Welcome to Things Worth Remembering, our weekly column in which writers share a literary treasure that all of us should commit to heart. This week, in an excerpt from his brand-new book, What Conservatives Believe, former vice president Mike Pence reflects on Barry Goldwater’s 1960 book, The Conscience of a Conservative, and its enduring wisdom for a political faction increasingly out of touch with its foundational principles.
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I had my first and only encounter with Barry Goldwater when I was 5. He was traveling through southern Indiana on a train tour as he campaigned for president in 1964. On a morning about a month before he lost the election, he stopped in my hometown of Columbus, Indiana. My mother gave me and my brothers train conductor hats and loaded us onto a hay wagon so that we could take in the big event. I don’t remember much else.
Years passed before I could even begin to comprehend Goldwater’s significance as a founding father of American conservatism. I started my journey in politics in the late 1970s as a college Democrat. Beginning after the 1980 election, however, after hearing the voice, vision, and optimism of Ronald Reagan, I knew my future lay in the conservative principles of the Republican Party.
Goldwater roared back into my life in an unexpected way. In 1988, I ran for Congress as a Republican and lost to an incumbent. Two years later, I ran again and suffered another defeat. During that second effort, a would-be constituent gave me a gift: a vintage copy of The Conscience of a Conservative, Goldwater’s slender volume of political thinking. I had known about this book, but only by reputation. Following its initial publication by a small press in Kentucky in 1960, it became a surprise bestseller. It inspired millions, giving shape and form to a set of ideas that fueled a rising political movement. It also elevated its author, making a senator from Arizona a national figure.
