by Robert H. Wilson et al
I have hundreds of books on my shelves. Pastoral study tools and leadership volumes crowd my bookcases along with a large amount of real estate devoted to history and Presidential leadership. Among the Presidents, our nation’s leader that garners the most attention is our 36th president, Lyndon Baines Johnson.
This volume is one of the best on LBJ and here’s why: It moves from declaring Johnson’s unparalleled legislative accomplishments to the long-term impact — pro and con — of those efforts. Additionally, it is not the work of one scholar, but of many. The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Policy at the University of Texas at Austin commissioned thirteen papers that addressed areas of domestic concern to Johnson. As the editors note:
Because he was viewed as a larger-than-life political leader, much has been written as well about Lyndon Johnson the man and his consequential life and political career. But there is more to the story.
Clarifying, analyzing, and reflecting on the legacy of these domestic polices is the”more” that is at the heart of this volume.
LBJ’s Neglected Legacy: How Lyndon Johnson Reshaped Domestic Policy & Government is a critical work; generous without fawning, and discerning without being deprecating. Editors Wilson, Glickman and Lynn have ensured this volume is comprehensive, scholarly, and readable.
The book is divided into six parts:
Part 1 - Reconsidering LBJ’s Domestic Policies
Part 2 - Defining Citizenship and Immigration
Part 3 - Education, Health, and Social Welfare Policy
Part 4 - Cities, the Environment, and Science Policy
Part 5 - Improving Public Management
Part 6 - Conclusions
A few takeaways:
Contrasting Reagan and Johnson: Robert Dallek notes, “We remember Ronald Reagan saying that government is not the solution — government is the problem. If there was anything that Lyndon Johnson believed in, it was that government could be the solution to society's problems.” 23
War kills reform: A second lesson from Robert Dallek’s chapter, “Johnson's Place in the Pantheon of Presidents,” is that “war kills reform.” 25
Dallek had Vietnam in mind when he made this comment, for the Vietnam War – and Johnson’s unwillingness to back out of it – killed the domestic reforms he was attempting through his Great Society legislative efforts. Dallek’s historical insight should be an aphorism for every business, family, civic organization, and church. Wars of every kind consume the energy that could and should be devoted to “more important” matters that move us toward intended ends.Civil Rights: “More change happened in civil rights in America during the Johnson administration than at any time in the twentieth century.” Gary Orfield, 31 (c.f. p 80; his concluding summary, p 88 and p. 307 footnote #12)
The Johnsonian Enigma
”When the President first asked Congress to act on this issue, in 1966, it seems a quixotic quest against overwhelming odds. Yet his administration ended with the law on the books, together with an array of urgent urban reforms and policies that has never been equaled before or since. The laws created tools of great potential power. It turned out that a president who was most comfortable at his ranch in the Texas Hill Country was the great urban reformer, the only president who seriously took on the issues of race and poverty and urban decay – though his accomplishments in this arena are little remembered....After the Great Society, no president to date has put forward major reforms addressing urban inequality and most administrations were committed to shrinking the federal role.” (87-88)
Civil Rights Act of 1957: Johnson’s greatest achievement as Senate majority leader. It was the first civil rights act passed by Congress since 1875. (Caro 2002, 29) 99
”[Johnson's] administration made the totally segregated region of the country better than the rest for generations. When he acted on civil rights, virtually no whites in the South had gone to school with black classmates. When Barack Obama ran for president and carried several southern states, millions of whites had grown up in integrated schools.” 199On leadership (and LBJ’s leadership):
Leaders can create the tools of change, but they cannot control the reality (political, cultural, business) that comes after them. This was the downfall of many of the Johnson reforms. 91
Exercise persistence: “There was never any strong public support for outlawing discrimination in housing or for major investments in poor urban communities. President Johnson acted on the fair housing issue against the advice of his own advisers and experts, who thought it was impossible, and he persisted in very difficult circumstances, eventually achieving an improbable victory.” 90
”The 1964 Civil Rights Act was the most bitterly fought legislative victory ever achieved for civil rights, and the most consequential. The longest debate in the history of the Senate virtually stopped all other activity in Congress for weeks on end in the middle on 1964.” 192 Don’t give up on good ideas and necessary reforms.
See beyond the horizon: “On the day that he signed the 1965 VRA into law, LBJ is reported to have said, “We just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come.” Nixon was the first presidential candidate elected by a capitalizing on this partisan realignment which became known as the Southern Strategy, that is, counting on the growth in black enfranchisement to increase and polarize white voter participation, especially in the South.” 102
Leverage the moment: In a note to Congress about the VR, Johnson said, “My students were poor and they often came to class without breakfast, hungry. They knew even in their youth the pains of prejudice... it never even occurred to me in my fondest dreams that I might have the chance to help the sons and daughters of those students and to help people like them all over this country. But now I do have that chance – and I'll let you in on a secret – I mean to use it. And I hope that you will use it with me.” 106 (c.f. footnote #1, page 307 — most were not ready to help him).
As to his educational efforts: “Knowing that opposition always happened to presidents, [Johnson] was intensely focused on getting everything he could enacted into law. 204
Heed dispassionate advice . . . or else: As James MacGregor Burns, the eminent presidential historian concluded, the way Johnson had handled the final Supreme Court appointments “did sharp and enduring damage to... liberal causes” (Burns 2009, 199). The political scientist David Yalof concluded: “Only Johnson's refusal to heed dispassionate advice prevented this liberal tide from extending well into the future with a more sympathetic Chief Justice in place. And the Republican presidents that followed him thus received a golden opportunity to steer the country in a decidedly more conservative direction” (Yalof 1999, 96) 227
Representation matters: This insight came from Jorge Chapa’s chapter, “Expansion and Contraction in LBJ’s Voting Rights Legacy.” “There is a large literature on the preferences for benefits of minority representation for minority constituents. Electoral districts with Latino majorities are more likely to elect Latino representatives, and a related literature shows that Latino representatives are more likely to substantively represent their Latino constituents than non Latino representatives (Casalis 2007, 2009).... Moreover, the symbolism of being represented by an African American was very important to African American voters (Tate 2003 ).” 110
The lesson for organizations, if you want engagement, increase representation.
Assess the infrastructure necessary to support great ideas:
On reflecting on Head Start, “the Head Start planner James Hymes reflected later, ‘We never did face up to the disadvantaged young child's need for skilled and trained teachers; we never did face up to the need for top-flight educational leadership in what was to be a massive educational program.’ Operating from the mistaken assumption that ‘anyone can teach young kids,’ he argued, ‘Head Start was never staffed to produce consistently good educational programs’” (Hymes 1979 ). 161
Hitch your great idea to the right wagon: James Hymes observed in 1979, “I found it hard in the planning days to visualize a continuing, growing service to young children cut off from the public schools. . . . I find it hard to visualize this today. I'm afraid that Head Start did not help us find a proper and permanent place for early childhood education in our government array” (Hymes 1979, 97) 163.Good ideas are not good enough: Johnson “knew that good ideas counted for nothing if he couldn't get the votes he needed in Congress, and no president had more experience in that line of work. Knowing how Congress members thought, he was willing to meet their political needs, encourage and pressure them, and win their support.” 204
How to shape a culture: If found this paragraph insightful as to how a leader leverages his/her position to shape a culture, here LBJ’s impact on clean water:
”When Lyndon Johnson became president, water quality was not a national issue. When he left office, five years later, his vision and force of will “to clean all of America's rivers” had put in place a long-term national commitment that has remained a consistent U.S. policy under both political parties. Johnson's proclamations, legislation, appropriations, administrative orders, and enforcement actions represent a remarkable legacy of accomplishment. A mere fourteen years after Lyndon Johnson left the presidency, a national study concluded that the bacteriological water quality in the nation’s surface waters had improved. Despite the continued need for investment, water quality continues to improve. 342The Voting Rights Act of 1965:
At his final press conference as president, when asked what he regarded as his greatest accomplishment, he indicated that it was congressional passage of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). Johnson believed the right to vote was the civil right that mattered the most.Johnson and Immigration Reform: “The immigration changes of 1965, which were not expected to be of much consequence, have in certain respects led to greater change than the civil rights laws, at least relative to expectations. But ironically, Johnson's civil rights reforms, which were expressly intended to redress black grievances but were in subsequent years extended to other nonwhite groups, may have helped to facilitate nonblack immigrant incorporation (Foner and Alba 2010; Kasinitz et al. 2008) 143. Additionally, these efforts have helped to break down color lines and move America from a black-white nation to one more representative of Latino and Asians as well. More so, an unintended consequence has been boundary dissolution, i.e. the breakdown of color lines and the forging of strong relationships between ethnicities. 138-144
Lyndon Johnson and American Education: Both the Pell Grant and guaranteed student loans evolved from provisions of the 1965 Higher Education Act. “What Johnson and Congress accomplished in 1964 and 1965 [in education] stands like a mountain above the plain.” Gary Orfield, 188
Johnson and “getting er done”: “Johnson wanted fast action. He eschewed ideological positions in favor of pragmatic policies that would equalize educational opportunity--changes that education experts believed would work and could be made into law. Nothing like Johnson's task force approach to major education policy changes would happen during the next half century... Johnson saw his job as breaking the barriers, making political judgments, getting things going, trying to maintain successes, and acting quickly on many fronts. As a former legislator, he knew that once a program became established, it developed a constituency that would fight to maintain and expand it.” 202
Johnson and Social Welfare Policy:
Daniel P. Moynihan’s prophetic insights: In her chapter “LBJ's Legacy in Contemporary Social Welfare Policy,” Cynthia Osborne notes Daniel Patrick Moynihan's 1965 prediction “that if not addressed, non marital childbearing and family instability would become a major problem in our country and hinder social policy efforts. . . . At that time, close to twenty-five percent of black children were born outside of marriage, and approximately one-quarter lived in single parent homes (8-9). Today (2013), more than 40 percent of all children are born to an unmarried mother, yet this number differs considerably by race or ethnicity (Child Trends Data Book 2013 ). Indeed, over 72 percent of African American children are born outside of marriage, half of Hispanic children, and slightly over one-quarter of non Hispanic white children” (Martin et al. 2011) 264
LBJ’s Focus: LBJ’s War on Poverty was directed on employment (job creation) and human capital development, primarily among breadwinning males, not on handouts. He was focused on gains made in the long run. 267-8. Four facets of his War on Poverty: (1) Emphasize investment rather than only social justice, (2) Invest in children and sustain that investment through their transition into adulthood, (3) Focus on job creation, (4) Emphasize family-strengthening programs. 274-5
LBJ on Government: “The only legitimate function of government is to help people. Your job is not just to run an efficient office. Your real job is to enrich the lives of the two out of three Americans who now live in overcrowded cities.” 289Books/Speeches to consider: American Apartheid (1993); “The American Promise” (1965)
I gleaned much on the times, leadership, and legacy of LBJ, but this quote from Johnson’s farewell address is a reminder that we all pass like a shadow and therefore must make the most of our leadership position and influence: “In the sweep of things, a President has only so much time . . . to do the things that he really believes in and he thinks must be done. Within those limits, he can only give it the best he has . . . We leave the plow in the furrow, and actually the field is only half tilled.” (quoted in Fields 1996, 311). 228
