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Donald Trump needs to listen to LBJ
By Kent R. Kroeger (October 4, 2019)
It was the evening of March 31, 1968. President Lyndon Johnson, nearing the end of a televised speech to the nation regarding the Vietnam War and the administration’s accelerated effort to organize peace talks with the North Vietnamese, dropped this political bomb on the American people:
“I have concluded that I should not permit the presidency to become involved in the partisan divisions that are developing in this political year,” Johnson said. “With America’s sons in the fields far away, with America’s future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world’s hopes for peace in the balance every day, I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes, or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office — the presidency of your country. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”
Apart from his wife and few close advisers, including Vice President Hubert Humphrey, LBJ’s political denouement was a shock to almost everyone that knew him.
No president loved the art of politics more than LBJ. The journey in passing landmark legislation was, in many ways, more important to him than the legislation itself. The greatest pieces of…
