And Yet Another Unknown

by tomaidh | Politics | 2689 Views

 Goldwater Girl  in 1964

Comments | 21

  • Submitted by Vidda on February 21, 2016 at 4:08 pm

    During her Wellesley College years

    Hillary Clinton.

  • Submitted by Lise on February 21, 2016 at 6:20 pm

    Just did the research

    I got curious about Hillary Clinton’s early background and was surprised to discover that she started out a conservative, from a conservative Chicago family. So I would have gotten this one too. What I especially liked though were those pants — wow, and it was only the early 60s! Weren’t women still wearing Jackie Kennedy suits and pillbox hats in those days? Hard to remember as I was only 4.

    • Submitted by cgrotke on February 21, 2016 at 6:47 pm

      Uber conservative for a bit

      At the height of civil rights actions in the south, she worked for Goldwater. Interesting choice.

  • Submitted by annikee on February 21, 2016 at 8:25 pm

    I had those pants!

    About 3 years later, I remember them.
    I was also raised Republican Conservative. My Uncle Bert was friends with Goldwater and talked with him viz ham radio Sunday nights. But I was thinking for myself by the time I was voting and was a Liberal. That she was still espousing Republican ways in college speaks volumes. And yet she sneers that Bernie’s not a Democrat- good! That’s a bonus these days!

    • Submitted by Rosa Bonheur on February 22, 2016 at 5:46 am

      A Little Perspective Please

      She wasn’t in college at the time she supported Goldwater. She graduated high school in 1966 so she would have been a junior in high school. I was born the same year and I supported Goldwater also because my grandparents who I adored were staunch Republicans. Couldn’t vote so this amounted to nothing except driving my parents nuts. I had a pair of pants just like that in 1968. Stripes were kind of hip if you weren’t the pillbox hat sort. We were not allowed to vote, the voting age was 21 until 1971 so her first vote for President would have gone for McGovern. But yes, it appears she was somewhat confused during her first 2 years in college, first McCarthy, then switching to Republican. Maybe that stint at the Republican convention was all she needed to make up her mind!

      “The first presidential candidate Clinton volunteered for was Republican Barry Goldwater, in 1964, when she was in high school. She was a Young Republican and attended the 1968 Republican convention, though earlier in the year she’d supported anti-war Democrat Eugene McCarthy in the primaries. By 1972, there was no question about her political identity, as she worked for liberal Democrat George McGovern’s unsuccessful campaign against President Richard Nixon.”

      Martin Luther Kings march was in 1963. She was only 16. I don’t think you can fault a 16 year old with conservative parents for not attending the marches at that time. I heard an interesting story last night that at college all the black kids sat at a separate table for dining and both Hillary and Bill were the only white students who always sat at that table. I don’t think Hillary Clinton’s civil rights involvement or interest should be criticized anymore than Bernies. He was of a different age, just old enough to be more involved without parental approval. And he didn’t need to buck his family’s conservative beliefs to do so. I’m sure the political discussions at Thanksgiving at Bernie’s family table were quite different than the ones at Hillary’s albeit equally heated for different reasons.

      • Submitted by Rosa Bonheur on February 22, 2016 at 5:50 am

        Just a little aside on what

        Just a little aside on what it was like “back then”, you know, in the stone ages. I couldn’t wear my orange and navy blue striped pants at my little state college campus except on Saturdays. Or I would be expelled from school. Seriously, land grant state college, grounds for expulsion.

      • Submitted by cgrotke on February 22, 2016 at 6:43 am

        Not that clear to me

        I dunno. It would be like someone in this era of Black Lives Matter volunteering for Trump. Would that be easy to overlook as youthful confusion, or would we argue with that person about how their decision is bad for the country?

        (Today she is fighting to defend the Romney Care rather than make it universal coverage. Her roots are showing!)

        I appreciate the “you have to vote for Clinton or else Trump” argument, but it doesn’t hold for me.

        I’m an independent. This year, the Democrats have a chance at peeling me off and getting my vote if they nominate Sanders.

        It’s only a circular firing squad if you feel obligated to vote for a democrat. Then, in that case, the Clinton campaign should stop firing shots at Sanders to show us how it is done. “Not a real Democrat!” “One issue!” Seems like they are firing multiple rounds.

        Interesting that the real story is that they are TIED for delegates and Sanders is way ahead in the popular vote. If that holds, it should be an interesting convention.

        • Submitted by Rosa Bonheur on February 22, 2016 at 7:53 am

          Strange you should say that

          I just heard an interview with a young high school age black man last night who supports Trump and that’s exactly what I thought, youthful confusion.

          Also you’re negating how different the times were (my comment about expulsion for wearing pants on campus). And you’re right it’s only a circular firing squad if you feel that it’s critical that people vote Democratic this particular election, which I do (I have written in candidates in the past by the way).

          There’s going to be a lot of sniping back and forth now that things are heating up. The only reason I commented was to correct some confusion about time lines here and that is important. By the time we entered college The Civil Rights Act had just passed and while there was recognition that the battle for civil rights wasn’t over, the bigger issues of my college years became the draft and the women’s movement. It’s a huuuuge (to quote someone we both know) difference between being in college in 1964 and being in high school back then.

          Let’s see where things are after March 1st. Do keep in mind that the popular vote count is only New Hampshire, you don’t get a popular vote count for caucus states. Personally I think they should throw the caucuses out along with the Super Delegates but neither is going to happen this election cycle.

          I must say this is one of the most interesting election cycles I’ve ever seen.

      • Submitted by annikee on February 22, 2016 at 9:04 am

        Getting particulars

        A note here. “She was a Young Republican and attended the 1968 Republican convention,” she graduated Wellesley College in 1969. Granted, I’d forgotten we didn’t have the vote til 21 then, but if she was going to the Republican convention while in college in 1968, I’d say she was still a Republican in college.

        • Submitted by Rosa Bonheur on February 22, 2016 at 9:32 am

          Earlier in the year in 1968

          Earlier in the year in 1968 in the primaries she had worked for McCarthy and then ended up going to the 1968 Republican convention. So it’s sort of confusing. Sounds like she wasn’t sure what side of the fence to land on.

          She went to the Republican convention after McCarthy didn’t get the nomination. Maybe she was trying to see which party fit best. I dunno. But it isn’t that cut and dried where she was politically in college, McCarthy, to Republican convention and back to McGovern and staying with the Dems.

          Remember how unfair it seemed that they were drafting and shipping all these guys off to VietNam and they couldn’t even vote for the people making those decisions.

          • Submitted by annikee on February 22, 2016 at 10:14 am

            The vote at 18

            Yeah. My 3 brothers were in the army in the 60s and they groused about it a lot. That lyric, “You’re old enough to kill, but not for voting” still runs thru my head. It seems unreal now.

          • Submitted by annikee on February 22, 2016 at 10:17 am

            consistency

            It looks like Hill has been consistent in flip-floppery, at least. 🙂

          • Submitted by Rosa Bonheur on February 22, 2016 at 11:05 am

            Well in this regard she last

            Well in this regard she last flopped or flipped, whichever way you want to look at it, way back before the 1972 elections. As I said, looks like she’s never voted Republican. I flopped or flipped a little earlier but wrote in someone the first time I voted. Must have sensed that the McGovern vote was going nowhere anyway. Or maybe it was just youthful confusion : ) but actually I stand by that write-in and always will. Was a great symbolic move for me at that time.

          • Submitted by Rosa Bonheur on February 23, 2016 at 2:10 am

            Thought this article from a

            Thought this article from a Bernie supporter was pertinent. She may seem a bit harsh at a few points but I think she has some interesting things to say. I particularly agree with her summation that is you’re going to criticize Hillary for for wavering between the parties back in her high school and early college days, then that same standard has to apply to Elizabeth Warren who was a declared and voting Republican clear into the mid-1990s.
            http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/7/18/1403425/-Please-STOP-the-Goldwater-Girl-nonsense

  • Submitted by Vidda on February 22, 2016 at 8:22 am

    The Giuliani specter

    Just read last night that Trump is getting tight with Giuliani in his “kitchen cabinet.” Giuliani in Federal government is a real terror; the creep is a real fascist. If Trump makes him drug czar we’ll see the see the Corrections Corporation of America, who is the “company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers and operates others on a concession basis,” really state salivating.

    The Republican’s are going to vote Republican, no matter who the Republican nominee is, with very little crossover.

    The anti-Sanders and anti-Clinton people may crossover or not vote at all.

    Except for Sanders, this is another election mess.

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