In Defense of LBJ

By Zamboni

As the United States Supreme Court appears to be on the brink of gutting the Voting Rights Act of 1965, let's consider this interesting observation of the Democratic President who helped make it law:

"[Lyndon] Johnson was a deeply flawed man whose ego was as big as his home state. His great sin was Vietnam. But his great redemption came with his forceful advocacy for the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. By muscling those two pieces of legislation through a balky Congress, Johnson made real the promises set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation.

"On March 15, 1965, a week after violence erupted in Selma, Alabama over the rights of blacks to vote, Johnson delivered what's known as the 'We Shall Overcome' speech, most notably rejecting the segregationists' phraseology of 'state's rights.'

"'There is no issue of state's rights or national rights,' Johnson said. 'There is only the struggle for human rights.' In words and actions, Lyndon Baines Johnson paved the way for the 44th president of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama."