The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays (V385)

An analysis of Barry Goldwater's bid for the Presidency in 1964, this book outlines the inception of the "culture war", the battle between liberal and conservative world-views. Goldwater was the first Republican to employ the Southern Strategy, courting the votes of disaffected whites in the face of the civil rights movement. Goldwater's beliefs, from the termination of all government aid to education, and the end of all impediments to laissez-faire economic policy---even extending to the dismissal of the authority of the Supreme Court, when the court ran counter to conservative mantra---have become part and parcel of the modern Conservative movement.