In case you missed it, NPR spoke to Professor Sheldon Danziger about LBJ's War on Poverty. Here's a link so you can hear that discussion and others related to the persona and vision of Johnson:
http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_1589660.html It is easy for me to loathe presidents such as Harry Truman, for that warmonger was not a progressive visionary. There is little doubt in my mind that he will be remembered in 50 years as the monster who ushered in the atomic age, and the fool who presided over the forging of the National Security State.
To recall Lyndon Johnson's legacy, on the other hand, leaves me in a state of melancholy. I want to admire the man: his legislative genius and moral courage, in respect to civil rights, trounced Kennedy's. His Great Society, despite some of its flawed programs, is a liberal's dream. When I hear the aforementioned addresses from '63, '64 and '65, I am filled with joy that for one brief shining moment in American history, our government sought to alleviate the suffering of its poorest citizens. To me, Johnson's early presidency was the true Camelot. This was not a necessity as it was for FDR, for the nation was propering in the early 60's. But LBJ had a vision, one so beauteous that it makes Clinton look pretty uninspiring.
Nevertheless, he sold his soul to Mars. He presided over something so horrific, so unfathomably evil, that I could never forgive him. This would-be hero is the same man who authorized the use of napalm to be dropped on villages, tormenting and destroying hundreds of thousands of infants and children. I am forced to confront the possibility that liberals could plunge into the same abyss of savagery as conservatives are so wont to do.
What do you guys think of him?
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