Remember When Conservatives Had a Conscience?

Andrew Sullivan quotes from Barry Goldwater's book, The Conscience of a Conservative:

Our tendency to concentrate power in the hands of a few men deeply concerns me. We can be conquered by bombs or subversion; but we can also be conquered by neglect - by ignoring the Constitution and disregarding the principles of limited government. Our defenses against the accumulation of unlimited power in Washington are in poorer shape, I fear, than our defenses against the aggressive designs of Moscow. Like so many other nations before us, we may succumb through internal weakness rather than fall before a foreign foe.

If the Republicans were the party of Barry Goldwater, I'd probably be a Republican right now. Sadly, though, the Republicans have become the party of Augusto Pinochet.