Barry Goldwater - The last socially moderate Republican (senator or presidential candiate)

He was before my time, but the more I read about him, makes me wonder how that party shifted so far to the right, likely the result of that SOB Reagan..Todays Republicans are truly the insane clown posse (ie: ALL their 2008 presidential candiates) & many in the senate are also batshit crazy (Brownback, Coburn, DeMint, Chambliss, Dole, etc.).There are VERY few moderate Republicans anymore....

"In response to Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell's opposition to the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court, of which Falwell had said, “Every good Christian should be concerned,” Goldwater retorted: “I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass.”

"Some of Goldwater's statements in the 1990s aggravated many social conservatives. He endorsed Democrat Karan English in an Arizona congressional race, urged Republicans to lay off Clinton over the Whitewater scandal, and criticized the military's ban on homosexuals: “Everyone knows that gays have served honorably in the military since at least the time of Julius Caesar.”<20> He also said, “You don't have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight.” A few years before his death he went so far as to address the right wing, "Do not associate my name with anything you do. You are extremists, and you've hurt the Republican Party much more than the Democrats have"......

Wow...Can you imagine a Republican saying that today...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Goldwater

He became pro choice after his daughter had an abortion.

He became pro-gay in the military after he found out is grandson was gay & in the military.

Otherwise he was pro-segregation & anti-new deal. He was pretty much an asshole.

A hectoring demagogue who popped up with depressing regularity on TV for an unfortunate few months, and then retreated to his spider-hole.

heyday, but very few left today. They've been run out of the party.