First of all, you said Goldwater was "Ideologue of modern-day conservative thought". You didn't "primarily" make any kind of distinction. Then you stated that he was the one who initially turned the South into a GOP stronghold, which I showed you was false then and for the most part still is false today.

JFK's election showed that the Democrats did not have a stronghold on the South as you said they did previously in presidential elections. If they did, then there wouldn't have been a need to get Johnson as a running mate. And several political analysts have stated that Kennedy needed Johnson in order to get enough support in the South to win the election.

Johnson may have said the Civil Rights Act would cause the Democrats to lose the South, but he died three years before he could see Jimmy Carter win the 1976 election by taking every single Southern state.

Even then, Barry's influence within the GOP in the 70's was more of a demagogue than anything. Nixon and Ford were considered moderates, and not close to conservative as Goldwater or his followers. Only until Carter proved to be a failure was the GOP or really anyone in the country was about to allow a Goldwater-type conservative become a political power.

The South has ALWAYS been more conservative than the North. The reason why the Republicans never got a foothold in the South before Reagan was due to the continued animosity due to the Civil War and Reconstruction, where the U.S. government forced Republican governors into the rebel states.

The fact that you would sit here and state the South is more conservative now than it was in the past - with states rights (which had been a issue since well before the civil war. It didn't start with Goldwater or the Civil Rights Movement), the belief that states had the right to the nullification of Supreme Court decisions (see Andrew Jackson), secession, resisting union creations in the late 1800's - today, the fact that many were skeptical of the growth of government well before then....shows you have absolutely no clue of what you're talking about.

But hey, keep thinking what I'm saying is "weak". Maybe one day you'll believe it.
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