Barry Goldwater

===Goldwater and the revival of American conservatism===
Although Goldwater was not as important in the [[Conservatism in the United States|American conservative]] movement as [[Ronald Reagan]] after 1965, he shaped and redefined the movement from the late 1950s to 1964. Arizona Senator [[John McCain]], who succeeded Goldwater in the Senate in 1987, said of Goldwater's legacy, "He transformed the Republican Party from an Eastern elitist organization to the breeding ground for the election of Ronald Reagan."<ref>{{cite news|last=Grove |first=Lloyd |title=Barry Goldwater's Left Turn |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=July 28, 1994 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/may98/goldwater072894.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000914042130/http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/may98/goldwater072894.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 14, 2000 |access-date=October 25, 2008}}</ref> Columnist [[George Will]] remarked that Reagan's victory in the [[1980 United States presidential election|1980 presidential election]] was the metaphoric culmination of 16 years of counting the votes for Goldwater from the [[1964 United States presidential election|1964 presidential race]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/may98/will31.htm|title=The Cheerful Malcontent|newspaper=The Washington Post|first=George|last=Will|author-link=George Will|date=May 31, 1998|access-date=May 7, 2019|archive-date=May 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190507190955/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/may98/will31.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Republican Party recovered from the 1964 election debacle, acquiring 47 seats in the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] in the [[1966 United States House of Representatives elections|1966 mid-term election]]. In January 1969, after Goldwater had been re-elected to the Senate, he wrote an article in the ''[[National Review]]'' "affirming that he [was] not against liberals, that liberals are needed as a counterweight to conservatism, and that he had in mind a fine liberal like [[Max Lerner]]."<ref>[[Murray Rothbard|Rothbard, Murray N.]] [https://www.mises.org/story/1842 "Confessions of a Right-Wing Liberal]". [[Ludwig von Mises Institute]]. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090430200846/https://www.mises.org/story/1842 |date=April 30, 2009 }}</ref>

Goldwater was a strong supporter of environmental protection. He explained his position in 1969:
{{blockquote|I feel very definitely that the [Nixon] administration is absolutely correct in cracking down on companies and corporations and municipalities that continue to pollute the nation's air and water. While I am a great believer in the free competitive enterprise system and all that it entails, I am an even stronger believer in the right of our people to live in a clean and pollution-free environment. To this end, it is my belief that when pollution is found, it should be halted at the source, even if this requires stringent government action against important segments of our national economy.<ref>Barry Goldwater, ''The Conscience of a Majority'' (1969) in Brian Allen Drake, "The Skeptical Environmentalist: Senator Barry Goldwater and the Environmental Management State", ''Environmental History'', (2010) 15#4 pp. 587–611, [589]</ref>}}