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∙ CIVIL RIGHTS. The civil rights bill is "like a three dollar bill—it's a phony." Goldwater opposes the public accommodations and FEPC sections of the pending civil rights bill, says that they are unconstitutional because they infringe on the rights of private property. He believes that "there are too many old laws which aren't even working. And there is this above all, the oldest law of all: you cannot pass a law that will make me like you or you like me. This is something that can only happen in our hearts. This is a problem of the mind, not a problem of the lawyer and the Senator. If we believe that our rights come to us from God, when the day comes that we act as if we believe it, all differences of the white and white and the black and black will be wiped off the face of this nation."
∙ INCOME TAX. Though he once condemned the graduated income tax and suggested instead an across-the-board tax of, say, 10%, he has changed his stand somewhat. "I don't like the progressive features of the income tax," but "we cannot do away with progressive features entirely."
∙ AID TO EDUCATION. He opposes the principle of aid to elementary and secondary public schools, but favors federal aid to colleges.
∙ TVA. He no longer advocates selling the entire TVA to private business, but would sell the steam-generating plants and the fertilizer program that are associated with TVA.
∙ JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY. He refuses to denounce it because "members of the Birch Society have a constitutional right to take the positions they choose, even though I might disagree with them."
"They." In a post-California statement, Goldwater adapted a phrase that Rockefeller had been using about himself, claimed a victory for the "mainstream of Republican thinking." Certainly Barry's ideas flow somewhat to the right of that mainstream. Yet only after California were many leaders of moderate Republicanism, including the G.O.P.'s so-called "kingmakers," finally convinced that their party was likely to nominate for President a man whose views do not represent theirs.
Throughout much of the land, there is almost a mystique about Republican kingmakers, centered mostly in the Northeast and commonly referred to as "they." But so far in the present presidential contest, they have done no noticeable kingmaking. For one thing, they have had the strong feeling that neither John Kennedy nor Lyndon Johnson was likely to be defeated by any Republican. For another, they rather like Lyndon, especially his frugal fiscal positions. For still another, they have tended to underrate Goldwater's volunteer strength and to overrate the possibility that Barry would somehow beat himself.