Beet
Atlas Star
Posts: 28,916
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« on: November 11, 2003, 06:02:01 PM » |
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« edited: November 11, 2003, 06:03:55 PM by Beet »
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nym, I have read Robert Caro's biographies of Lyndon Johnson, specifically "Path to Power" and "Means of Ascent" and I completely agree with you about him. Caro tried to paint an unflattering picture but he didn't leave out Johnson's time teaching at the Cotulla school. What really came through was a highly ambitious man who was shaped very much by his parents' poverty, who rose very much due to his own ability (unlike our current president) from almost the bottom of the heap. He realized that he had to use imperfect means if he was to achieve constructive ends.
I really feel sorry for the man; he was probably the most liberal president in history and he probably thought he was really doing the right thing in Vietnam-- and faced a very unprecedented tide of opposition not from the right but from the left which left his life a virtual nightmare by 1968. Ironically, the generation that moved the country left in the '60s has been repudiating itself at the ballot box is the same generation that has voted for Republicans 7 times out of 9-- even today polls show that older Americans (60+) are more likely to lean Democrat than baby boomers are.
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