Opinion of Lyndon B. Johnson

[Lief 🗽]

I believe that black people should have equal rights and olds/poors should have medical care. I know that's a controversial set of opinions these days, but they are the reason why I vote FF.

[Lief 🗽]

Guys, presidents post-1945 don't really have any control over foreign policy. It's pointless to rate LBJ on Vietnam when any other president, of any other party, would have largely done the same thing.

[Lief 🗽]

LBJ didn't sign the Civil Rights Act or Voting Rights Act or Medicare or any of that out of the goodness of his heart, guys. Just bear that in mind.

So? He pushed them through Congress and signed them into law. I don't care why he did it. This is the same nonsense logic people use to defend Goldwater's opposition to the Civil Rights Act.

[Lief 🗽]

Why would you just judge a president on his belief instead of his actions? Even if he was personally a virulent racist (which is debatable), he did more to advance the position of black Americans than arguably any non-Abraham Lincoln president.

[Lief 🗽]

By the way, the quote AggDem keeps posting comes from an Air Force One steward who supposedly heard LBJ said it and only reported it thirty years later. No one else has corroborated the quote. It's likely made up.

[Lief 🗽]

The quote originates in the book called "Inside the White House" by Robert Kessler, published in the 90s. It's basically just a collection of gossip and hearsay from staffers (drivers, secretaries, secret service, plane stewards, etc.). There's no other evidence that LBJ ever said that.