{"id":1571063,"date":"2022-07-26T08:08:17","date_gmt":"2022-07-26T12:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1571063"},"modified":"2022-07-26T08:09:07","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T12:09:07","slug":"barry-goldwaters-1980-gop-convention-speech-resonates-amid-bidens-failing-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/barry-goldwaters-1980-gop-convention-speech-resonates-amid-bidens-failing-presidency\/","title":{"rendered":"Barry Goldwater\u2019s 1980 GOP Convention Speech Resonates Amid Biden\u2019s Failing Presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbarry-goldwaters-1980-gop-convention-speech-resonates-amid-bidens-failing-presidency%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1571063&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Forty-two years ago this month, the Republican National Convention in Detroit nominated Ronald Reagan for president, a move that would not only forever change the GOP but alter the course of American history.<\/p>\n<p>Reagan\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SBP2gvZTnwM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">acceptance speech<\/a>\u00a0from the 1980 convention is understandably the famous one, but another convention speech is also worthy of remembrance today, when so much of what ailed America in the Jimmy Carter era seems to be back with a vengeance.<\/p>\n<p>That would be\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/yPU_JPLu_R8?t=9579\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sen. Barry Goldwater\u2019s speech<\/a>. Goldwater, the unlikely Republican nominee in 1964, was entering the final stretch of his long political career. In the 16 years since his failed run for the White House, he had become a kind of elder statesman of the conservative wing of the GOP that was then coming into power. He understood clearly the problems facing the country, and what to do about them.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"u5hcvzRaJTo98ZKYg3QdUHfim6x\"><\/p>\n[embedded content]\n<p><\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Received at the convention hall to a loud, extended ovation, Goldwater launched into a speech that now reads like a commentary on the Biden administration. He opened with a \u201crecital of the tragic miscalculations of the president and his administration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose economic decisions that have given us the highest rate of inflation in our history. Those foreign policy decisions which have cost us the respect of our enemies and destroyed the confidence of our friends throughout the world. And those military decisions which have reduced us to the rank of a second-rate power.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>These problems, Goldwater explained, are not the fault of the American people, who did not forget who they are or abandon the principles of the Declaration of Independence. \u201cAnd yet this beloved country of ours stands in great peril,\u201d he said. \u201cOur fellow countrymen are distraught, confused, alarmed, and uncertain. Fear and distress abound.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As in 1980, so it is today. The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2022\/07\/10\/1110486735\/when-a-first-term-democratic-president-struggles-people-talk-about-jimmy-carter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">flurry<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/07\/05\/business\/economy\/inflation-biden-jimmy-carter.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recent<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/outlook\/2022\/01\/14\/jimmy-carter-biden-comparisons\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">comparisons<\/a>\u00a0in the corporate press between President Joe Biden and former President Jimmy Carter attest to the parallels. Never mind that most of these pieces are facile attempts to defend the Biden administration by arguing that, really, Carter wasn\u2019t that bad and the failures of his presidency weren\u2019t his fault. The comparison is nevertheless apt.<\/p>\n<p>The fact is, America in 2022 is beset with problems that look a lot like the problems of the Carter era: record-high inflation, gas prices at historic highs, rising crime, multiple foreign policy crises, flagging confidence in the American military, and economic recession hanging in the air. Like Carter, Biden is unequal to the task. Not only does he seem incapable of fixing these problems, he doesn\u2019t even seem to understand them (and his administration refuses to acknowledge them).<\/p>\n<p>Goldwater, who saw all these things playing out during the Carter administration, knew what was needed: \u201cIt is my solemn belief that we must order a dramatic change in the course this country is headed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The rising distrust of the government \u2014 as well-deserved in 1980 as it is today \u2014 must change to confidence in it, he said. There must be a change from uncertainty and weakness to strength and trust. We must \u201cturn our backs on the false promises of something for nothing\u201d and the \u201cperpetual care and eternal bliss\u201d of a \u201csuper-federal state,\u201d and reaffirm our belief in a Constitution that \u201cguarantees individual freedom, and\u00a0<em>demands<\/em>\u00a0individual responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Not surprisingly, given the ongoing Iran hostage crisis and rising tensions with the Soviet Union, Goldwater emphasized the need for a strong foreign policy and a peerless military. Taking a shot directly at Carter over the Iran debacle, he said, \u201cIf our leaders had displayed the guts and the courage that America is noted for, no country in this world would ever have taken hostages from us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Instead, America was projecting weakness: \u201cOther nations in the free world, dismayed and confused by the aimless, inconsistent, contradictory foreign policy of the United States, have lost confidence in our leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Almost every charge Goldwater leveled at the Carter administration and the Washington establishment in 1980 could be leveled at Biden and the political establishment today. What, after all, is Biden\u2019s foreign policy if not aimless, inconsistent, and contradictory? After the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan last fall, Biden has embarked on a muddled and ineffectual response to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, with an open-ended commitment of financial aid and weapons that has depleted our resources and distracted from the only genuine major threat to American national security: communist China.<\/p>\n<p>Even if younger Americans today have no memory of the Carter years, their dissatisfaction with Biden after less than two years in office mirrors the dissatisfaction with Carter near the end of his single term in office. Recent polling showed Biden with a record low\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/07\/20\/poll-bidens-approval-rating-just-hit-another-record-low\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">36 percent approval rating<\/a>, which is around where\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/statistics\/data\/jimmy-carter-public-approval\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Carter\u2019s approval rating<\/a>\u00a0was for the last 10 months of his presidency.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Goldwater ended his convention speech on a note of warning that America was in grave danger. \u201cWe are Republicans,\u201d he said. \u201cWe love our republic. And our job, ladies and gentlemen, is to defend it \u2014 and let me tell you,\u00a0<em>save it<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  John Daniel Davidson is a senior editor at The Federalist. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Claremont Review of Books, The New York Post, and elsewhere. Follow him on Twitter, @johnddavidson.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forty-two years ago this month, the Republican National Convention in Detroit nominated Ronald Reagan for president, a move that would not only forever change the GOP but alter the course<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":518,"featured_media":1897814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1571063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_finder_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/07\/26\/barry-goldwaters-1980-gop-convention-speech-resonates-amid-bidens-failing-presidency\/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=barry-goldwaters-1980-gop-convention-speech-resonates-amid-bidens-failing-presidency","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1571063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1897814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1571063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1571063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1571063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}