Albert R. Hunt, Columnist

Why Trump Isn't Like Goldwater

Republican Party loyalty prevailed in 1964. This year, not so much.

September 9, 2016 at 1:00 PM UTC

Albert R. Hunt is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was the executive editor of Bloomberg News, before which he was a reporter, bureau chief and executive Washington editor at the Wall Street Journal.

That was then.
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Half a century ago, a Republican rode his party's divisions to a presidential nomination by defying its establishment and empowering a populist base. Senator Barry Goldwater dismayed Republican liberals who thought him extreme and some conservatives who foresaw his landslide defeat.

Now Donald Trump is repeating history, minus the Republican liberals. Commentators have noted the parallels, some of them predicting that Trump will transform his party as Goldwater unexpectedly did in 1964 by mobilizing conservative forces that eventually produced the Reagan revolution.