1. In the fall of 1964 as election day approached, commentators feared that Goldwater symbolized the emergence of something ugly, fascistic even, in American political culture. Here's Phillip Rahv in Partisan Review...

2. "Goldwater & his zealots are not conservative in any intelligible sense of the term. They are out & out reactionaries...His movement represents a recrudescence on American soil of precisely those super-nationalistic & right-wing trends that were finally defeated in Europe."

3. It was clear to Rahv that Goldwater's campaign used racist appeals to attract white votes.

“Without the resentment the [Civil Rights Movement] has inspired among whites, Goldwater would command no such following as he does today.”

4. Rahv also picked up on the connection between the "States' Rights" attack on Big Government and the defense of white supremacy.

5. Rahv (1964) cont'd: “As for the agitation against Big Government, in so far as it is not merely a tactic on the part of the racists with their transparently opportunistic embrace of States’ Rights, it is taken seriously only by the more simple-minded and provincial zealots."

6. Rahv feared that Goldwaterism was a deeply authoritarian movement that threatened the very future of America's constitutional republic. "The danger is that they might well see to it that this year’s election is our last free election."

7. Rahv (1964) cont'd: "Once in control of the executive power, they are unlikely to surrender it. Devotees of the McCarthyite strategy of smear, intimidation and purge, they might well attempt to disorganize and then outlaw the opposition." Hmm, like they might "lock them up?"

8. Rahv (1964) cont'd: "If your dogma is to equate liberals with socialists and socialists with Communists, and at the same time you have a vast police and spy apparatus at your disposal, then the way is open for large-scale purges of the Hitler and Stalin pattern.”

9. Perhaps Rahv was being hyperbolic in his fears of what might happen under a Goldwater presidency. We'll never know, because he lost. All the same, this shows that 2019 is not the first time that scholars have worried about the authoritarian elements growing within the GOP.

10. Full text can be found here. hgar-srv3.bu.edu/collections/pa…

11. Was alerted to this Rahv article by @rickperlstein's excellent book on Goldwater. indiebound.org/book/978156858…