Voting Station

Barry Goldwater

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U.S. Senator

The Resume

    (January 1, 1909-May 29, 1998)
    Died in Paradise Valley, Arizona
    Member of Phoenix city council, 1949-1952
    U.S. Senator from Arizona (Republican, 1953-1965, 1969-1987)
    Republican nominee for U.S. President, 1964
    Presidential campaign slogan: 'In Your Heart You Know He's Right'

Why he might be annoying:

    In his 1964 Presidential election campaign against President Lyndon B. Johnson, he earned only 38.4% of the total popular votes nationally and won only 52 electoral votes.
    He voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Act because he believed that it was unconstitutional.
    His pronouncement during the 1964 campaign, 'Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue,' contributed to a split between moderate and conservative Republicans that led the party to a huge defeat in the November elections.
    During his Presidential campaign, he was viewed as a warmonger who would cut social programs and make Social Security voluntary.
    He was nicknamed 'Mr. Conservative.'
    In 1928, he earned an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, but declined.
    He then attended the University of Arizona, but dropped out after his freshman year.
    He was outspoken and controversial and generated much enmity and divisiveness among his opponents.
    He married a woman 32 years younger than he was.
    He aggravated many of his conservative supporters late in his life because they felt that he moved too far to the left and became too liberal.
    In 1992, he went against his party and publicly supported Bill Clinton for President and a Democrat candidate for one of Arizona's congressional seats.
    His name appears on many buildings and public structures and facilities throughout Arizona.

Why he might not be annoying:

    His 1964 Presidential election campaign, while unsuccessful, helped pave the way for Ronald Reagan's eventual election to the U.S. Presidency 16 years later.
    He is descended from a pioneering Arizona family that arrived in Arizona Territory in 1860.
    His family owned a successful chain of department stores, called Goldwater's, at one time the largest department store chain in Arizona.
    He declined his appointment to West Point because his father's health was ailing, and he dropped out of the University of Arizona and returned to Phoenix to work full-time in his family's business after his father died.
    He entered politics in 1949 as a founding member of the Charter Government party, formed by leading Phoenix businessmen to purge the city of corruption.
    He defeated Senate majority leader Ernest W. McFarland to win a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1952.
    He voted for the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1961.
    He ended racial discrimination in his family's department stores and desegregated the Arizona Air National Guard.
    He was a friend and admirer of American Indians, knew and respected them and their culture, and worked to improve their lives.
    He was a pilot in the Air Force Reserve and retired in 1967 as a major general after 37 years of service.
    He was one of the first 100 people to successfully navigate the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.
    He was an accomplished photographer who extensively photographed every corner of Arizona.
    He was an avid conservationist and outdoor enthusiast who sponsored much conservationist legislation.
    He led a preservationist movement in Phoenix in the mid 1960's to save the city's landmark peak Camelback Mountain from development.
    He was a ham radio enthusiast, among the many of his various hobbies and outside interests.
    He wrote several books, the most important of which was 'The Conscience of a Conservative' in 1960, which laid out his conservative philosophy.
    His first wife died in 1985 after 51 years of marriage, and he remarried to a 51-year-old divorcee in 1992.
    He called Richard M. Nixon 'the most dishonest individual I have ever met in my life' and was one of the first Republican leaders to call for Nixon's resignation during the Watergate scandal.
    He had strong friendships with many prominent Democrats such as John F. Kennedy.
    He was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, in 1986.
    He was a man of solid convictions who firmly believed in what he believed in, even when others disagreed with him.
    He was a patriotic American who believed in limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility.
    He guided his life by true principals, was very honest and a man of high integrity and moral character.
    He was recognized as the father of modern American conservatism.
    He tried to raise awareness of the threat of communism.
    More than 3,000 people attended his funeral on June 3, 1998.

Credit: Highpointer


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 30 Votes: 43.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 20 Votes: 30.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 44 Votes: 47.73% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 17 Votes: 47.06% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 74 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 89 Votes: 44.94% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 82 Votes: 51.22% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 10 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 23 Votes: 43.48% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 65 Votes: 47.69% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 43 Votes: 44.19% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 101 Votes: 48.51% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 225 Votes: 47.56% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 133 Votes: 45.11% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 721 Votes: 35.78% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 56 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 128 Votes: 45.31% Annoying
    In 2006, Out of 158 Votes: 51.90% Annoying
    In 2005, Out of 261 Votes: 52.11% Annoying
    In 2004, Out of 396 Votes: 51.52% Annoying