Goldwater’s defeat shifted GOP dominance from moderates to free-market conservatism

Evidence

Regardless of the campaign’s ignominious end, Friedman expressed no regrets about his participation. “Despite the subsequent election results,” he wrote in his autobiography, “the defeat of the hitherto dominant Rocke fel ler Republicans was a crucial step in the gradual shift of public opinion away from liberalism as popularly understood and toward freemarket conservatism.” — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 506

Categorization

• SEED: A useful angle on how a losing campaign can be a structural turning point — the ‘defeat that won’ thesis applied to political realignments.
• XREF: Connects to the broader MPS narrative of ideas incubating in apparent defeat before policy takeover decades later. — connects to: Goldwater’s 1964 defeat masked a political realignment that was already underway among evangelicals — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White…, 103; Eisenhower’s moderate Republicanism drove business conservatives to abandon populist mass campaigns for elite influence — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1458; Civil-rights-era policy shifts drove southern whites into the Republican Party — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White…, 105 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Goldwater’s 1964 defeat masked a political realignment that was already underway among evangelicals #expands (0.90) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 103
• Civil-rights-era policy shifts drove southern whites into the Republican Party #complicates (0.80) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 105
• Eisenhower’s moderate Republicanism drove business conservatives to abandon populist mass campaigns for elite influence #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1458
• Buchanan’s 1992 primary challenge pushed Bush and the GOP platform rightward #expands (0.75) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 323