Barry I miss you

Era un repubblicano. Ma non aveva niente a che vedere con le mezze tacche neocon odierne. Era un conservatore, ma aveva ben chiaro cosa fosse importante conservare e le questioni verso le quali invece la società avrebbe dovuto aprirsi. E soprattuto dava dei gran calci nel culo ai bigotti che, al fine di imporre la loro concezione confessionale della vita e della politica volevano restringere le libertà che sono alla base della grandezza dell'occidente (e che secondo me - al di là di tutto - lo mantengono a tutt'oggi grande).
Se oggi nello scenario politico mondiale i conservatori e la destra più in generale fossero rappresentati in primis da gente come Barry Goldwater, come Rudy Giuliani, gente insomma che è a favore del libero mercato, della tolleranza zero contro il crimine, ma che anche delle libertà civili ed ha una visione laica e secolarizzata della politica, beh, superfluo dire che il sottoscritto si dichiarerebbe orgogliosamente conservatore. Peccato che però oggi la situazione non sia per nulla così.
Però, augurandomi con tutto il cuore che Giuliani nel 2008 trionfi, voglio elencare alcune affermazioni di Barry Goldwater che riassumono bene il suo pensiero. Sarei veramente curioso oggi di sentire cosa direbbe dell'estremismo religioso imperante in gran parte del mondo e soprattutto del terrorismo che rappresenta il vero cancro della nostra epoca.


"On religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both.
I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in "A," "B," "C" and "D." Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?
And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate.
I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of "conservatism."
Speech in the US Senate (16 September 1981)


"I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass."
July, 1981, in response to Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell's opposition to the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court, of which Falwell had said, "Every good Christian should be concerned."—Ed Magnuson, Time Magazine, The Brethren's First Sister, July 20, 1981. Retrieved 1/1/07.


"My faith in the future rests squarely on the belief that man, if he doesn't first destroy himself, will find new answers in the universe, new technologies, new disciplines, which will contribute to a vastly different and better world in the twenty-first century. Recalling what has happened in my short lifetime in the fields of communication and transportation and the life sciences, I marvel at the pessimists who tell us that we have reached the end of our productive capacity, who project a future of primarily dividing up what we now have and making do with less. To my mind the single essential element on which all discoveries will be dependent is human freedom."
With No Apologies (1979)



"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!"
Acceptance Speech as the 1964 Republican Presidential candidate.


"The big thing is to make this country, along with every other country in the world with a few exceptions, quit discriminating against people just because they're gay, you don't have to agree with it, but they have a constitutional right to be gay. And that's what brings me into it."

Eppoi questa è davvero geniale:

"You don't have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight"