Lyndon Johnson and Trump

How is LBJ the most important democrat?

>>113433
>lyndon Johnson.
>scummy.

he was calculating, he knew how to play politics but got tangled in the politics of the cold war. He also saw nasa's flights to the moon, and the civil-rights act being signed into law.. hardly scummy, it's brilliant politics.

trump has no politics, trump is an idiot and an embarrassment, and will likely embarrass the country or worse.

it's actually relatively light praise from a conservative rag like the national review.

>>113459
Johnson was a traitor to this nation. Anyone with a D next to their name is a fifth column that should be forced out of the country.

>>113483
>>poor white trash detected

go on.. tell us how yould be a millionaire but for the ebil democratics and their civil rights.

>>113486
Republicans and their civil rights
Democrats voted against the civil rights act and filibustered it.

>>113488
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond

Political party
Democratic (before 1964)
Republican (1964–2003)

Other political affiliations
Dixiecrat (1948)

>>113457
He secured the black vote for democrats for eternity and alienated the south from being democrats.

>>113459
Lyndon Johnson hated black people, with actual vigor, but put that aside to help his party. He also was a huge dick waiting for a meeting to start to move it to the bathroom while he was taking a shit, all because, "muh mind games". He browbeated senators into giving him what he wanted.
He's exactly a boyscout leader.

>>113459
>trump has no politics, trump is an idiot and an embarrassment

Then how did he win?
Clearly he could see something none of the other GOP candidates could.
There's the side you see on TV, and the side you don't.

LBJ was born for politics. He had no interests in life other than politics and his ultimate goal from a very early age was the presidency. This might not sound very appealing, but under his leadership, the senate actually *worked*. He was powerful enough to make that place actually pass bills and be productive and I feel like that's an extremely valuable thing.
He also passed civil rights legislation that was vital in finally getting the country to move past Jim Crow. He really dropped the ball in Vietnam though, I think because he treated foreign policy and war like he treated domestic politics - he did what seemed like the expedient thing to do and it bit him in the ass. In any case, he was probably the most skilled political operator of the 20th century as far as I can tell - I don't know as much about other politicians as I do about him though so maybe I'm missing someone.

Compare this to Trump, who is dysfunctionality incarnate. The man would not last a day in the senate, all he can do is get people riled up. He is incapable of leading powerful or smart people, which is why his administration is awkwardly trying to work around his eccentric antics and general bullshit instead of looking up to him as their leader and following his cues. They're too busy trying to extinguish the fires he tweets into existence to make actual policy.
What Trump tapped into is, I believe, a justified discontent of the American people with the way politics has been played for a very long time. Politicians have pretended to be basically infallible for the longest time, feigning outrage at the littlest thing in order to sink opponents and talking their way around mountains of evidence discrediting their political stances.

>>113513
LBJ did not hate black people, he did play nice and cozy with the southern democrats who did though, because that's where power was in the 50s senate. He also schmoozed up to the liberal wing of his party (Humphrey etc) when it was politically opportune.

>>113577
Basically what it comes down to is: They're similar, but Trump is vastly less intelligent and politically versed. On the other hand, he's very good at making the media work for him in a very raw, visceral way. But ultimately, his only political capital is his popularity, whereas Johnson could definitely get shit done if he wanted to.

>>113577
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/lyndon-johnson-civil-rights-racism

>>113580
I don't believe using racist rhetoric makes you an actual racist. Johnson did not really believe in the racist shit peddled by the Thurmonds and Russels of his time, but he also didn't believe in the liberal ideas all that much. He simply chose the side that had more chance of helping him gain power in the senate. Is that opportunistic and arguably despicable? Yes. Does it mean he actually subscribed to the southern racist ideology? Not in my opinion (shaped largely by Caro's accounts). Johnson had pretty much no ideological constraints. He believed in helping poor and downtrodden people of any race and creed, but not strongly enough to push in that direction at the risk of pissing off the powerful southern democratic senators.

[conspiracy]
Lyndon conspired with the CIA to have JFK killed
[/conspiracy]

>>113581
Johnson might not have been a true racist at heart but he grew up at the height of the Klan's influence in Texas. You don't rise to power in politics in that environment without playing to the racist majority. Also, blatant vote fraud. Then on top of all that, he also favored military-industrial complex solutions to all the foreign ills as much as Nixon or Reagan or even Obama did, exactly as Eisenhower warned in his farewell speech. Telling rednecks and yokels that they should elect you because you want to kick commie butt was never a bad move.

(PS: it's surreal seeing someone else who has read Caro on this site. Cheers)

>>113588
I agree completely. Tbh I got stuck in volume 4, gotta finish that shit before he comes out with the 5th book.

I just think it's amazing how many people feel they are qualified to speak in no uncertain terms about politics of both past and present without ever having read a book about or spoken to people involved with the stuff they're commenting on. Everybody is always so sure of themselves and there's this weird notion on all sides that anyone who doesn't agree with them harbors ill intent and basically isn't really human (people are portrayed as caricatures of what actual humans think and work like).
I don't know how it was in the past but most political commentary these days seems pretty fucking basic and removed from the complexities of the real world.

>>113433
All the prez's were emotionally retarded bullshitters: Most, if not all, were worthless drunks. Trump merely does not do that well faking sanity.
The americans worse off than they were before obama, but most of them are too brain-damaged to notice their country will soon be a third-world country.