Barry Goldwater, the father of the modern conservative movement, never met a racist or bigot he didn’t love. Those people were the foundation of his infamous brainchild—the Southern Strategy—which leveraged racist sympathies to wedge Southern whites away from the Democratic Party. But even he foresaw the dangers of the Christian right.
“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem,” Goldwater said in 1994, as quoted in John Dean’s 2006 book, “Conservatives Without Conscience.” “Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.” Amen, Barry.
In the wake of the Dobbs Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and the fierce national backlash against conservative infringement on our personal freedoms, some of those Christian conservatives are starting to feel … uneasy.