Mike Pence: Conservatives Have Forgotten What They Believe

Welcome to Things Worth Remembering, our weekly column in which writers share a literary treasure that all of us should commit to heart. This week, in an excerpt from his brand-new book, What Conservatives Believe, former vice president Mike Pence reflects on Barry Goldwater’s 1960 book, The Conscience of a Conservative, and its enduring wisdom for a political faction increasingly out of touch with its foundational principles.

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I had my first and only encounter with Barry Goldwater when I was 5. He was traveling through southern Indiana on a train tour as he campaigned for president in 1964. On a morning about a month before he lost the election, he stopped in my hometown of Columbus, Indiana. My mother gave me and my brothers train conductor hats and loaded us onto a hay wagon so that we could take in the big event. I don’t remember much else.

Years passed before I could even begin to comprehend Goldwater’s significance as a founding father of American conservatism. I started my journey in politics in the late 1970s as a college Democrat. Beginning after the 1980 election, however, after hearing the voice, vision, and optimism of Ronald Reagan, I knew my future lay in the conservative principles of the Republican Party.

(Center Street, an imprint of the Hachette Book Group)

Goldwater roared back into my life in an unexpected way. In 1988, I ran for Congress as a Republican and lost to an incumbent. Two years later, I ran again and suffered another defeat. During that second effort, a would-be constituent gave me a gift: a vintage copy of The Conscience of a Conservative, Goldwater’s slender volume of political thinking. I had known about this book, but only by reputation. Following its initial publication by a small press in Kentucky in 1960, it became a surprise bestseller. It inspired millions, giving shape and form to a set of ideas that fueled a rising political movement. It also elevated its author, making a senator from Arizona a national figure.