110,000-vote victory out of 68 million cast. Kennedy’s presidency to that point had no signature legislative accomplishments, while the faceoff with Russia over Cuba could at best be described as a mixed “victory.”

The assassination of Kennedy in November changed the dynamics not only of the pending election, but of the nation as well. Dan Nowicki of the Arizona Republic describes the impact:

“Everything changed. … The grieving nation rallied around Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy’s vice president, who vowed to carry out the slain president’s agenda.”

Goldwater’s advisers encouraged him to abandon his conservative principles: Victory lies in the middle, they proclaimed.

Goldwater knew better: Those who stand in the middle of the road are a target, not a leader.

He stuck to his guns, acknowledging inwardly the inevitability of defeat, and soldiered on. His loss seemed to be a spectacular failure of conservatism.

Reality revealed: After Goldwater’s defeat the nation turned to the conservative option in five of the next six presidential elections. The dirges had been premature;

“In your heart you know he’s right.”

Today we hear the same rumblings on the political front. Now, instead of Democrats versus conservatives, we see a battle brewing between those in the middle and those on the far side of the road.

Republicans are aligned with Democrats on many issues, as they seek not to move the nation in their chosen direction but to maintain a status quo — to not rock the boat, no matter that it continues to drift ever leftward. In so doing the Republicans can hold on to their diminishing share of the pie.

Better a small piece than none at all. Better a Dole or McCain than a leader. Better a Romney than victory.

Change, proclaimed as desired by the current administration, has been found — but not in the direction promised. Solutions sought are elusive.

Blame is passed, while pointed solely at the opposition. Better to place blame than accept responsibility.

Those standing in opposition are ridiculed, declared to be mentally unstable, the brunt of late-night jokes.

“In your guts, you know he’s nuts.”

That was the response from LBJ supporters to the Goldwater slogan quoted above.

Right he was; though this will never be admitted by the disseminators of disdain.

In victory LBJ gave us the war in Vietnam, which devastated our country, yet not nearly to the same level as the abandonment of Vietnam devastated the people of South Vietnam.

“Hey, hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?” was the chant from the left.

A documentary from PBS titled “The City, After Liberation” described the fall of South Vietnam:

“To the surprise of the native Viet Cong who had been fighting for years to reunify Vietnam, northern cadre members were brought in to oversee the installation of a Soviet-style economy in the city and take over day-to-day rule. In the years after the fall of Saigon, as many as 400,000 Southerners who fought or worked for the ousted pro-American regime were rounded up and forced into re-education camps … to perform back-breaking menial labor and pen mindless ‘self-criticism.’”

But hey, what are the lives of 400,000 when one seeks an equitable redistribution of wealth and resources? One has to break a few eggs to make an omelet, right Uncle Joe?

Just as JFK’s assassination begat a presidency that was a mix of skilled political gamesmanship and disastrous foreign policy, LBJ begat Richard Nixon.

The Nixon scandals, some self-inflicted, many the culmination of oppositional contempt, threatened the nation. At this time, August 7, 1974, one of the men stepping forward was Senator Barry Goldwater.

Standing by principles, putting nation before party, the appropriate final haiku of inevitable fatality was delivered. President Nixon resigned the next day. Again The Democrats celebrated, again they danced on the grave of conservatism.

The political climate of today is similar to what was seen in the days of the “AU-H2O” — that is, “gold-water” — bumper stickers:

The right is evil. The right is crazy. The right is leading this nation to destruction under a crazed leadership.

“Hey, hey LBJ …”

A reasonable question: Who was the crazy one?

Today hundreds of armed federal soldiers (or are they the police?) have stormed a man’s land to collect a debt for grazing fees — not taxes as many believe — owed to the government.

Do we really need this level of firepower to collect a debt?

Who the crazy ones really are remains a reasonable question.

Hey, hey BLM, how many cows did you kill today?

The left now wants the government to provide all our needs from “cradle to grace,” as Benician political gadfly Bob Livesay once termed it. But grace won’t come to those who use government power for purposes of pillage and plunder.

The government now big enough to give us what we want is lining up its forces to take what we have.

If the next Republican candidate stands in the middle of the road, he is going to get run over — likely from both directions.

Dennis Lund is a mechanical engineer who lived in Benicia for more than 20 years.

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