1964 Johnson VS. Goldwater

"America's Image"

Transcript

Museum of the Moving Image
The Living Room Candidate - Transcript
"America's Image," Goldwater, 1964

MALE NARRATOR: On February 11, 1964 in Washington, President Lyndon B. Johnson said, "We are a much-beloved people throughout the world."

[TEXT: "...we are a much beloved people throughout the world." - PRESIDENT LYNDON B. JOHNSON]

(Minor music)

GOLDWATER: Is this what President Johnson means when he says we are much beloved? Well, I don't like to see our flag torn down and trampled upon anywhere in the world, and I think most Americans agree with me on that. I don't like to see American citizens pushed around, and there's no good reason for letting it happen. All this results from weak, vacillating leadership. We must show the world that we are a mature, responsible people, aware of our rights as well as our responsibilities. And just as soon as we do this, we will resume our rightful role of world leadership, which this administration has let go by default.

MALE NARRATOR [and TEXT]: IN YOUR HEART, YOU KNOW HE'S RIGHT. VOTE FOR BARRY GOLDWATER.

Credits

"America's Image," TV for Goldwater-Miller Committee, 1964

Video courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.

From Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2012.
www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1964/americas-image (accessed March 29, 2025).

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1964 Johnson Goldwater Results

President Lyndon B. Johnson, who took office following John F. Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, enhanced his image as a tough legislator by winning a hard-fought battle to pass the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which guaranteed African-Americans access to all public facilities, and banned discrimination by race, religion, or sex. The Vietnam War was escalating, but had yet to become a real liability for Johnson.

The margin of Johnson’s landslide victory in 1964 was partly a repudiation of Barry Goldwater’s extreme right-wing views. Goldwater, an Arizona senator and author of the best-selling book The Conscience of a Conservative, won the Republican nomination after a bitter primary campaign against moderate New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. In his acceptance speech, Goldwater made the infamous statement, "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." The assertion, meant as a defense of conservatism, merged in the public consciousness with statements in which Goldwater advocated the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Vietnam and argued that Social Security be made voluntary.

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