War & Peace Quote by Barry Goldwater

Goldwater’s line lands like a rimshot because it hijacks the language of “straightness” and reroutes it into marksmanship. In a political culture that treated sexuality as a proxy for patriotism, he collapses the moral test back into the blunt mechanics of service: can you do the job, will you risk your life, can you aim. The wit isn’t ornamental; it’s a rhetorical ambush. By making “straight” mean “accurate,” he exposes how flimsy the traditional argument is when you strip away the taboo and ask what the military actually needs.

The intent is both permissive and hard-nosed. He’s not offering a poetic defense of identity; he’s issuing a utilitarian endorsement of inclusion. That matters because it frames gay service not as a cultural concession but as a matter of readiness and fairness. In other words: the nation is already taking your body, your fear, your blood. Policing who you sleep with looks petty next to that bargain.

The subtext is classic Goldwater contrarianism: a conservative poking at conservative pieties, using soldierly realism to shame moral panic. Coming from a Cold War-era hawk and a symbol of the right, the line also functions as ideological judo. It suggests that “family values” rhetoric, when imported into the barracks, becomes an un-serious distraction from the mission. The joke carries a moral edge: if you’re willing to let someone die for you, you don’t get to pretend their private life is the real threat.