"I like to say I'm more conservative than Goldwater. He just wanted to turn the clock back to when there was no income tax"

Pete Seeger's quote is a funny method of expressing his conservative political views. He is implying that he is more conservative than the late Senator Barry Goldwater, who was a prominent figure in the Republican Party throughout the 1960s. Goldwater was known for his opposition to the federal earnings tax, which was presented in 1913. Seeger is suggesting that he is even more conservative than Goldwater, as he would like to turn the clock back even further than the time when the earnings tax was introduced. This quote is a funny method of expressing Seeger's conservative views, and it also functions as a tip of the importance of the federal earnings tax in the United States.