Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus

From the start of Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2015, through his bulldozing in the state primaries, his capture of the Republican nomination, and even up to election night, you could almost hear the progression of thought in the average American voter: "This is a joke" morphed into "There's no way he can win [insert primary state]," which snowballed into "He took the nomination" and finally ended with "My god, he won." There was another thought that carried itself through the election, too: "This has never happened before."However, fourteen years before Trump descended his namesake tower's escalator to announce his bid, Rick Perlstein showed America that a candidate (and movement) could—and had—come from seemingly out of nowhere, against all odds and apparent logic, and dismantle all that we think we know about presidential campaigning. Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus takes the reader back to that time when American conservatism, so dormant after FDR's New Deal and internationalism brought liberal ideals to the mainstream, was seen as a sort of fringe philosophy with absolutely no chance of being the standard bearer for the Republican party.And yet, as Perlstein shows us, that is exactly what happened.As Perlstein tells it, the movement began with a letter sent to a small number of like-minded conservatives that outlined a plan to get a conservative nominated at the Republican convention. That led, in time, to clandestine meetings and backroom deals and rough-and-tumble delegate elections and eventually the prize of the nomination. In startling detail, Perlstein takes us to those hotel conference rooms and into the operatives’ offices and onto the convention stages to give the feel of the rush those involved in the movement must have felt. Not to mention the bewilderment those who opposed the conservatives felt when it all started to fall apart for them.While the initial cast of characters is familiar to the reader (Nelson Rockefeller, Nixon, JFK, LBJ, and Goldwater of course (although he appears to do little in the book but snarl, bark and otherwise show contempt for the actual work involved in campaigning)), Perlstein focuses on a lesser-known cadre of individuals whose work led the charge. Clarence Manion, author of that initial letter; F. Clyfton White, who masterminded the capture of conservative delegates in the state conventions; William Buckley, who not only published the National Review but helped form one of the key operational groups; Phyllis Schialfy, whose activism betrayed the label given to her of a mere “housewife” ; and finally Ronald Reagan, a B-list actor who would eventually reap the benefits of this early conservative movement; Perlstein illustrates how they, and others, built the movement from the ground up.Before the Storm is not just about the political process leading up to Goldwater’s nomination, though. It is also a biography of the early sixties and again, nothing escapes his sense of detail: the civil rights movement, college campus unrest, the communist menace, labor unrest. The attention that Perlstein gives to those events is exhaustive. Along those lines, though, if there’s one flaw of the book it’s that his rendering of those events can be exhausting.Personally I really liked this book and I’ve already moved onto his (sort-of) sequel, Nixonland. If anything, it gave me comfort knowing that, whatever problems we are facing in this country or whatever controversy arises in our political process, we’ve been here before.One further note, about the title. The reference to the “unmaking of consensus” is a key point of the book as Perlstein write about how illusory LBJ’s legislative successes were in the early part of his presidency. Yes, he was able to get the Great Society and civil rights laws passed by a wide margin; but what Perlstein shows us is the undercurrent of discontent that was brewing and which would lead to a fracturing and reshifting of the Republican party base.Voters who voted in 2016 may very well read this book and think, I get it now.

I am trying to understand how the United States degraded into the politically dysfunctional, completely polarized, war-mongering, corporate-ruled, welfare-soaked debtor nation we now are. This excellent and very detailed book helped answer a lot of my questions. Told from an occasionally liberal perspective, it chronicles the collapse of the "American Consensus" that nominally existed in the afterglow of WWII in the 1950's. In the ashes of the soporific Eisenhower administration, the US saw the rise of "anti-government/anti-union/racist/corporate" ideology on the right and the "Great Society/big government/pro-union/welfare state" ideology on the left.The author makes it clear that Barry Goldwater was a symptom of this rising discord, rather than a cause. Goldwater was a reluctant and very rough-edged politician, often shooting himself in the foot by making the biggest of political blunders, that is, saying what he REALLY thought. He seemed to have some interesting redeeming characteristics (from my centrist perspective), but in the end Goldwater decided to pander to the arch-conservative, nuclear bomb-brandishing, overtly racist elements of the electorate. He was the first to implement the infamous "Southern Strategy", appealing to racist southerners [and northerners!]. In 1964 Nixon opined that the Southern Strategy was immoral, but of course he changed his tune and brought it to fruition just four years later.It didn't work for Goldwater though, in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the shooting of Kennedy, but it set the stage for the "states rights/anti-government" candidates to follow. Goldwater lost the battle but his supporters ultimately won the war, in part in 1968 and 1972, and of course completely in 1980 with Reagan. The northeastern establishment centrist "Rockefeller Republicans" were kicked out the door for good. Truly, the party of Lincoln had withered and the country has never been the same. The Republicans would thenceforth evolve into the contemporary party representing primarily the wealthy, the south/southwest and midwest, culminating in the takeover by today's near-anarchist Tea Party Republicans.Meanwhile, with his single-minded promotion and subsequent enforcement of the Civil Rights Acts and welfare state, Lyndon Johnson set about guaranteeing the complete alienation of southern (and many northern)voters--he thought, "for a generation" but more likely, forever. No decent person looks back at the Civil Rights Act in general and says it should not have happened, but some of the provisions were outrageously intrusive nanny state stuff--remember forced busing for integration of schools? Quotas for blacks in hiring and school admission? Unthinkable (almost) in 2013!As African-Americans rioted in many urban centers throughout the country, Johnson's support eroded further. On the left, students trained in non-violent protest in the south in the summer of 1964 returned to college in the fall, launching the Free Speech Movement and student resistance to the Vietnam war. It was all too much for Johnson, who refused to run again for president in 1968. Without the political ballast that the south provided to the Democrats in the 1950's, the party was free to drift way to the left, offering us ultra-liberal welfare-sots such as Hubert Humphrey in 1968 and George McGovern in 1972 as presidential candidates.Author Pearlstein's view point, while occasionally revealing his liberal bent, is pretty mainstream based on other things I have read. It is a generally accurate depiction of the times and events. The author emphasizes that at the time, nobody in the "Fifth estate" had any inkling that Goldwater's candidacy was just the first shot across the bow of the semi-mythical American Consensus.Make no mistake, this is a great book! The book has a ton of details surrounding various factions, groups and people in this battle, perhaps a bit too many, it is challenging to keep track of all the players. I think he got a little carried away in this regard and it hurts the narrative to some extent. A summary spreadsheet would have been nice! This is what causes me to give it 4 rather than 5 stars. But overall it is an easy, enjoyable, informative, relatively neutral and very troubling read.The times have changed tremendously since 1964, and we may be approaching the end game for the USA. It is good to know how we got here.

The first couple of 100 pages are a bit of a struggle, a deep dive in to the thickets of right wing Republican factions from which the reader doesn't emerge until the New Hampshire primary after which the story cracks on. Interesting parallel with the Trump 'insurgency', not so much the candidates but the nature and passion of their base, especially those 'left behind' and 'left out', even the 'dirty books' having their broad equivalent in Fox and the social media.ps Assume author meant Harold Wilson was 'installed' rather than 'ousted' as PM in Oct 1964 (p493 pbk) although even that doesn't make sense in the context.

A great book. Really informative and detailed. Had no idea who Barry Goldwater was before reading and now feel like I have a great idea of both the man and the times (mid sixties America). Especially relevant considering the 2016 election which also saw a Democrat go up against a crazed Republican with much different results.

I'm one of the lucky ones with a first edition hardback copy of this book. I cannot recommend this book too highly. It's extremely readable; this is not some dusty political tract. It is a terrific account of GOP politics in the 1960s. It introduced me to political writing and a great many other great books, not least of all his latest work 'Nixonland'. To use a dreadful cliche 'Before The Storm' is a must read.

I was looking forward to this book as I am really enjoying Robert Caro's Johnson biography (now eagerly awaiting volume 5!). this book seemed to be trying to emulate that book but is very heavy on endless details of the right wing factions either supporting or fighting Goldwaters nomination with too little background describing the bigger political events in the States at the time. Also, in this volume at least there was nothing to grip the reader about Goldwater himself. Disappointing.

I wish the author had written more about his family background and childhood. It would explain more fully what made Goldwater tick.