Joe Biden Can Be the Next Lyndon Johnson In Terms of Passing Landmark Legislation

[TomCADem]

Before he was President, Lyndon Johnson was a southern democrat who espoused moderate views. He was known as a master deal maker, and no one would have imagined that major bills like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Food Stamp Act of 1964, the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965; and the Social Security Amendments of 1965. Put another way, before he was President, Lyndon Johnson was hardly considered a liberal idealogue. What he knew how to do was pass legislation as a former Democratic Senate Leader.

Between Biden and Sanders, Joe Biden is the most similar to Lyndon Johnson. Biden, who served 36 years in the Senate before leaving to join Obama’s administration, authored 20 meaningful bills during his time in the Senate. His final two years in office, when he chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, were notably active: In those two years, seven Biden-authored bills were signed into law. Of course, as a Vice-President, Biden was invaluable in the passage of the ACA.

In contrast, while Bernie introduced 324 bills, about three became law. This includes a bill naming a post office in Vermont and two more while Democrats had control (one naming another Vermont post office and another increasing veterans’ disability compensation). Bernie has been loud and outspoken and has made a career of attacking (and alienating) Democrats. In this sense, Bernie is like George McGovern who failed miserably at uniting the Democratic party. In the weeks leading to Super Tuesday, Bernie went all-in attacking the, "Democratic establishment," which alienated many Democrats and contributed to his huge losses.

The ability to develop coalitions is also on display in terms of the ability to get former rivals to endorse them. Biden is way ahead of Bernie on this metric with Bernie Sanders not even able to get his former protege and fellow Sanders Institute founder, Tulsi Gabbard, to endorse him.

I think a common mistake folks have is that they believe that the most ideologically rigid and vocal candidate will be the most effective. This is not true. For all of his faults, Lyndon Johnson was a master at developing the relationships to pass major liberal legislation despite the fact that he was hardly seen as an ideologue prior to his Presidency.

Ironically, if Bernie Sanders really wants to pass meaningful healthcare reform, it would be far better if Joe Biden were President and not him.

[beachbumbob]

1. trump and gop shows all you need is executive orders

[Skidmore]

6. No, the Republicans during the Obama administration

and the Trump regime through obstruction and executive orders exposed how governing by fiat forces reactive pushback and authoritarianism. We have a dictator in place of a government with three functioning parts engaged in democratic governance. We need to restore the Constitution and democracy.

[beachbumbob]

11. so how do that with lifetime appointments of federal judge? I am speaking reality

[onetexan]

24. Need to remove life time appointments, and put in place term limits for fed judges, esp'ly SCOTUS

[mucifer]

2. Fingers crossed he can change his ways and stand up to big banks

[Sloumeau]

4. Biden is now supporting Warren's bankruptcy proposal:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/14/politics/joe-biden-elizabeth-warren-bankruptcy-plan/index.html]

[TomCADem]

5. Lyndon Johnson, a Crass Southern Moderate Democrat...

...signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Heck, Lyndon Johnson was allegedly said racist things in private, yet he was also prescient in terms of describing the modern Republican Party:



Bernie is not going to be able to pass Single Payer through a series of roll call amendments. If Bernie wants to get things done, and is not in it for the ego, then Bernie need Joe Biden as President, because Donald Trump sure as hell is not going to do it.

[William769]

19. ...

[TwilightZone]

3. The president can only sign what ends up on his/her desk.

Give Biden a Congress that will put progressive legislation on his desk and you'll see progressive reforms.

It really is that simple. The same would have been true of many candidates in this year's primaries.

[Ponietz]

7. Johnson wasn't just signing what ended up on his desk and deserves far more credit than that

Johnson carried the ball as Biden must, too.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/04/what-the-hells-the-presidency-for/358630/

[TwilightZone]

8. Of course.

My point is that without a Congress that will pass that legislation, it goes nowhere. If LBJ hadn't had an amenable Congress, no amount of "convincing" would have been enough. It's vitally important that we keep the House and somehow regain the Senate.

[empedocles]

12. Southern chairman were not amenable. They very well knew of the white flight that was undercutting

the solid Dem South for years, and would lead to Republican victory before long.

LBJ was arguable the most powerful Senate Majority leader ever. LBJ knew power.

[empedocles]

9. LBJ pulled a lot of reluctant Congressional votes to pass his tremendous legislation.

Voters may well put in overwhelming Dem majorities and that will be great. Very unlikely to put 'Progressives' in any kind of majority.

The entire 2018 shift that elected Pelosi, [far left blue wave myths aside], came from 42? red destricts.

[TwilightZone]

13. He also had a country still mourning a very popular president.

That factor is often highly underestimated.

Yes, most of the seat flips (30+) were moderates in purple/red districts.

[TomCADem]

17. JFK Himself Did Not Necessarily Push an Expansive Agenda

JFK was an inspiring and effective speaker, but given his narrow margin of victory over Nixon, he was not necessarily seeking revolution. Rather, given his background, he was clearly anti-communist. And JFK's selection of Lyndon Johnson was opposed by liberals. Yet, in the end, it was Lyndon Johnson who pushed the major pieces of progressive legislation over the finish line.

Kennedy's health insurance bill, which would have paid for hospitalization and nursing costs for the elderly, failed to pass either house of Congress due to the opposition of Republicans, Southern Democrats, and the American Medical Association. However, it was LBJ was able to get Medicare signed into law.

[TomCADem]

10. The Johnson Treatment: Pushing And Persuading Like LBJ

I don't think its an accident that Lyndon Johnson, a former Senate Majority Leader, was one of history’s most legislatively active presidencies. I agree it depends on what Congress puts on his desk, but I think Biden will be far more effective in influencing that process than Bernie.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johncoleman/2018/07/30/the-johnson-treatment-pushing-and-persuading-like-lbj/#163c400e4201

For many Americans, the presidency of Lyndon Johnson is a distant memory marked by tragedy—the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and social turmoil. But it was also one of history’s most legislatively active presidencies. President Johnson was essential to the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Medicare, the Voting Rights Act and even the Public Broadcasting Act. Whether one views all this legislation as positive or not, its very volume and scale highlight the influence of a man who rose from the poverty of West Texas to become a Congressman, the youngest Senate majority leader in history and ultimately, president.

How did he do it? There is a wonderful photo of Lyndon Johnson and Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas. Johnson is towering over Fortas, smiling and invading his space as the jurist uncomfortably leans back and clinches his arms to his chest. That photo has become emblematic of what became known as the Johnson Treatment—Lyndon Johnson’s persuasive tactics described by Mary McGrory as “an incredible, potent mixture of persuasion, badgering, flattery, threats, reminders of past favors and future advantages.” As a participant in the Presidential Leadership Scholars (PLS), a leadership development program sponsored by four presidential libraries or centers, I had the opportunity to spend a weekend learning about the Johnson presidency at the LBJ Ranch and the LBJ Library. And I learned a great deal more about the 36th president’s approach to persuasion. It’s not for everyone—leadership styles are different—but it often worked for LBJ and is worth understanding today.

So how did LBJ persuade? First, he’d establish a vision and a purpose. In Mark Updegrove’s Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency, Jack Valenti recounts how, the evening of Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, Johnson sat at home with his team and spent five hours mapping what would become the Great Society agenda. “He knew with stunning precision the mountaintop to which he was going to summon people,” Valenti recalled. That vision for his presidency became the purpose and focal point of his persuasion. Often in seeking to persuade people we lose sight of the end goal—where we’re headed with our persuasion. But Johnson knew that vision and purpose are foundational to persuasion.

* * *
Perhaps the most defining element of President Johnson’s persuasion was the Johnson Treatment itself—he was willing to push people. For better or worse, he would harangue, threaten, flatter and bully. This was evident in Johnson’s dealings with his mentor, longtime Georgia Senator Dick Russell. In establishing the Warren Commission—which was responsible for investigating the Kennedy assassination—Johnson knew Russell didn’t want to serve, but announced Russell’s involvement before asking him then bullied him into it in a phone call. As recorded in Indomitable Will, he then pushed past Russell—a dedicated segregationist—to get Civil Rights Act passed, telling him, “Dick, I love you and I owe you. But....I’m going to run over you if you challenge me on this civil-rights bill.” He did just that—leading to Russell boycotting the Democratic convention in 1964. Similarly, after Bloody Sunday in Selma, Johnson summoned George Wallace to a meeting at the White House [DOC] in which he physically loomed over the man and badgered him for hours on subjects from voting rights to protecting demonstrators. He made people uneasy. He invaded their space. And he kept after them. This kind of persistence is uncomfortable for most of us but essential for LBJ.

[TwilightZone]

14. He also had a country still mourning JFK.

That is a factor that is often underestimated. The LBJ museum has a whole section talking about the influence and the interconnections between JFK's death, JFK's agenda and LBJ's. They were inextricably linked due to circumstances.

There is no doubt that LBJ bullied his way to passing many of his landmark acts, but he also had a lot of leverage.

[empedocles]

20. There was also an anti republican Goldwater fear and a booming economy.

[Hortensis]

15. We're going to have to give our president the senate,

as well as the house, so he can sign their legislation, but yes. We're in a time of literally desperate need for landmark legislation on many fronts, and we're the only people who can and will meet that need.

Among Biden's many plusses is a very widespread trust and familiarity that can mean really big coattails. For those who haven't lived through a lot of these things, when electorates feel they're pushing the box with a president or governor, they usually give control of congress and legislatures to the other party to act as a leash.

[pwb]

16. That is my hope too.

.

[William769]

18. excellent OP!

[H2O Man]

21. Interesting.

*Recommended)

LBJ was a master of bothe the House (1937-'49) as well as the Senate. He had a great understanding of systems. His success as president was not entirely based upon JFK's death, as is too often mistakenly assumed. There was serious public pressure on the issues involving Civil Rights, as the most obvious example.

Johnson was a complex man. But for Vietnam, he would definitely be ranked in the top 3 or 4 presidents in our nation's history.

[TomCADem]

22. The Interesting Thing Is That Many Folks and Even Bernie Supporters Point to LBJ...

...as a very progressive President by virtue of all of all of his landmark legislative accomplishments. Yet, he was definitely not seen as progressive or liberal at the time with liberal Democrats opposing his addition to the JFK ticket.

I agree that you cannot legislate in a vacuum. in the end, you have to legislate against the existing social backdrop. But that just confirms the case that its evolution and response to grassroots pressure, rather than a top down ideologue that is most effective in a Democratic society.

[H2O Man]

23. Right.

It's our duty to create those conditions today!

[Cha]

25. Thank for this, Tom!

Side note.. amazing you're Undecided!

[TomCADem]

27. I Voted Early In California for Warren

I feel kind of funny switching my preference again, since it does not actually reflect how I voted. Between Sanders and Biden, I definitely would choose Biden.

[Cha]

28. Ah I see.. Thank you!

[Midnight Writer]

26. There are Doers and Dreamers. We need both. But when things need doing, you pick the Doer.

The Dreamer has the ideas, the ideals, the romance, the vision.

The Doer is the person who gets the job done.

Just like an architect makes the plans, but it takes a carpenter to build the house.

[TomCADem]

29. Bernie's Absence From The Senate...

...and the fact that was and remains a non-factor on major legislation underscores how ineffective he is as a leader and a legislator. Joe Biden was a committee chairman who knew how to get legislation passed.

On the other hand, Bernie can bloviate from the sidelines, but the fact that he is not even bothering to show up for work in the Senate is tacit admission that he is really has not ability to advance any portion of his agenda as a Senator, and it casts serious doubt on his ability to pass any portion of his platform.

[Gothmog]

30. Joe needs to heal the nation

Joe will be able to get a great deal done as POTUS

[Hekate]

31. In order for that to happen, Joe needs a Democratic Senate as well as House. Let's make it happen!

[Hortensis]

32. Absolutely! We need those suburban and rural crossovers

to vote blue down the ballot for big change. VP Biden's coattails could be huge.