Let's talk about those e-mails.

[lnrw]

[exploited]

Well, say what you will about McGoverns domestic agenda, but he was a decent man who tried from the beginning to end the War on Vietnam. He also took on the incredibly corrupt DNC, and managed to win.

I am not at all surprised to see Comrade compare him and Sanders with disdain.

Look at what McGovern got smeared with: amnesty, abortion, acid. All policies that were the right policies, the right values to have. He has been vindicated by history, even though he was undoubtedly very idealistic for the times. Had he won, the US would have been in a comparatively better place. Instead, the US got Nixon - a vile man who was a traitor to his country, the Constitution and the rule of law. Much like Clinton - which is why she's known as Nixon in a pantsuit.

[lnrw]

I was there, I remember it well.

The 1967 Democratic Convention police riots in Chicago, obama's haunt, was still very fresh in people's minds. It left a very foul taste.

People did not want an encore. There were riots and demonstrations every single day shortly after that. Pius a very stupid and ugly war with many young men returning dead, damaged and maimed, we are still paying for that. It's very personal for me.

Nixon was the worst choice, as it turns out. And there is slim pickins' right now.

[exploited]

[John Galt]

[exploited]

[Philly]

I've been reading Robert Caro's biography series on LBJ and also saw the new HBO Film "All the Way" about him, which has opened my eyes to a lot of things I never knew about his life and career. Lyndon Johnson's decisions on Vietnam are kind of reminiscent of the way so many Democrats supported war in Bush's first term, even though they might not have been thrilled to do it. Johnson was fighting tooth and nail to get Civil Rights through Congress, creating bitter divides between himself and his fellow Southern Democrats. At the same time, he was determined to create a massive set of new social programs to strength and enlarge the social safety net in ways unseen since the New Deal, which the socially liberal Republicans who helped with Civil Rights would now probably balk at. In the midst of it all, things were starting to get a little messy for the small military presence that his predecessor had sent to Vietnam. Johnson really, really, wanted his legacy to be defined by success on Civil Rights and the Great Society. He didn't think he could afford to look weak on defense in the midst of pushing for sweeping changes that were both economically and socially very progressive, especially since the Vietnam conflict was tied to the Soviets omgcommiessoscary. So he decided to use some military might to show everyone he's no kitty. Of course, quagmires being what they are, he gets the American military sucked in a large, costly, bloody war that ended up being for absolutely nothing.

I think it's a bit unfair that Johnson's most prominent legacy is the war. What he did with Civil Rights and was doing (probably would have gone a lot farther if he got another term) with the Great Society were both remarkable. On domestic policy, I don't think we've even come close to a President as progressive as LBJ since. The leftists who hated Johnson for Vietnam must have taken for granted that Democrats would continue to protect and enhance New Deal type programs to preserve economic opportunities for the poor and working class. But the end of Johnson's presidency was also the end of New Deal Democratic Politics.

That said, I do not feel sorry for the man. The biography is great and recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it already (there are 4 volumes currently published, with a fifth and final one in the works) but Lyndon Baines Johnson -- forget about as a President, but just as a man -- was one of the worst people in human history. My God, he was such a vile monster.

[NAB]

[lnrw]

He wasn't called landslide lyndon for nothing.

This was a book I read in high school.



I was a Goldwater fan and a Young Republican.

Johnson and ladybird did well with KBR and iirc, Bell helicopters.

There's a lot of slime on this bastard.

BTW, today is the anniversary of the beginning of the end of McCarthyism. He got his face rubbed in it by a general of the Army during Senate hearings. Then he died 3 years later of alcoholism. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[lnrw]