Why Can't Obama Be More Like LBJ?

It began with the February C-Span poll of historians ranking Lyndon Johnson number eleven among American Presidents (although he was still behind his predecessor, John Kennedy, who was #6). Then, in April, a Times opinion piece recommended that Barack Obama follow the LBJ model for passing legislation. In that article, historian Robert Dallek wrote of Johnson:

[A]ll Johnson's major initiatives remain a part of the national life: civil rights and voting rights; Medicare and Medicaid; federal aid to elementary, secondary and higher education; the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development; environmental protections; consumer rights; medical research; and support for the arts and humanities.

It's good to be reminded that the man who was forced to abandon the presidency because of his hot pursuit of victory in Vietnam passed both the first meaningful civil rights legislation in American history (followed by voting rights legislation), and created Medicare (as well as Medicaid), and much, much more.

Then, on Walter Cronkite's death, MSNBC's Chris Matthews revived an old interview he did with the CBS anchor, in which Matthews asked Cronkite his rankings of the 11 presidents he had known. Cronkite answered that Eisenhower had the most stature, Carter(!) was the smartest, and Johnson the most powerful.

Now, Joe Klein, in Time, is harkening back to the golden days of Johnson. True, Klein's piece doesn't mention Johnson in addressing the babble of contemporary politics in America, which seemingly makes it impossible to pass any landmark legislation altering our country's destiny. But when we recall when such seminal legislation was last passed, we immediately focus on Lyndon Johnson's record.

Aside from the changes in the political process from Johnson's time that Klein outlines, there are three prominent personal traits that made LBJ the beacon for success among modern presidents in creating monumental legislative initiatives.

1. Johnson emotionally identified with the underdog.
   The son of a failed father, Johnson felt socially inferior to those
   around him. He was always sympathetic to society's outcasts.
   Alone among Southern Senators, Johnson was not a racist. It is not
   now well-remembered that Johnson began his professional life as a
   teacher of underprivileged kids, and that he was one of those model
   teachers who gave his all for the minority children under his charge.


2. Johnson was a man of the people. Johnson's coarseness is
   often now referred to, especially his sexual and scatological
   utterances and behavior. But Johnson didn't have to pretend -
   like virtually every president since Truman, nearly all of whom
   were educated in elite institutions and associated with elites
   throughout their adult lives - that he knew how to get along
   with ranchers, farmers, laborers, and just plain folks. Indeed, Johnson
   went to the opposite extreme by concealing his down-home personality
   in attempting to sound proper, even pious, in his public appearances.


3. Of course, as Robert Caro described in "Master of the Senate," Johnson
   was the ultimate power player. He knew where all the bodies were
   buried, and was perfectly willing - even while drinking with fellow politicians
   (need I mention Johnson didn't drink lite beer?) and putting his arm
   around them - to physically squeeze (according to Caro) their balls
   with the other hand. He never shirked from making his will known, and
   just how displeased he would be if someone wouldn't do his bidding. And
   he would crush you if you crossed him.

Before I start sounding like Lyndon Johnson's posthumous white-washing machine, I should also mention that he was a liar when it came to slandering political rivals (like 1948 Texas senatorial opponent Coke Stevenson) and he was certainly not above stealing a close election like the one with Stevenson. Beyond that, he was (like Nixon) seriously emotionally imbalanced - as revealed partly by Doris Kearns Goodwin's behind-the-scenes depiction of Johnson after he left the presidency.

While he is thankfully much more stable emotionally than Johnson, Barack Obama, our first black President, is actually less adept at identifying with the underprivileged and having the common touch. Obama was, after all, educated at exclusively elite institutions and hung with the upper crust at Harvard and later in Chicago. This, combined with an absence of an instinct for the jugular, has left Obama lost in the wilderness when it comes to getting a major health care bill passed.

On the other hand, Obama presumably would not have made Johnson's errors in persisting in the Vietnam quagmire and reacting to opposition to the War by cracking heads (along with Hubert Humphrey's nuts). But we may be forgiven for expressing just a few feelings of nostalgia for LBJ. We are unlikely to ever again see the likes of him - or of the huge changes he crafted in our society - and we are just now starting to understand what we have lost.

Comments

[diak0n0s]

What we have lost is 5.5 trillion dollars since LBJ's Great Society.

[DinkSinger]

Without Lyndon Johnson, Barrack Obama would not be president. Last November, among white voters McCain won 55 to 43%. This despite the economic meltdown. This despite the disaster of the Iraq War and the response to Katrina. This despite the nomination of a Vice Presidential candidate that only 38% of voters were willing to call qualified. The election of Barack Obama was made possible by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It was made possible by the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was made possible by the death of James Reeb, a white, Unitarian Universalist minister who died in Selma, Alabama. It was made possible by Lyndon Johnson who gave the second greatest speech of the Civil Rights era four days after Rev. Mr Reeb died and ten days before the Selma marchers finally reached Montgomery. Johnson stood before Congress and demanded they pass the Voting Rights Act and said "it's not just Negroes, but really it's all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome." We still have a long way to go, but we shall overcome, someday. When you have the time, read or listen to that speech at http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/lbjweshallovercome.htm

[benjaminblue]

Perhaps President Johnson was under-appreciated in part because journalists then were expected to present reasonably unbiased, factual reports; they could not express genuine enthusiasm when admirable acts were committed. And as Mr. Peel observes here, many of President Johnson's humane, courageous, far-sighted, wide-reaching acts were admirable.

Similarly, Saint Ronnie was over-appreciated because the reporters of yore have been replaced by pundits like Rush and O'Reilly, who are encouraged (and rewarded handsomely) for spouting out inane accolades in support of the mediocre. The perception perpetuated matters more than the truth.

President Johnson's accomplishments ennobled the nation and the world; President Reagan's achievements lined his pockets and those of his fat-cat friends at the ongoing expense of all others.

[curanipedoug]

The great unaddressed irony of LBJ was the public benefit, from a very dishonest politician. His election to the senate was vastly illegal.LBJ should never have been seated. He was allowed into the senate as a member of a political machine-giving him great power. His assumption of the presidency was due to a crime. He got rich 'serving' the public. The costs to American history-Johnson's supporters got rich as well-seem to be fading from history.

[fnygy]

Johnson was also a master legislator - something we haven't had in the White House since. Probably never will again, since votes can be used so effectively against a candidate in a campaign.

In my opinion, our system is broken and beyond repair, unless and until the money is removed from politics and redistricting is taken away from the parties. Even then, it may not work because, frankly, the American people are furiously stupid. And proud of it.

[curanipedoug]

"Furiously stupid" "And PROUD OF IT" How very sadly true. Sounds like the palin campaign for President (although it will have to go unspoken as it did for 43)