Yet Reagan’s speech was very well received, and did more for his political career than it did for Goldwater’s. Though she had advised the Goldwater campaign, Ayn Rand grew dissatisfied with what she perceived to be the candidate’s increasing anti-intellectualism. She was not alone in looking at the outcome of the election and proclaiming that it “is too late for the ‘conservatives.’ There is nothing left to ‘conserve.’” Nor was she alone in singling out Reagan as the Republican winner of 1964, arguing that the best of the Goldwater campaign “was a speech by Ronald Reagan. […] All of the
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