Tom Cury: Why Bush is no Lyndon Johnson
The parallel seems irresistible: two presidents, two Texans, each caught in an unpopular war, hobbled in their last two years in the White House, with prospects getting dimmer for persuading Congress to enact their domestic agenda.
When President Lyndon Johnson, mired in the Vietnam War, went before Congress on Jan. 10, 1967, he stood at the same point in his presidency that George Bush stood on Tuesday night: two years to go before the end.
Last week presidential historian Robert Dallek drew the LBJ-Bush parallel, writing that “the two presidents' wartime predicaments represent a strange convergence of two men with vastly different backgrounds and political philosophies.”
But the analogy is flawed.
Despite his unpopularity due to the Vietnam War, Johnson did get a remarkable amount of what he sought in the ’67 State of the Union speech, including landmark legislation that still has a powerful effect on American society, such as the law banning age discrimination in hiring and firing.
Johnson had in 1967 what Bush lacks: a majority in Congress.
Despite GOP gains in the 1966 mid-term congressional elections, Johnson was still a president trying to move in a direction that many members of Congress wanted to move.
They, like he, sought a bigger, more activist federal government.
When Johnson went before Congress in 1967 for his State of the Union address he faced a House that had 247 Democrats and a Senate with 64 Democrats.
Bush has only 202 Republicans in the House and 49 in the Senate. And some of those Republicans sounded very skittish about some of the proposals they heard in Bush's State of the Union Tuesday night.
LBJ’s ’67 speech shows how determined he was to not let the Vietnam War and his own unpopularity cripple his effectiveness as a president with a bold domestic agenda.
Here are some of the goals LBJ announced in his 1967 State of the Union address and what he actually got:
Goal: “I will recommend that each of the 23 million Americans now receiving (Social Security) payments get an increase of at least 15 percent.”
Got: On Jan. 2, 1968 Johnson signed into law the 1967 amendments to the Social Security Act which increased benefits by 13 percent.
Goal: “We must eliminate by law unjust discrimination in employment because of age.”
Got: Congress passed the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, which made it illegal for employers to fire, refuse to hire, or otherwise discriminate against a worker or job seeker due to his or her age.
Goal: “We should find a solution to fair housing, so that every American, regardless of color, has a decent home of his choice.”
Got: The following year, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 which include the Fair Housing Act, which prohibited racial and ethnic discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.
Johnson was even able to do something that Bush may envy by the time his presidency ends: on June 13, 1967 he nominated Thurgood Marshall to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark. Two months later the Senate overwhelmingly voted to confirm Marshall....
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When President Lyndon Johnson, mired in the Vietnam War, went before Congress on Jan. 10, 1967, he stood at the same point in his presidency that George Bush stood on Tuesday night: two years to go before the end.
Last week presidential historian Robert Dallek drew the LBJ-Bush parallel, writing that “the two presidents' wartime predicaments represent a strange convergence of two men with vastly different backgrounds and political philosophies.”
But the analogy is flawed.
Despite his unpopularity due to the Vietnam War, Johnson did get a remarkable amount of what he sought in the ’67 State of the Union speech, including landmark legislation that still has a powerful effect on American society, such as the law banning age discrimination in hiring and firing.
Johnson had in 1967 what Bush lacks: a majority in Congress.
Despite GOP gains in the 1966 mid-term congressional elections, Johnson was still a president trying to move in a direction that many members of Congress wanted to move.
They, like he, sought a bigger, more activist federal government.
When Johnson went before Congress in 1967 for his State of the Union address he faced a House that had 247 Democrats and a Senate with 64 Democrats.
Bush has only 202 Republicans in the House and 49 in the Senate. And some of those Republicans sounded very skittish about some of the proposals they heard in Bush's State of the Union Tuesday night.
LBJ’s ’67 speech shows how determined he was to not let the Vietnam War and his own unpopularity cripple his effectiveness as a president with a bold domestic agenda.
Here are some of the goals LBJ announced in his 1967 State of the Union address and what he actually got:
Goal: “I will recommend that each of the 23 million Americans now receiving (Social Security) payments get an increase of at least 15 percent.”
Got: On Jan. 2, 1968 Johnson signed into law the 1967 amendments to the Social Security Act which increased benefits by 13 percent.
Goal: “We must eliminate by law unjust discrimination in employment because of age.”
Got: Congress passed the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, which made it illegal for employers to fire, refuse to hire, or otherwise discriminate against a worker or job seeker due to his or her age.
Goal: “We should find a solution to fair housing, so that every American, regardless of color, has a decent home of his choice.”
Got: The following year, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 which include the Fair Housing Act, which prohibited racial and ethnic discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.
Johnson was even able to do something that Bush may envy by the time his presidency ends: on June 13, 1967 he nominated Thurgood Marshall to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark. Two months later the Senate overwhelmingly voted to confirm Marshall....