Johnson’s political muzzling silenced the primary moral and religious voices that Founder John Adams said were essential to the life of the Republic.. In 1954, then freshman U.S. senator Lyndon B. Johnson was running for re-election in a hotly-contested Democratic primary against fellow-Democrat State Representative Dudley T. Dougherty. THE NEW DEAL WITH THE DEVIL IN 1954: GIVE UP YOUR MORAL AND FREE SPEECH RIGHTS IN EXCHANGE FOR TAX WRITE-OFFS In the heat of that 1954 Texas primary campaign, Johnson introduced his now infamous “Johnson Amendment” in the U.S. Senate. His revisions further restricted the free speech of churches and religious...