He can’t get no respect

One of the saddest post-office presidencies was that of Lyndon Baines Johnson. With the failure of the Vietnam War, Johnson chose to retire from the White House after his first elective term rather than run an almost certain to lose campaign against golden boy Robert Kennedy (who knows what might have happened if he did run?) and return to his ranch in Texas. It was on that ranch that the 37th President of the United States withdrew from public life and wasted away, watching the country he had served for so long forget about him. He died sick, sad and unappreciated.

Unfortunately for LBJ’s legacy, the events of this past weekend only helped to whither his already vacant reputation. As dignitary after dignitary opened their mouths paying homage to civil rights leaders past and present, not a one that I heard read about, or saw made any deference to the man who signed the Voting Rights Act into law. Many of the speakers invoked JFK, but none thought to honor the man who followed. No one seemed to think it was necessary to recognize the president who called for a special joint session of congress and made perhaps the finest speech of his presidency where he said “we shall overcome” which fueled public sentiment for those in Alabama to a crescendo.
Granted Johnson’s civil rights record up to that “Bloody Sunday” moment was poor, but wasn’t his conversion a perfect example of what can happen when people stand up for what is right? It’s a pity. A man who went from racist to emancipator can’t get a fair shake.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 5th, 2007 at 1:12 pm and is filed under Politics, Democrats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.