Democratic Primaries
In reply to the discussion: 'Bernie' Is Not Seeking Our Party's Nomination For President [View all]The Magistrate
(95,241 posts)I will leave a good deal unsaid in respect to your feelings, and speak only of what is to me now clearly admirable about President Johnson.
There can be no doubt whatever the man displayed extraordinary moral courage in pressing for and signing the Civil Rights Act. At the time he did not receive full credit for it, with many suggesting the Act was more in the nature of a tribute to the murdered President Kennedy than an achieved goal of President Johnson, and others decrying the Act as not going far enough, and pointing to some previous votes by Mr. Johnson in the Senate as proof his heart was not in it. These things I am convinced are wrong. Mr. Johnson made the Act law, and of his own desire and volition. He knew what he was doing, and his statement our Party had lost the South for a generation when he signed the Act is the true measure of the man, and his desire to do the right thing by his own best lights. I would suggest that his Great Society proposals, not all of which could be enacted, were in part intended to redeem that loss, by improving the lot of poor people, white and black and hispanic alike, to blunt the edge of racist appeals with prosperity, and bring more people to a stake that made voting seem worthwhile.
No call to worry about deviation the thread's point, Sir. It is a pleasant break, when it occurs. As these things become unwieldy, I have found myself discussing Heinlien's books, and the evolutionary speculations of Tielhard de Chardin, among other things, within them. I don't think our discussion is too far off the point in any case. I appreciate the opportunity to get some of my thoughts on the subject in order.
Be well, Sir, and stay safe.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden