By Dan Nowicki, Rebekah L. Sanders , The Republic
Barry Goldwater’s insurgent presidential bid 50 years ago was a spectacular failure as a political campaign.
In the emotional aftermath of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and against a backdrop of Cold War nuclear brinkmanship and domestic racial unrest, Goldwater, a blunt-speaking conservative from Arizona, won the GOP nod by railing against moderates within his own party.
In turn, opponents — in his party and out — cast the senator, then 55, as an extremist who was too wedded to far-right ideology to address drastic shifts in society and global politics.
