Is It All Goldwater's Fault?

History Lesson: The Republican Party was always a socialist party. Unlike socialists who favored egalitarian socialism, Republicans favored inegalitarian socialism; the economy and culture were to be centralized, but the upper crust was to be preserved. In the early 1960's, Barry Goldwater presented an alternative image of the Republican Party, that of being America's party of small government. This misled many baby boomers. When later the Republican Party did not bring about small government, these baby boomers attributed this to a lack of adherence to principle - a false diagnosis. So when a small group of baby boomers formed the LP in 1971, they called it "the party of principle" and became obsessed with the idea of preserving adherence to principle. This false diagnosis prevents rational thinking when discussing strategy and public image. It leads to an irrational fear of the slippery slope, a total inability to think in terms of piecemeal reform, a refusal to take "yes" for an answer.