Newsweek
Updated: 2:03 p.m. ET Sept 16, 2006
Sept. 16, 2006 - As the granddaughter of Barry Goldwater, I am often asked what I think my grandfather would have felt about the direction of today+óGé¼Gäós Republican Party. What I found in the past year I spent making a documentary about the man, +óGé¼+ôMr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater,+óGé¼-¥ is that my grandfather is one person for whom it is pretty hard to speak. He was vocal about his opinions, which he presented with a rare clarity.Still, those opinions have echoes today, and as the documentary shows, while my grandfather didn+óGé¼Gäót leave his party, his party has left him. Though he+óGé¼Gäós often depicted as the father of conservatism, Barry Goldwater would be considered a moderate today. He was firmly pro-choice, a supporter of gay rights and, in his later years, said that he thought it was okay for gays to serve in the military.
Fundamentally, it+óGé¼Gäós clear that Barry would not have been comfortable with the increasing influence of the Christian right over the GOP. My grandfather would have been appalled by the whole political grandstanding of the Terri Schiavo mess.
We need to remember the true values and freedoms the Constitution guarantees us. The main lesson I learned from my grandfather: +óGé¼+ôGovernment needs to stay out of personal lives, and do the job that we entrusted them with+óGé¼GÇ¥to run and govern our country efficiently and truthfully, according to the laws our forefathers crafted.+óGé¼-¥ That+óGé¼Gäós a message worth remembering today.Throughout my life, I was encouraged to be honest and truthful to all those I came in contact with. We need to encourage our youth to do the same. That begins with the people we look up to, our parents and government. We have to have something that we can trust and believe in and not fear. +óGé¼+ôTrust and fear cannot coexist at the same time,+óGé¼-¥ Barry said. Anyone who motivates our decisions by fear cannot restore the principles of a country founded in freedom. +óGé¼+ôI will support whoever is running our country as long as they abide by those principles and will run our country and not our lives.+óGé¼-¥
Somebody's got to reign in the extremism of today's Republican party.