WASHINGTON -- When a maverick senator named Barry Goldwater came galloping out of the Arizona desert 40 years ago, the modern conservative movement was born.
Now, the man who holds his Senate seat, John McCain, is trying to shoot some of the movement's most cherished notions out of the saddle, including the issue that has come to define the modern Republican Party: cutting taxes.
The McCain campaign "does mark the end, or at least a break with, the conservative movement as it's developed," says William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard magazine.
Polls indicate that McCain's success in the Republican nomination contest is due more to his personality, character and inspiring life story than to the platform of his "McCain majority" movement, which even admirers describe as less than fully formed.
But his struggle against Texas Gov. George W. Bush might ultimately turn on whether McCain can convince enough Republican conservatives that he's one of them.
While he points with pride to his solidly conservative voting record in the House and Senate, those who have worked with and know McCain describe him as a pragmatist, not an ideologue.
And some of his statements during the campaign, like expressing concern about closing "the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots in America," have sounded suspiciously liberal to some conservative ears.
On the party's signature issue since the days of Ronald Reagan -- tax cuts -- McCain has taken a seemingly heretical position: He argues that paying down the national debt and shoring up Social Security and Medicare are more important than giving everyone a tax cut.
Unlike Bush, who would reserve roughly one-third of his tax cut for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, McCain would give that group almost nothing.
"I don't think Bill Gates needs a tax cut," he has said.
That sort of language could complicate McCain's ability to attract Republican votes, especially as the nomination race turns increasingly to states where primary voting is restricted to Republicans.
McCain's victories have come largely with the help of independents and, in last week's Michigan upset, Democrats. Bush is running ahead of McCain among those who identify themselves as Republicans, in some cases by margins of more than 2 to 1.
"Republicans cannot win without being the tax-cutting party," maintains Stephen Moore, director of fiscal policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute.
