In a Washington Post op-ed, President Lyndon Johnson’s special assistant for domestic affairs Joseph A. Califano Jr. discusses the price for ignoring Johnson’s presidency.
Our nation — particularly Democrats — pays a high price for indulging in this amnesia. If we make Johnson’s presidency invisible, we break the chain of this nation’s progressive tradition and deny people an understanding of its achievements and resilience from the time of Theodore Roosevelt.
Worse, we lose key lessons for our democracy: that courage counts and that government can work to benefit the least among us in ways that enhance all of us.
Califano says that the “tragedy of Vietnam created a cloud that still obscures Johnson’s achievements.” Having watched the HBO special on Johnson a while back, I agree that we have ignored the enormous contributions that Johnson made.
When Johnson took office, 22.2 percent of Americans lived in poverty. When he left, only 13 percent were living below the poverty line — the greatest one-time poverty reduction in U.S. history. Johnson proposed and convinced Congress to enact Medicare, which today covers 43 million older Americans; Medicaid, which covers 63 million needy individuals; the loan, grant and work-study programs that more than 60 percent of college students use; aid to elementary and secondary education in poor areas; Head Start; food stamps, which help feed 27 million men, women and children; increases in the minimum Social Security benefit, which keep 10 million seniors out of poverty; and an array of programs designed to empower the poor at the grass roots.
[…]
He also threw himself into the fight against racial discrimination. In 1964 there were 300 black elected officials in America. By 2001, there were some 10,000 elected black officials across the nation, more than 6,000 of them in the South. In 1965, there were six black members of the House; today there are 42; the only black member of the Senate is headed for the Democratic presidential nomination.
As I look upon the achievements of the Johnson administration, I see a number of things which benefited me personally, things that I am grateful existed to allow me to grow and prosper. Without the foresight and fortitude of Johnson, can you imagine what America would look like today? Imagine no Voting Rights Act. Imagine no college grant or loan programs. Imagine no Fair Housing Act.
As bad as Vietnam was, it is beyond time for Americans – and Democrats in particular – to acknowledge the achievements of this man and recognize him for the giant that he was.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Nice dodge, MB. I understand that that’s the best you can do. I’ll try to take to take it easy on you in the future.
Brian, I feel the need to “dodge” you like I do bugs on the highway. I mean, in theory, I suppose I’d rather not hit them, but really, does it matter?
If you want to engage in a substantive conversation, start off on that foot.
I’ve got a Webster’s New World Dictionary copyrighted in 1970, and it lists “copyright” as both noun and verb. According to Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (1984), copyright was first used as a noun in 1735, and as a verb in 1806.
At least he did not use “surveil” as the verb forr of “surveillance,” as Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton does.
MB,
Good grief, get over yourself.