Every campaign season we're told politics has become dirtier than ever. Really?
ROTFLMAO! So much for this being the "dirtiest campaign ever."
Politics has never been friendly. Politics is brutal. Politics is a fight for and against power. Power corrupts. Absolutely.
The Death of Politics
Barry Goldwater, during his 1964 campaign, repeatedly said that "the government strong enough to give you what you want is strong enough to take it all away." Conservatives, as a group, have forgotten, or prefer to ignore, that this applies also to government's strength to impose social order. If government can enforce social norms, or even Christian behavior, it can also take away or twist them.
To repeat: Conservatives yearn for a state, or "leadership," with the power to restore order and to put things — and people — back in their places. They yearn for political power. Liberals yearn for a state that will bomb the rich and balm the poor. They too yearn for political power. Libertarians yearn for a state that cannot, beyond any possibility of amendment, confer any advantage on anyone; a state that cannot compel anything, but simply prevents the use of violence, in place of other exchanges, in relations between individuals or groups.
Such a state would have as its sole purpose (probably supported exclusively by use taxes or fees) the maintenance of a system to adjudicate disputes (courts), to protect citizens against violence (police), to maintain some form of currency for ease of commerce, and, as long as it might be needed because of the existence of national borders and differences, to maintain a defense force.
One more time ... Politics is a fight for and against power. Power corrupts. Absolutely.
Conservatives yearn for a state, or "leadership," with the power to restore order and to put things — and people — back in their places
Conservatives want no such thing. Christians want no such thing either. This is just left wing slander, Democrat electioneering propaganda, and evidently a somewhat neurotic hobby horse of yours. This business of "Christians imposing their morality through government" is pure hogwash. Stop putting words in their mouths What they are doing is opposing the Left's attempt to strip America of their own morality. American culture has been so debasede at this point that even people like you cannot tell the difference.
Once again, this blog demonstrates utter ignorance of the Conservative movement in the USA. Why don't you actually read Goldwater while you are out their cherry picking.
While you are at it, stop confusing 19th century conceptions of "Conservatism" and "Liberalism" with what they have come to mean today.
I swear, I have never seen such willfully obtuse commentary form people who certainly ought to know better.
The quote that upset you so much was written by Barry Goldwater's speechwriter Karl Hess, who also served as ghostwriter for a large percentage of Goldwater's articles. In other words, those ARE Goldwater's words.
@hattip - Whatever, dude? People calling themselves conservatives (usually those in CFR) have increased gov. every bit as much as those with your hated liberal label.
Here's a post to a lot of key Goldwater quotes, written by himself to be sure, dealing with our true archenemies, globalists writing our foreign and domestic policy: http://tinyurl.com/2a97dtv
I think that video proves that the founders could do everything better than us. When it comes to dirty politics, they could show us how to really do it!