107 years ago today, President Lyndon B. Johnson was born, destined to have a career that would change the lives of more Americans than any other President, including Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Many will remind us of the disastrous Vietnam War, which LBJ waged, and which forced him out of office, giving up a chance to be only the second President to serve more than eight years, the only one doing so being FDR!
Many will point out that LBJ is accused of being involved in the assassination plot against John F. Kennedy, well spread by several authors, but still seen as highly speculative.
Many will tell us of the statements that LBJ was possibly the most corrupt President in American history, and the one who enriched his own fortune more than any other, without any positive proof of their allegations.
Many will look to find other chinks in the armor of the 36th President, and certainly, LBJ would be the first to declare his own imperfections, including his tendency to use racist Southern terms for African Americans, common in Dixie in his lifetime.
But even with whatever shortcomings there were, and whatever mostly unprovable accusations that are lodged against him, there is certainly another LBJ–the man who used the powers of his office to better the lives of more Americans—-the elderly, the sick, the poor, the uneducated, the ethnic minorities, deprived whites, women—-than any President before him, and unmatched by any President since his time.
The Great Society did so much good, much of it still with us 50 years later, a goal that LBJ had, to match and surpass his “idol”, FDR, and his New Deal programs of 30 years earlier.
Poverty was cut dramatically in the time of LBJ; more people had a chance to get an education than ever before; Medicare and Medicaid came into being, providing a “safety net” added to the Social Security programs of FDR; Civil Rights laws finally fulfilled the purpose of what Abraham Lincoln had promoted a century earlier; the environment, consumer protection, transportation and urban affairs improvement became the priority of the federal government; public radio and television offered enlightenment and still do; and we saw the beginnings of opportunity for top positions in the federal government for ethnic minorities who had never played a role in government affairs before.
So despite obvious faults and shortcomings, Happy 107th Birthday, Mr. President!
Julian Bond died this month and I was reading this piece on the NYT which among other things said : “When he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1965, along with seven other black members, furious white members of the House refused to let him take his seat, accusing him of disloyalty.” I would like to know who were the “furious white members”? They must have been Republicans of course. But do you know their names. I read through other press through all the press accounts but they all simply stated that “white members†refused to let Julian Bond take his seat without informing who these Republican politicians were. Do you happen to know?
Actually at that date, it was, most likely, Democrats, who had not yet switched enmasse to the Republican Party, which really started with Strom Thurmond in 1964, when he backed Barry Goldwater,
Thank you. Now I understand why the Times and other outlets omitted that information. It’s impossible to find in any of the reports.
But there is one thing I do not understand. When I visited the Democratic party webpage during the 2012 election they clearly stated on their homepage that the Democratic party was the party of civil rights throughout all of its history, since the beginning. Now I am confused.
The Northern Democrats were always the party of civil rights, but the Southern Democrats had seniority and constant reelection, so they were able to prevent action at all until Truman courageously integrated the military and Washington, DC, leading to Strom Thurmond’s States Rights Party campaign against him in 1948.
The Southern Democrats assured the defeat of Alfred E. Smith for President in 1928, because he was Irish Catholic, and he became the first Democrat to lose part of the South since Reconstruction.
Once LBJ came into the White House, he overcame his own past and accomplished the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, causing most white Southerners to switch to the Republican Party, and they have, overwhelmingly, been there since, starting with Nixon’s Southern Strategy, further pursued openly by Reagan and the Bushes.
Now the GOP is heavily white Southern, like the old Dixiecrats of Strom Thurmond, and in so doing, have marginalized themselves, not able to appeal to other racial groups, and made worse by the rhetoric of Donald Trump!
So were the southern Democrats liberals or conservatives? I am confused. You mean to say Republicans were liberals and are now racist conservatives? I say racist because we all know conservatism is equal to racism, correct? Or where there both liberals and conservatives in both parties? Also I recall , correct me if I am wrong , that Al Smith was against FDR’s economic policies. So was Al Smith a liberal or a conservative and were those southern democrats that ran him out liberals or conservatives? This is confusing, I see that there seems to be many contradictions. Also, and sorry if I am a pain, am I to understand that Republicans won the south in every election since 1965 and that all those Democrat Senators from the South, all 25 of them switched parties immediately after the Civil Rights Act of 1965. Did all 25 of them switch because the Republicans voted all against that Civil Rights Act? I mean did these southern Democrat senators join southern Republican governors Maddox, Fabus and Wallace and thus consolidated the Republican dominance of the south in 1965?And I am also very interested in Nixon’s racist policies based on the Southern Strategy. What were they? Did Nixon try to re-impose segregation or was that Reagan or Bush senior? I know the last Bush try to eliminate blacks with Hurricane Katrina and was so happy to see so many blacks die, I was wondering what his father and Reagan did. Which racist policies did they implement that made the racist south vote for them?
Most Southern Democrats, with a very few exceptions, were conservatives, against federal intrusion on civil rights and other domestic areas.
After the Civil Rights laws were passed, over a period of time, Southern Democrats joined the Republican Party and joined Western Republicans in their opposition to the federal government.
The only Southern Democrats now are primarily black or Jewish or Latino, with a rare exception such as Bill Nelson of Florida.
Wallace, Faubus, Maddox were Southern Democratic conservatives and racists, and then we had the New South governors who were more moderate and Democrats, such as Dale Bumpers of Arkansas, Ruben Askew of Florida, Bill Clinton of Arkansas and Jimmy Carter of Georgia, but now all Southern Governors except in Virginia, influenced by the DC suburbs, are conservative Republicans.
Not all conservatives are racist and nativists, but many have become that way in recent years. Nixon wanted to win the South, so backtracked on civil rights in many areas, as did Reagan on enforcement. The Bushes were more moderate on that issue in comparison.
Al Smith turned against FDR more on jealousy than anything else, but the South was fearful of his Catholicism and New York background.
I would not agree that W Bush was racist and out to see blacks die in New Orleans. Instead, it was mismanagement, but certainly there were Southern Republicans who could not have cared less.
Carter and Clinton, as Southerners, were able to win most of the South in Presidential elections, and Obama won NC once and Virginia and Florida twice, a lot due to the South Florida and Northern Virginia influences.
I hope this answers your questions. Clearly, the whole issue of parties and beliefs is complex, and at times, confusing.
The point that is clear is that racism is far from resolved, despite having an African American President.
What matters when you are voting is where each party stands TODAY. Democrats today embrace equality and today’s GOP has moved away from their liberal/progressive roots.
Exactly right, Pragmatic! The actions of the Republican Party and the Democrat Party in 2015 is the real measure of what’s what.