Notable Quotables (in their own words)

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Notable Quotables (in their own words) »

Notable Quotables (in their own words)

January 22, 2020 by tomaswell

“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

—Lyndon B. Johnson, 1960.

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

6 Responses

on January 22, 2020 at 8:50 am | Reply STEPHEN R WINHAM

That was certainly true in his day and carries on today – sometimes more subtly than then.
on January 22, 2020 at 10:00 am | Reply zoe10870

The more things change, the more they stay the same. LBJ is the “Father” of the “modern” Democrat Party; a man in stark contrast to his predecessor philosophically. His philosophy, as stated above, has guided the party to this day.
- on January 22, 2020 at 11:16 am | Reply Doremus Jessup
  
  I don’t think LBJ was expressing a “philosophy” so much as he was lamenting the sad state of ignorance that instilled in people some misguided feeling of superiority over others. You, Zoe, are really reaching in your efforts to paint every Democrat with the same broad brush. You can’t do that any more than you can paint all Republicans the same way.
  
  You are as guilty of elitism as anyone I’ve ever seen. You fit the very profile that LBJ was describing.
on January 22, 2020 at 1:13 pm | Reply zoe10870

I said democrat philosophy. Many Republicans are democrats (I believe the term is RINO). LBJ lamented nothing and did everything with a purpose in mind. If you disagree that the current Democratic Party has swerved far to the left, you have not been watching the debates, and bear in mind, that would not be the case if that were not the direction that democrats want to go.

And saying that, I take your slur as a compliment. I would never want to be considered a follower of LBJ.
on January 22, 2020 at 2:46 pm | Reply CJG

LBJ was certainly a mixed bag. Sent tens of thousands of American boys to their death in Vietnam in a worthless war, created mass protests as a result, ruthlessly ramrodded his bills through Congress, spent a fortune on his Great Society Program, passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act with the resulting affect of all the southern states going from being Democrat to Republican, and because he did not raise taxes to pay for all his programs we later saw inflation go from 1% in 1964 to 14% by 1970. It took Paul Volcker to finally break the back of inflation in the 70’s and early 80’s during which the fed funds rate went as high as 20% which led to the 1981 recession. Mixed bag indeed. I lived through those days and remember the 60’s vividly. Worse decade of my life. Still can’t erase in my mind the picture of Jane Fonda sitting on that North Vietnamese tank. And, BTW, I am far from a right wing conservative.
on January 23, 2020 at 11:41 am | Reply zoe10870

CJG, My Father bitched about a “surtax” LBJ levied to help pay for the war until he passed away (my father). Evidently, raiding social security was not enough to fund that war.