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LBJ was the less competent heir of the ubersocialist FDR.
cool looking thread ... lets try closing a center tag and see if things change ...
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I almost started with FDR but decided against it because most of the Democrat Party was still conservative. His income tax, SS, and socialist programs to "end the depression" were sold well and even appreciated by much of the South. Though it sounds contradictory, the Democrats remained conservative despite the presence of so many Communists in FDR's inner circle. Until McCarthy, most were unaware of that.
I chose LBJ because of his aggressive approach and lack of subtlety in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Medicare in 1965, and his trouncing of Goldwater, the standard bearer of conservatism. He not only tolerated liberals he actively pressed their cause, all for political gain. That, IMO, is what started to turn the South and, therefore, the Democrat Party.
LBJ was the less competent heir of the ubersocialist FDR.
LBJ did things that FDR could not accomplish. FDR tried to do what LBJ called the Great Society and failed. LBJ succeeded.
It was LBJ that drove the conservative southern Democrats into the Republican party.
From the end of the civil war until 1968 and Nixon's urn for the presidency the South had been the solid Democratic south. And that Solid South was conservative.
AT the same time new England was the Liberal Republican north.
LBJ started an era of realignment. The liberal Republicans became Democrats... the Rockefeller wing of the Republican party moved to the democratic party. The Southern Democratic party was quite conservative and it moved to the Republican party.
Before LBJ there was a lot of cooperation between the parties. Conservative Democrats worked with conservative republicans and liberal Republicans worked with liberal democrats.
Majority and Minority leaders could not play too rough since both parties had liberals and conservatives.
But LBJ caused the conservative Democrats to become Republicans sand the liberal Republicans to become Democrats.
FDR did all he could to keep the Southern Democrats in his camp. Just as Ike worked to keep liberal Republicans in his camp.
LBJ changed everything.