Firing Line With William F. Buckley: The New Frontier & The Great Society (1966)

Source:Firing Line With William F. Buckley- talking about The New Frontier and The Great Society, in 1966.

"Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: The New Frontier: The Great Society. 

Firing Line with William F. Buckley, Jr. 46.9K subscribers. Episode 008, Recorded on May 6, 1966 Guest: Richard N. Goodwin." 

From Firing Line With William F. Buckley 

"Mr. Goodwin was present at the creation-as WFB reminds us, he is credited with supplying "that ominous phrase, 'The Great Society' "-and he defends the Johnson program ably in this good-tempered session. RG: "Well, I think the Great Society ...represents a change or a breaking point from the ideas of the New Deal. I think the essential idea behind the New Deal was that rising prosperity, more equitably distributed among the people, would solve most of the problems of the country. . . . Now, having succeeded-not completely, but to quite a degree-in that effort ... we find it doesn't solve the major problems, the kinds of problems you talked about in your campaign [for Mayor of New York] ...and that now we have to turn our attention, not only ... to relief of the poor or dispossessed, but to the quality of life of every American." 

From the Hoover Institution 

This photo is from an interview that William F. Buckley did with U.S. Representative Wilbur Mills (Democrat, Arkansas) who was Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, when President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society agenda was passed in the mid 1960s. But the video is not currently available online right now.

Source:Firing Line With William F. Buckley- talking about The Great Society in 1967.

One of the things if not the main thing that united the Republican Party in the mid and late 1960s, was President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society agenda and all the social insurance programs that came with it. Similar to President Clinton in 1993-94 with his deficit reduction plan, crime bill, and failed health care reform attempt. 

Conservatives in America saw the growth of the Federal Government in the 1960s as a threat to individual freedom. Which is why they united behind Senator Barry Goldwater in 1964 and conservative candidates for Congress in 1966 and 68. And why they united behind Richard Nixon for President in 1968.

The GOP saw the Johnson Administration wanting to make America like Europe with a large welfare state. With things like Medicare and Medicaid, Head Start, Public Housing, increasing public education funding from the Federal Government, etc. 

And conservatives in America like Bill Buckley and others saw all of these programs as unconstitutional under the 10th Amendment. And didn’t like the new tax hikes that came from Medicare, especially since America was a fairly low tax country. Pre-FDR New Deal, LBJ Great Society and still a low tax country today compared with Europe. But Classical Conservatives and Libertarians, still believe that America is still overtaxed as a country.

American Conservatives wanted to get behind candidates and politicians who would work to downsize or eliminate the New Deal and Great Society. And they saw the Johnson Administration and Secretary Wilbur Cohen (of the Department of Health, Welfare and Education) as people who wanted to make America more like Europe from the Federal Government. At the expense of individual freedom and state and local government's and try to centralize the power with the Federal Government.

This is how Barry Goldwater, Ron Reagan and other Conservatives got into to power. And how Dick Nixon got back into power in 1968 and how more Conservative Republicans got elected to Congress in the late 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s. 

This is how the Republican Party became relevant again in the Federal Government and across America by running against the New Deal and Great Society and saying that they want to change it and still try to solve the same problems. But do it in a way that gives the people more individual freedom in how they solve their own problems.

In some ways the Goldwater defeat in 1964 and the LBJ Great Society was great for the Republican Party, because it brought them together and united them behind the same agenda. And why you saw more Conservatives run for Congress and get elected especially in the 70s, 80s and 90s. People like Trent Lott, Ted Stevens, Orrin Hatch, Al Simpson, Newt Gingrich, Dick Cheney, and may others. Because the Republican Party came together behind the same agenda. And how the Rockefeller faction of the party almost faded away.

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Firing Line with William F. Buckley: U.S. Senator Mark Hatfield- 'Was Barry Goldwater a Mistake?'

Source:Firing Line With William F. Buckley- interviewing U.S. Senator Mark Hatfield (Republican, Oregon) in 1967.

"Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: Was Goldwater a Mistake? Episode 081, Recorded on December 14, 1967 Guest: Mark O. Hatfield." 

From Firing Line With William F. Buckley 

"William F. Buckley: "Description: Senator Hatfield, from the liberal side of the Republican Party, positions himself perfectly in his opening answer: Goldwater wasn't a mistake in a parliamentary sense, because "the Republican Party deliberately nominated [him] in open convention," after primaries and state conventions made it clear he was grass-roots Republicans' choice. However, "I don't think Senator Goldwater as a person was rejected so much as was Senator Goldwater's basic approach to problems. He tended to evoke fear." Much is discussed--from the leadership qualities a President needs, to the different factions within the Republican Party--but Senator Hatfield, who attributes much of Goldwater's fear-evoking to his "off-the-cuff types of responses," never says anything that could disqualify him as the Republican vice-presidential candidate in 1968." 

From the Hoover Institution 

This photo is also from the interview that William F. Buckley did with U.S. Senator Mark Hatfield (Republican, Oregon) in 1967, but the video from which the photo came from is not currently available online.

Source:Firing Line With William F. Buckley- interviewing U.S. Senator Mark Hatfield (Republican, Oregon) in 1967.

By the time the 1964 presidential campaign came around, the Republican Party was already in bad shape. They lost the presidency in 1960, Democrats controlled Congress with huge majorities. And even added to those majorities in 1962. 

After 1962 the classical conservative base of the Republican Party, felt the needed to fight back and take control of the party as they did in 1964. After what they saw as moderate leadership from the Eisenhower Administration in the 1950s. And they saw Vice President Richard Nixon as a moderate presidential candidate.

This is how Senator Barry Goldwater became the 1964 Republican presidential nominee and one reason why Dick Nixon didn't run for president in 1964 and why Governor Nelson Rockefeller was treated so badly at the 1964 Republican Convention, was because a new political faction was in charge of the GOP. 

The Conservative-Right in the GOP believed the Kennedy-Johnson Administration was moving the Federal Government too far away from federalism. And growing the Federal Government too rapidly with the Great Society and they felt the need to step up and nominate someone who they saw as a Classical Conservative and a Constitutional Conservative. Who would bring the Federal Government back in line with the U.S. Constitution.

This is how exactly Senator Goldwater ran his presidential campaign and even had some success in the South. And won some Southern states that the Democratic Party use to own. 

1964 was the start of a movement in American politics, that started to move the South from being a purely Democratic region and made it more competitive for Republican candidates. Which is one reason how Dick Nixon was elected President in 1968. And got reelected in a landslide in 1972 and how the Republican Party won 5-6 presidential elections from 1968-88. Four of those elections that they won were by landslides.

The Republican Party paid a heavy price for Senator Goldwater's landslide lost in 1964, but for only two years. From 1965-67 where the Democratic Party had the presidency and huge majority's in Congress, but it was a short two years, because by 1966, President Johnson was starting to become unpopular. And Congressional Republicans picked up 47 seats in the House and four in the Senate. Republicans were still in the minority in both chambers of Congress, but back in the ballpark, with a shot at making Congress competitive.

Because in 1968 Republicans picked up five more seats in the House to give them 192 and seven in the Senate to give them 43. So the Democrats no longer had such huge majorities in Congress and be able to over run the minority party. Because the Republican Party now had new states and districts that were put in play for them. In some ways the 1964 general elections was a great defeat for the Republican Party. 

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