Election Day: 1964

             LBJ became President of the United States [POTUS] as a result of one of those events that mark our lives. We all remember where we were when JFK was assassinated. I was in the Plane Geometry class of Jon Yount [he being a story in himself.]. In November of 1964, LBJ was running for POTUS on his own merit. His opponent was Barry Goldwater. Goldwater has the famous campaign phrase “In your heart you know he’s right!” that was countered by the opposition with “In you guts you know he’s nuts!”

            Goldwater was portrayed as a wild eyed right wing extremist of the John Birch type, and he had no chance. LBJ won the popular vote in 44 states, about 61% of the raw voted, giving him a landslide of 486 electoral votes. He campaigned on the implementation of the Great Society and ending the Vietnam “conflict” he inherited. The former proved difficult since government has enough problems delivering the mail let alone ending poverty and injustice. And, the latter, well, it was LBJ’s doom. His mismanagement of the now “war” lead him to not stand for re-election in 1968. So, an ambitious program to try and socially re-engineer America was taken down by foreign policy issues.

            Hauntingly familiar, to use a Halloween pun. Presently we have a POTUS who is trying to overhaul America with ambitious domestic programs that will change the social face of the US. And, he is facing an intractable war he inherited. There truly is “nothing new under the sun”. It is merely old news happening to new people. Elections have consequences and not always the ones for which we think we are voting. LBJ’s election effected a change on society forever, but not in the way he planned. What will be the consequences of the present Presidency 45 years later?