Posted on 06/05/2015 1:07:25 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
DPM was great, but Zell Miller was after him.
DPM undermined his own report when he later opposed welfare reform.
Not to defend LBJ, but LBJ was a southern democrat of another era. Without getting into details, remember Abe Lincoln and the Republican party were the ones responsible for the abolition of slavery and other punishments inflicted on the southern states after the Civil War. It was one of the many reasons people in the South, including Texas, rarely voted for or elected Republicans to any office. The democrats despised and were solidly in defiance of the Republican party of Lincoln and the North. Factor in the KKK, poll taxes, and literacy tests and the black vote did not amount to much in Texas.
As a kid growing up in Texas in the mid-fifties, everything political revolved around the democratic party of that period and everyone white voted democratic. Republicans were few and far between and rarely got elected until much later. Also remember MLK was a republican at this time. The political parties were nearly opposite of how things are today.
As the democratic party became more liberal it morphed into what is the democratic party of today. Finding it too liberal, most Texans began switching to the republican party finding it more conservative and less liberal. Which is where most Texans are today.
As the Civil Rights era began and the KKK faded away, and poll taxes and literacy testing were eliminated, Texas democrats were faced with winning some of the new black votes to their side. It was about this time, LBJ did an about face and advocated his “Great Society” plan which favored civil rights reform in an effort to disrupt MLK’s non-violent movement which was turning violent. Many Texans and other Solid South democrats found his plan very objectionable but reluctantly went along with him (LBJ was a master politician and could be persuasive but that’s another story). LBJ assured them, under his plan, they could have the blacks voting democratic, not republican, for the next hundred years. Many still had doubts and fought it tooth and nail fearing there would be side effects like we are experiencing today.
So what LBJ started as a great experiment to gain the black vote for the democratic party of old has failed, but for the new liberal democratic party of our time it has been a success. I don’t believe it was LBJ’s intention to destroy our country and for that reason he would not have fit into Obama’s administration.
Evil, not really. LBJ was from a different era of Texas democrats. Washington politicians have always been dirty and LBJ fit right in with the crowd. BUT someone did have to add a few votes to Box 13 in Duval county in 1948 to get him there.
Can't talk about that, though.
Where would the future fathers come from?
Most of the American Black community is instinctively careless, disruptive, angry, and violent, contemptuous of the law, contemptuous of private property, contemptuous of intellectual achievement, contemptuous of manual labor, and instinctively supportive of all other Black Americans no matter how outrageous or how destructive their behavior might be.
I think forming social progrms engineered to enslave a segment of society into an dependent voting block is evil. I still believe LBJ was involved in JFK’s death, as did Jackie. LBJ wanted to be President badly, and both Kennedys stood in his way.
LBJ was all about LBJ. It ain’t too much more complicated than that. Read Caro’s biographies on him. You’ll see.
OK, I’ve said my piece to explain LBJ and Texas around that era. What I cannot do is defend him.
To most Texans that lived in that era, it was obvious he was evil and dealed a crooked hand most of the time. Everyone said one didn’t get in the way of Lyndon when he had his sights set on something. From his lowly beginnings near the LBJ ranch, all the way to the Whitehouse and then back again, most either sided with Lyndon or stayed out of his way. One didn’t mess with Lyndon.
As a kid I can remember the old folks sitting around the drug store downtown, chewing and spitting tobacco, whittling on pieces of wood, and talking politics. One of most discussed topics was LBJ. I remember overhearing them trying to explain the number of suicides where people who supposedly crossed Lyndon shot themselves multiple times in the back with bolt action rifles. Later the topics shifted to the evils of the Kennedys, particularly their religion. Nothing good was ever spoken of either clan. And these were old hard-core democrats.
I don’t think history will ever know the full extent of his dealings and capabilities. But there is speculation, he was involved in much more than we know today.
Like you, I grew up (born in 1950) and came of age, politically, when LBJ was ascendant. I guess that’s why the bastard is so fascinating to me, despite my undying hatred for him and what he stood for. I’ve read just about every bio on him ever written, and the authors have to try really hard to put lipstick on that pig.
I’ve always thought it was cosmic justice the way the liberals turned on him toward the end over the Vietnam War. Especially after he tried to suck up to them with all the Civil Rights legislation. The liberal elites never had anything but contempt for him, and it was reciprocal.
The reason he dropped out in 1968 was his poor showing in the New Hampshire Primary. I think he would have been able to get the nomination, but it would have been a bloody battle, and LBJ was by then tired and wanted to go home.
IMO, had he lived, Bobby Kennedy would have been elected president in 1968.
Moynihan was the last honest Democrat.
Why would a party that holds to the slaver’s mentality care about blacks? Democrats need dependency and only the dependent need Democrats.
I agree, Lyndon had very few options with his popularity waning and facing re-election in 1968. The anti-Vietnam War movement, the Civil Rights movement, and the young liberal (hippy and free love) culture were all against him. He was wise to fold and return home. He got in over his head and was headed out the door.
Like you, I have tried to find some redeeming value in his tenure in the Senate and as POTUS but there isn’t much to work with. Still, people believe his “Great Society” was the turning point in race relations in this country and history will remember him for that piece of legislation, even though we know it has failed to achieve its goal for the black race.
But Texas did benefit from his tenure through favorable (pork barrel) legislation and the formation of NASA. In that regard, Texans remember the good things he accomplished, not the failures.
The criminal shame of it is, the Great Society did nothing more than trap untold generations of poor of all races into endless poverty. Throughout the history of mankind, the only known and lasting cure for poverty is a work ethic, discipline, thrift, and human creativity. But all that stuff ain't no fun. It's much more fun to breed indiscriminately, smoke dope, drink, and eat. Much like dumb animals.
Highly recommended reading. Actual taped conversations of LBJ for the first couple of years of his presidency.
http://www.amazon.com/Taking-Charge-Johnson-White-House/dp/0684847922
Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes 1963 1964
http://www.amazon.com/Reaching-Glory-Lyndon-Johnsons-1964-1965/dp/074322714X/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_y
Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson’s Secret White House Tapes, 1964-1965
The Democrats have milked and exploited the black communities long enough and far enough that that well has run dry.
The black community is realing and hurting from the Democrat's oppression.
It won't be long now before Hillary, or whom ever they nominate will trow the black community under the bus indeed.
Black community ? You think that won't happen ? Just wait awhile, it's coming for sure and you will be the one’s left picking up the prices.
The only use the Democrat party has for the black community is race pimping for money.
Your time if usefulness is over as far as the Democrat party is concerned.
The Democrats will follow the money and court another race of people who they can exploit for another 50 to 100 years.
There are a few voices of the Black community that get it. Sometimes it seems they are crying in the wilderness.
I would love nothing more than to see the ghettos gone for good, but that can only happen if Blacks stop listening to the liberal Democrat Party that put them there and wants to keep them there.
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