"The problem comes in viewing Goldwater as an example rather than as a warning. Conservatives sometimes describe his defeat as a necessary, preliminary step — a clarifying and purifying struggle — in the Reagan revolution. In fact, it was an electoral catastrophe that awarded Lyndon Johnson a powerful legislative majority, increased the liberal ambitions of the Great Society and caused massive distrust of the GOP among poor and ethnic voters. The party has never quite recovered. Ronald Reagan was, in part, elected president by undoing Goldwater’s impression of radicalism. And all of Reagan’s domestic achievements involved cleaning up just a small portion of the excesses that Goldwater's epic loss enabled. The Republican Party needs internal debate and populist energy. But it is not helped by nostalgia for a disaster."
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Michael Gerson, "Michael Gerson: Barry Goldwater’s warning to the GOP" (17 April 2014), The Washington Post
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States)
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Republican Party (United States)
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