Read "The Conscience of a Conservative" by Barry Goldwater online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The Governor of New York, in 1930, pointed out that the Constitution does not empower the Congress to deal with "a great number of. vital problems of government, such as the conduct of public utilities, of banks, of insurance, of business, of agriculture, of education, of social welfare, and a dozen other important features. " And he added that "Washington must not be encouraged to interfere" in these areas.
Franklin Roosevelt's rapid conversion from Constitutionalism to the doctrine of unlimited government, is an oft-told story. But I am here concerned not so much by the abandonment of States' Rights by the national Democratic Party -- an event that occurred some years ago when that party was captured by the Socialist ideologues in and about the labor movement -- as by the unmistakable tendency of the Republican Party to adopt the same course. The result is that today neither of our two parties maintains a meaningful commitment to the principle of States' Rights. Thus, the cornerstone of the Republic, our chief bulwark against the encroachment of individual freedom by Big Government, is fast disappearing under the piling sands of absolutism.