In 1964, Barry Goldwater addressed the Republican National Convention with a famous speech that argued “extremism in defense of liberty [was] no vice” and “moderation in pursuit of justice [was] no virtue.” Few understood him as making a prediction about the future of right-wing thinking and politics across the English-speaking world. Yet that speech foreboded perfectly the revolutionary zeal that has since spread through conservatism on both sides of the Atlantic, and which appears to have reached its apotheosis with the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s election.Today, ideas for a radical disruption to the existing political and economic system abound …read more
Source: The American Interest