Reply #25: Yes, he did [View All]

[lastliberalintexas]

Did I say the man was perfect?

From what I understand (from people who were there, mind you), he killed them for political reasons, not personal beliefs. Still wrong of him to do so. But it wasn't personal racism that led him to act that way, it was his fear that the Southern Dems would desert the party. Even when he signed the CRA of 1964, he remarked "Congratulate me, boys. I've just handed the South over to the republicans." Not exactly something he wanted to do to the party. He was smart (wily?) enough to know what would happen once the CRA was hung around Dems' necks in the next election. Should he have killed the legislation in the Senate to prevent that? Not in my personal opinion. But again, I'm not saying that the man was perfect.

I simply pointed out the error in the other individual's post in giving credit for the Great Society and CRAs to Kennedy, when it was Johnson who worked for them and, in current political vernacular, used his own political capital to get them through Congress.


And please- no one is perfect. After all, RFK worked for Joe McCarthy. Should we string him up too? :eyes: