E.J. Dionne Jr., Columnist, The Washington Post; Author, Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism from Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond; Twitter: @EJDionne
Barbara Marshman, Editorial Pages Editor, San Jose Mercury News—Moderator

From one of our most engaging political reporters and the author of Why Americans Hate Politics comes the story of conservatism from the Goldwater 1960s to the present-day tea party that he says has resulted in broken promises and an ideological purity that drives moderate Republicans away.

Dionne argues that American conservatism and the Republican Party took a wrong turn when they adopted Barry Goldwater’s worldview during and after the 1964 campaign. The radicalism of today’s conservatism is not the product of the Tea Party; Dionne says tea partiers are the true heirs to Goldwater ideology, and the purity movement did more than drive moderates out of the Republican Party—it beat back alternative definitions of conservatism.