Viguerie: Conservatives Need New Goldwater

Conservative idol and direct-mail pioneer Richard Viguerie thinks that conservative voters need to look away from the current crop of Republican presidential candidates when it comes to looking for a winner. Instead, they should look for the next Barry Goldwater, a candidate more concerned with building up the conservative movement rather than winning.

"Too many Republican politicians, especially President Bush and Congressional leaders, have betrayed the trust of their supporters and the voters," he said, adding that it could take six to ten years to build the conservative movement back into an electoral power. "For 2008, we should not be looking for the next Ronald Reagan. He or she is not on the horizon. Instead, we should be looking for the next Barry Goldwater."

Viguerie added that Goldwater knew he would not win but ran in 1964 to launch the conservative movement.

Tanking an election to build a movement, I think, would be a lot to ask the Republican Party at this point, what with losing control of Congress and all.

Viguerie's new book is Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause. Learn about it [here].