Aug 28th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Hey Hey LBJ
Via Petey in comments, a very interesting op-ed by Robert Caro on Lyndon Johnson, the Voting Rights Act, and the remarkable progress we’ve made since the time LBJ threw his weight behind the cause of Civil Rights and the time an African-American could take to the podium to accept a major party presidential nomination. Johnson, of course, came to be despised by the left for Vietnam. But in recent years, I think there’s been a renaissance of appreciation for Johnson, recognizing that whatever his flaws he’s up there with FDR and Abraham Lincoln as the major architects of progressive American domestic policy. Bob Kuttner noted the other day, however, that this rehabilitation unfortunately hasn’t penetrated the halls of the 2008 convention.
23 Responses to “Hey Hey LBJ”
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August 28th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Where did this post come from? It certainly wasn’t here at 12:31pm.
In any case, I was blown away by that op-ed this morning. Extremely interesting and timely. So well-written that I’m inclined for the first time to go dive into Caro’s 4-tome LBJ biography.
August 28th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
“So well-written that I’m inclined for the first time to go dive into Caro’s 4-tome LBJ biography.”
If you’re into the history of 20th century Democratic politics, it’s the best book(s) every written.
August 28th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
the case of lbj is a very, very sad one considering what he could have (indeed, did) accomplish(ed), but there is, unfortunately, no way to think of lbj without thinking of his part in the wasteful and destructive endeavor known as the war in vietnam.
August 28th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
I am a 63 year old white woman who was from West Texas. My great aunt was married to LBJ’s cousin. I met LBJ several times as a child (when he was Speaker of the House) when he would visit his cousin and my grandfather, an attorney in West Texas. He was a product of his time and place, as was my grandfather. As a young adult, I did my stint in the civil rights movement of the 60’s and recognized his support of civil rights. I also opposed Vietnam and recognized that at least he suffered mightly from all of the deaths (my finance included) in Vietnam. Bush does not know this tye of suffering.
August 28th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
I tend to view LBJ as a tragic hero. Obviously, he did great work on the civil rights issues of his day. And he did so at great political risk and without a strong consensus in favor. His Vietnam policy was obviously a tragedy, but I think he felt somewhat trapped in Vietnam. He couldn’t win, but was afraid to lose, so he ran out the clock while it was still a draw. But I do believe that he was at least well-intentioned, if misguided. In the end, he knew it was wrong and was very regretful of his policy. And he was ruined by it, and so was his reputation. It’s really sad, because he truly did a lot of great things, but we’re all afraid to give him the credit he deserves.
August 28th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
It’s really sad, because he truly did a lot of great things, but we’re all afraid to give him the credit he deserves.
The truth is, the modern presidency is an extremely difficult and complex job, and it’s very hard to think of Presidents who were either all good or all bad. It’s really quite interesting how the historical narrative buckets Presidents, because of course the truth is nowhere near as cut-and-dry.
August 28th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
“the case of lbj is a very, very sad one considering what he could have (indeed, did) accomplish(ed), but there is, unfortunately, no way to think of lbj without thinking of his part in the wasteful and destructive endeavor known as the war in vietnam.”
Well, that’s part of what makes him such an interesting figure.
He screwed up Vietnam to an utterly amazing extent, but he also is the only President since FDR to actually pass major legislation.
There was significantly more stuff passed in the ‘65-’66 Congress than in the all of the rest of the Congresses from 1937 – 2008. The Great Society really is pretty great. American social insurance may still lag well behind the rest of the developed world, but imagine how much further behind it’d lag behind without that single burst of legislation.
Not to mention the point of Caro’s op-ed, that the dude basically single-handedly ended the cold-war phase of the Civil War that had been going on for a hundred years.
August 28th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
“it’s very hard to think of Presidents who were either all good or all bad”
Very true. But what’s so amazing about LBJ is that he was both spectacularly great and spectacularly awful. There wasn’t much in between. But hey, they don’t do things half-ass in Texas. They’re either folding or going all-in. And it doesn’t seem to matter what they’re holding.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Here is video of the speech Caro is talking about. It’s 44 minutes long, so if you just want the ‘we shall overcome’ section the op-ed is quoting from, watch from about 20:00 – 22:00.
And tangentially, one of my favorite Presidential TV ads of all time and one of the weirdest, a four minute long single shot aired for the LBJ ‘64 campaign.
August 28th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Yeah, it’s a damn shame that killing 60,00 Americans and wounding 150,000 others (most of whom were forced into service via the draft) tends to fuck up a legacy. What a shame. Of course, Truman, the monster who nuked a couple of Japanese cities (killing 220,000 innocent civilians) should receive similar no-mention treatment *and* fought an unnecessary war in Korea killing and wounding another 140,000 Americans.
August 28th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Well the Rise of the Republican Party since 1968 based on nothing but hate of liberals is a direct result of Johnson’s racial policies. He knew it too, although we lost the south not for a generation but for at least three.
So we have him to thank for Bush, Rove, and all the things that have come about because of the Republicans from Reagan to McCain such as torture. So yes he did do good, a lot of good. But the country (and the planet in terms of climate change) have paid and paid and paid for it since then as the price.
And I write this as someone who (being non-white) had parents who directly benefited from Johnson’s policies.
So you need to look at everything.
August 29th, 2008 at 12:45 am
That’s quite an op-ed. I only read the first volume of Caro’s biography, and what came through most was his absolutely intense dislike of his subject.
Here he talks about Johnson’s feelings for the poor Mexican-American kids he was teaching; in the book he presents it totally in terms of LBJ’s ambition
Guess I’ll have to dig up volumes two and four.
August 29th, 2008 at 2:44 am
This isn’t poetic – it’s just offensive. Did LBJ tie African-Americans’ shoes before they left the house to vote? It should go without saying that African-Americans have been a “true part of American political life” since before the birth of the United States. Among other things, they led a movement which seized the franchise by shifting public opinion and transforming the political landscape. That movement made the difference between the days when LBJ was strategizing against Civil Rights legislation to the days when Jesse Helms must claim to support it.
Caro seems smug towards Civil Rights activists who didn’t trust Johnson’s support until they got it. No doubt which bills Johnson supported, and when he came around to support them, is indeed, as Caro says, some combination of “ambition and compassion.” It’s short-sighted for historians to lionize Johnson’s choices while disparaging the people whose vision, tactics, and courage made it possible for him to wed the two. Of course it makes a huge difference who the President is. But the Great Man Theory that tells us Lincoln freed the slaves and then Johnson gave their descendants the vote is a theory that should be in the dustbin of history by now.
Let’s remember that as we consider the progress Barack Obama’s nomination represents as well as the struggles ahead should there be an Obama presidency.
August 29th, 2008 at 5:55 am
“I only read the first volume of Caro’s biography, and what came through most was his absolutely intense dislike of his subject … Guess I’ll have to dig up volumes two and four.”
Caro definitely warms to his subject over the course of the books. He’s brutal to Johnson in the first two, and much friendlier in the third.
I expect the book on the Presidency to be even warmer towards Johnson than Master of the Senate.
One possible objective reason for that is that LBJ becomes much more of a force for good as his career progresses, and less of just a very interesting study in ambition.
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