what 1964 taught me

I'm sort of amused (but not really) that Hillary Clinton is being attacked because she was a "Goldwater Girl" during the 1964 Presidential election between Senator Barry Goldwater and President Lyndon Johnson.  Her father was some sort of hotshot Republican, and at some time or other Hillary was photographed wearing a Goldwater campaign hat.  She was 17 at the time and didn't become a Democrat until several years later (This desperate attack comes from her opponent for the Democratic nomination, who ironically isn't a Democrat even now).

Why this is amusing for me is that I, at age 17 also, in my juvenile naivete, was an avid Goldwater fan, perhaps because he was plain-spoken and direct and perhaps because I didn't care for LBJ.  Goldwater was very right-wing (although not nearly as what the 2016 Republican Party has become) and split the moderate segment of the party.  His conservative purism led to a disastrous defeat in November.  Extremism in a two-party system rarely prevails.

By the time I was old enough to vote (age 21 back then), I had seen the light and had matured into a constantly-evolving Democrat, so I did no damage in the voting booth, at least.  I would say that "when I became a man, I put away childish things" (I Corinthians 13:11), but, to tell the truth, there are some childish things that I still like.