With all the buzz about the conservative movement being on the verge of breaking apart, it’s interesting to contrast the present with the career of Barry Goldwater, who managed to unite libertarians, traditionalists, and foreign policy hawks. Recently even liberals have been looking back fondly (if with rose-colored glasses) on the tolerant libertarain Goldwater who didn’t think much of Jerry Falwell and the Religious Right.

In the latest American Conservative Daniel McCarthy considers the latest wave of Goldwater revisionism and tries to uncover the essence of Goldwaterism.