Podcast
Behind the Bastards
The book was quoted to discuss the movement surrounding Proposition 14 in California in 1964. This was a proposition backed by the California Real Estate Association to rescind the Rumford Act, which made it illegal to discriminate housing based on race.
Indeed, one activist, Tom Rogers of San Juan Capistrano, who served as the campaign finance manager for John Schmitz's state Senate run in 1964 and who shortly afterwards served as co-editor of the Ca...
— Episode: Part Two: John Schmitz: The First Trump
Episode: Part Two: John Schmitz: The First Trump
The book was quoted to discuss the movement surrounding Proposition 14 in California in 1964. This was a proposition backed by the California Real Estate Association to rescind the Rumford Act, which made it illegal to discriminate housing based on race.
Indeed, one activist, Tom Rogers of San Juan Capistrano, who served as the campaign finance manager for John Schmitz's state Senate run in 1964 and who shortly afterwards served as co-editor of the Catholic traditionalist paper The Wanderer, asserted years later that for him and many others, Proposition 14 was what the movement was all about.
Goldwater's frequent references of freedom of association, his belief that prejudice is a moral issue that cannot be legislated and a strong advocacy of property rights placed him firmly on the side of those opposing the Rumford Act.
Moreover, Goldwater's determination to fight lawlessness, his references to rising crime rates and his linkage of crime to lawlessness of other sorts, a reference to the civil rights and students movements appealed to the white middle classes in Orange County.