Barry Goldwater’s 1981 Critique of Intolerance in American Public Policy Deliberations

Abstract

In 1981, Old Right Senator Barry Goldwater delivered “To Be Conservative” opposing tactics of the New Right. The speech, which sparked nationwide approval on editorial pages, articulated a case against intolerance and disrespect for constitutionally grounded democratic processes that are essential to freedom and policy deliberations for common good. Using cluster-agon analysis, this essay shows how Goldwater positioned “Freedom” and “Intolerance” as agonistic terms. He further dissociated conservatism into its “old” or “true” and “new” or “apparent” forms, which corresponded to “Freedom” and “Intolerance,” and summoned “decent people” connected to the New Right to resist extremists’ uncompromising ways. Though fervent, Goldwater refused to vilify his adversaries, focusing instead on decreasing intolerant rhetoric. Goldwater’s advocacy exemplified Ivie’s ideal of democratic dissent and offers lessons for promoting healthy public deliberation.

Keywords:

• Barry Goldwater
• Cluster Agon (Burke)
• Conservatism (United States)
• Democratic Dissent
• Dissociation (Argumentation)
• Rhetorical Leadership

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank both editors, but particularly Robert Rowland for his dedication and insightful guidance on the manuscript. I am grateful to the reviewers for their constructive and thoughtful suggestions, to UWM librarian Molly Mathias for her assistance, to Jacob Justice for his careful citation verification work, and to Brian Wismar for his generous help in checking the galley proofs.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Rhetoric Society of America Convention, Minneapolis, MN, on June 2, 2018. A UWM Graduate School Arts and Humanities Research Travel Award and a College of Letters and Science Humanities Scholarly Activity Award helped fund travel to present at that convention.