What Our Political World Once Was

Senator Barry Goldwater, the godfather of modern American conservatism, was a close friend of John F. Kennedy's. After Kennedy was elected in 1960, Goldwater and JFK toyed with the idea of a 1964 presidential race where the two of them would share a platform around the country and debate the issues.

That charming dream ended with President Kennedy's assassination. In the ensuing years, the American political world acquired a lot of sharp edges. There was little friendliness in the 1964 presidential race between Lyndon Johnson and Goldwater. Ideological divisions deepened throughout the nation, 1968 became a hellish campaign year, and we have not recovered from years of partisan bashing.

Consider the races between Eisenhower and Stevenson and even the one between Kennedy and Nixon.

Those were gentler times.