Late night comedians, recalling World War II movies in which Gestapo officers demand “show me your papers,” find echoes of fascism in Arizona’s belief that there are occasions when police officers can reasonably ask for someone’s documentation. On Tuesday, Barack Obama, showing contempt for the professionalism and character of police officers, said: “Now suddenly if you don’t have your papers and you took your kid out to get ice cream, you’re going to be harassed.”

Time was, presidents were held to higher standards than comedians. Today’s liberals favor indignation over information, but lawyer Obama must know that since 1952 federal law has said: “Every alien, eighteen years of age and over, shall at all times carry with him and have in his personal possession any certificate of alien registration or alien registration receipt card issued to him.”

It took years for compassionate liberalism to make California’s welfare menu contribute to the state becoming an importer of Mexico’s poverty. It took years for servile liberalism to turn the state into what Voegeli calls a “unionocracy,” run by and for unionized public employees, such as public safety employees who can retire at 50 and receive 90 percent of the final year’s pay for life.

I. Goldwater opposes the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (with balanced commentary).

II. Goldwater at the 1964 Republican National Convention. I love George Will’s story about the reaction of a journalist to Goldwater’s famous line about “extremism in the defense of liberty.”

III. Goldwater vs. the Religious Right

IV. In Goldwater’s late career, his libertarian approach to social issues alienates many on the right.