You are Lyndon Johnson; it is 1964

[CTLawGuy]

Poll question: You are Lyndon Johnson; it is 1964

the Civil Rights Act of 1964 comes on your desk. It grants full equality to African Americans and other minorities. It ends segregation. The South, which is a HUGE block of the Democratic Constituency, vehemently opposes it and threatens to leave the party if you sign it.

Knowing that if you sign the bill, the Democratic Majority will be lost for a generation, do you sign the bill? or do you veto it and let the Democrats rule for the next 40 years or more?

So which is it? Doing what is right, or winning? What would you do?

I'm especially interested in what moderates think.

[Ravenseye]

1. What's the point in not signing it?

A leader does what's right, not what's right for big business, or what an ignorant demographic desires.

[rndmprsn]

2. easy one...

[CTLawGuy]

4. if you put this situation in a modern context

it becomes not-so-easy for certain nameless people.

[rndmprsn]

5. i agree...easy for me that is.

[CTLawGuy]

7. I agree

I wonder what would happen if I changed 1964 to 2005 and the CRA to a bill guaranteeing equal marriage rights, and Lyndon Johnson to John Kerry?

[Arkana]

3. I'm a liberal and I sign the bill

I remain convinced that Johnson did good in purging the party of racists (albeit inadvertently).

[dhinojosa]

6. The best moment in Democratic history.....

When Democrats are in power next time, we have to defeat the last bastion of hate, homosexuality, even at the expense of losing seats. Those Democrats that are opposed to gays marrying, and having equal benefits are not real democrats.

[Dorian Gray]

8. I voted:

"I'm a moderate and I would sign the bill."

I believe in doing what is right, not in what is popular. But, I don't suspect that MANY politicians feel that way. Power is important for a political party to run. I just don't agree with that.

[CTLawGuy]

9. kick

NT

[Media_Lies_Daily]

10. LBJ signed the bill because he knew that a disproportionate number....

...of blacks were going to be killed in a foreign war that he was going to escalate. He needed something to offset what he knew was going to be a growing rage in black homes and communities.

LBJ also knew that he had the backing of the rightwingers in the GOP as well as the conservatives of the Democratic Party for escalating the war in Vietnam. He felt that he could lose the support of the white racists in both parties and STILL carry the South. He was correct in 1964, but he knew that he had run out of time before the 1968 election.

A growing war in Southeast Asia meant huge profits for the military-industrial complex, and for LBJ himself. LBJ's net worth at the time he bacame president following JFK's assassination was at most a couple of hundred thousand. By the time he left the White House, he and Ladybird were worth $6.5 million.

What LBJ did not count on was the rate at which Americans became casualties in Vietnam. Much like the NeoCons of today, LBJ and those who backed the war in Vietnam, never imagined that a small third-world country could not only hold American forces at bay, but could sustain their efforts for another decade.