Talk Elections

I Would have voted for Barry M. Goldwater. He held alot of the same beliefs that I do. He believed in a strong military, the idea that states should have more power, and that we should be doing everything in our power to help our allies around the world.

Goldwater was a wonderful guy.  Happily, since Reagan a lot of elected Republicans resemble Goldwater.

Where are you from Justin?

I'm from Bedford.

Salem-windham area.

How old are you?

Eric Hass (Socialist Labor)

But out of these two, Goldwater.

I'm 18.

Do you go to Salem High School?

I do.

Do you know anyone at West?

I don't think so.

Oh well, I don't know anyone at Salem.

Why would you not have voted for Johnson?

I would have had reservations about Goldwater because he was against the Civil Rights Acts.  I am not a liberal, but I don't think that basic rights for all Americans is a conservative-liberal issue, and I think it was absolutely necessary at that time to make the first steps toward ending systematized discrimination, against the spirit and word of the constitution, against blacks.  Despite my dislike of Johnson and the Democrats, I would have been reluctant to vote for a candidate who did not seem to understand this.

Johnson earns my vote for his work on civil rights. Although I disagree with him on Vietnam, and there is some argument that he planned the Kennedy assassination which I am not dismissing. I don't know much about Johnson's personality, but he looks like the stereotypical old man who controls the world, and he is Texan so he loses points for that.

He was an ego-idiot.  At the time I might have voted for Johnson, but back in hindsight, there is no way.  He was a mess with the "war on Poverty" (Those wars on nouns don't work) and Vietnam.  At least Goldwater would have made the place a "mud puddle" and we could have same hundreds of thousands of American lives.

I think Johnson messed up in Vietnam because he made the worst possible choice - to fight with one hand tied behind his back.  He should have either gone all out or stayed out.

The war on poverty was also a mess, wasting untold billions of dollars and generally making all the problems worse that it sought to address.

But I don't believe for a minute that he planned the Kennedy assassination.  And I wouldn't judge whether to vote for him or not by the state he came from.  That attitude is what make large parts of the country hate "Yankees" and it's hard to blame them.

You make some good points.  There were not a lot of good choices that year, and of course, Johnson's tenure looked a lot more promising from the vantage point of 1964 than it did after the Vietnam disaster and the destruction wrought by his war on poverty.

I would also say that you're right that wars on nouns don't work, and that's why I don't refer to our current war as a war on terrorism.  Let's call it what it is -- a war on radical Islamic fundamentalists.  There's no point in being politically correct.

Thats still a noun.

Johnson was a racist, liar, and cost many good American lives in Vietnam. 'Nough said.

No, it's a group of evil people, like the Nazis.  It is not a tactic or condition.

If the 1964 election were today.. President Goldwater and Vice President Miller.

Wow, i was shocked to see goldwater way up on johnson . . . . i definitely picked johnson btw

I think Goldwater would've made a distinction between discrimination by the government and discrimination by private individuals.  I know I would.

Johnson only won since people were still sorrowing over the Kennedy death.

If the 1964 Election was held now, Goldwater would win only Arizona... and possibly Mississippi.
Black people can vote now

I would too, and the Civil Rights Act were passed to do away with government-sponsored and supported discrimination or discrimination in public accomodations.  I don't think there's too much that can be done about discrimination in private life, nor should there be.

Hard one...I would probably have voted Goldwater if it hadn't been for the Civil Rights Act, making it LBJ.

Do you think LBJ signed the Civil Rights act for political gain or because he really believed in it? LBJ was one of the biggest racists of the period as were many many democrats.

Where was the political gain for LBJ?

Support from Northern States.

Er... no.

Ok, then give me the reason why you think LBJ signed it? He was well known to be a racist.

He was a racist because he was brought up a racist. I doubt that he liked being a racist.
He certainly disliked segregation though.

Anyhow...

Ralph Yarborough for President!

You're either a racist or not a racist. Their's no middle ground. You cant be a racist and "not like it".

LBJ was passively racist

He was a racist but he disliked being a racist?  What?

I don't really think it's that black and white.  I think that everybody has certain prejudices, whether they admit it or not, and that racism is a matter of degree.

You can also recognize your prejudices, and try to avoid acting on them inappropriately.

I think that LBJ realized that the time had come for change, and decided to act in defiance of his own prejudices and upbringing.  For that, he deserves credit, because that's the only way that bad prejudices are reduced or eliminated.

Good points. I agree.

True.
BTW that sounds a lot like some of the stuff the SPLC says.
Good to see you being objective :)

SPLC? This acronym has me lost. If you refresh me I will feel like a idiot no doubt.

Southern Poverty Law Centre.
They sue far-right organisations.
Based in Montgomery, AL (their headquarters were fire bombed in the 1980's).
Headed by Morris Dees (In charge of McGovern's finances in 1972, Carter's in 1976 and Ted Kennedy's in 1980).

Oh yeah. Those guys are very very very very biased. I can't stand them.

Well, I think the Southern Poverty Law Center is very extreme.  I don't like them or their tactics.  I think that organizations like that breed more prejudice.

They trash the SCV and UDC which are southern heritage organizations and have nothing to do with hate. They want southerners to have no culture or pride of the area from which southerners come from.

They call the SCV a hate group even though the SCV has many black members and has given money to Civil Rights groups. Those guys the SPLC I group with the left whacko ACLU.


By the way this is the link to the group:

http://www.scv.org/about/whatis.asp (http://www.scv.org/about/whatis.asp)

Alas, all sorts of freedom-reducing attempts have been made to do just that.

Goldwater should have run as president in 1996. He would have beaten Clinton.

He was still alive? Is he still alive? I haven't heard a word about him lately.

He died may 1998 age 89

Goldwater