Is Donald Trump the next Barry Goldwater?

[Senator-elect Spark]

[Wisconsin+17]

I've been saying for ages that this is the Goldwater election.

[Ljube]

Of course not. He is the next Ronald Reagan.

[Penelope]

Ultimately, I suspect this current chaos is too good to be true. Things will probably consolidate over the next few weeks. But the GOP seems determined to lose in a landslide with or without Trump, so who knows?

Of course not. He is the next Ronald Reagan.

lol

[Joe Biden is your president. Deal with it.]

Of course not. He is the next Ronald Reagan.

I am sure Reagan wouldn't have supported Trump if he was alive.

[Redban]

In what sense?

Goldwater lost to Lyndon Johnson by a margin that is impossible in today's polarized environment. No matter how good or bad a candidate may be, he or she is guaranteed to win or lose 45% of the vote in 2016. 45% of the electorate, in other words, will always vote for the Democrat or the Republican.

[Coolface Sock #42069]

No, Barry Goldwater was conservative and would have lost anyway. JFK had just been assassinated, and so, Republican's focused on setting a policy agenda instead of winning.

Trump is a non-conservative, non-policy-focused candidate throwing away a totally winnable election to Hillary. The contrast could hardly be more stark.

[Maxwell]

We've never seen George Wallace actually get nominated by the Democratic Party - I think we find out what would've happened in a Nelson Rockefeller vs. George Wallace election.

[uti2]

We've never seen George Wallace actually get nominated by the Democratic Party - I think we find out what would've happened in a Nelson Rockefeller vs. George Wallace election.

Close, but not quite.

Cruz = Goldwater.

Biden = LBJ (Would've won against any R easily)

Trump = Wallace

Hillary = Humphrey

This is Humphrey vs. Wallace

[ElectionsGuy]

He's nothing like Goldwater.

We've never seen George Wallace actually get nominated by the Democratic Party - I think we find out what would've happened in a Nelson Rockefeller vs. George Wallace election.

Close, but not quite.

Cruz = Goldwater.

Biden = LBJ (Would've won against any R easily)

Trump = Wallace

Hillary = Humphrey

This is Humphrey vs. Wallace

I definitely agree with this more. Although Trump is a less ideological and watered down version of Wallace, he's still the closest in the way he runs his campaign.

[IceSpear]

In what sense?

Goldwater lost to Lyndon Johnson by a margin that is impossible in today's polarized environment. No matter how good or bad a candidate may be, he or she is guaranteed to win or lose 45% of the vote in 2016. 45% of the electorate, in other words, will always vote for the Democrat or the Republican.

This. Stop this circlejerking.

[RR1997]

Don't insult Goldwater like that.

Goldwater was a great man (unlike Donald Trump).

[uti2]

Don't insult Goldwater like that.

Goldwater was a great man (unlike Donald Trump).

Goldwater was against civil rights, Trump claims to support civil rights.

[Boston Bread]

I really don't like this comparison, but there's one area where it fits.

Goldwater alienated black Americans from the GOP for at least half a century.
Trump could do the same for Hispanics.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Republicans are distancing themselves from Trump at about the level 1964 moderate Republicans distanced themselves from Goldwater.  It is true that Goldwater was the most conservative Presidential candidate the GOP had nominated in a long time, but it was Goldwater's persona, more than his ideology, that cost him.  Goldwater was, for 1964, as shoot-from-the-hip as Trump is today.  Goldwater publicly discussed the possible use of nuclear weapons, opposed consensus civil rights bills, floated the possibility of leaving the UN, proposed ending Social Security and privatizing TVA.  (The last two proposals cost Goldwater TN and FL.) 

Barry Goldwater is remembered in a different light than the one he was seen in during the 1964 campaign.  Goldwater became more of a civil libertarian and mainstream Republican over time; he endorsed Jacob Javits in his 1980 Senate primary out of friendship and respect, and he did so even though Javits did not support Goldwater against LBJ in 1964.  The Goldwater of 1964 was, however, a guy folks felt was unstable.  (Richard Nixon defended him back than by saying he wasn't "some kind or a nut or jerk, a wild man".  That's a reflection of how Goldwater came to be perceived.)

What Trump has going for him is the fact that Goldwater was, in many circles, seen to be right in the 1964 election on a number of issues, particularly the issue of the size of government and the position we ought to take AFTER committing to use military force.  Goldwater, of course, was a limited government Republican, while Trump definitely is not.  Even here, Trump is the beneficiary of the newly revealed fact that most Republicans are for far more big government than they claim to be for.