Palin nonetheless delivered a speech steeped in the late Arizonan's extremist brand of conservatism. In his 1960 manifesto The Conscience of a Conservative, Goldwater wrote, "I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden." Palin took an equally extremist anti-Washington/anti-government stance, fulminating against the 2009 Recovery and Reinvestment Act by condemning the "fat strings attached" to federal stimulus dollars and by accusing the Obama administration of baldly using the stimulus as a power grab that "disrespect[s] the Tenth Amendment of our Constitution." (Never mind the denunciation of Miranda Rights that she herself had made minutes earlier.)
I don't follow. Never mind the shameless attempt to try and brand free-market conservatism as equivalent to violent political terrorism, what in what in God's name does Sarah Palin have to do with Barry Goldwater?
One may disagree with Conscience of a Conservative from an ideological standpoint, but I think it is safe to say that all can agree the short work is a highly principled, highly consistent essay. It builds on classical liberal political and economic thought and does so quite coherently. Goldwater's book is a testament to individual liberty as a moral end in and of itself. If you disagree with that, fine. But don't say "Well, Sarah Palin is one of the current faces of conservatism and Barry Goldwater is one of the older faces, so Sarah Palin must be today's Barry Goldwater."
Sarah Palin believes in centrally planned nation-building. She believes the federal government should determine who can and cannot get married. She believes the federal government should dictate what you can and cannot put into your own body. Like most so-called conservatives, Sarah Palin loves to espouse the wonders and beauties of the free market when it suits her purposes. But if she doesn't like the outcome of the market (aka individuals making their own decisions), then she will attempt to use the coercive power of the State to enforce her way and outlaw alternatives in a flash.
Barry Goldwater may not have been a practical politician and he have held views that many found and still find unreasonable. But the man was no hypocrite. Sarah Palin is.
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