The Virginia primary is tomorrow. Thank goodness. I wasn't entirely sure of it's date, and had been erroneously informed by Mad Scientist that it was on Super Tuesday, so last Tuesday I caused myself unnecessary vexation by driving to my polling place and getting my car trapped in the tiny, impossibly tight parking lot behind the school where I vote. I'd thought it was funny that they hadn't blocked out any spaces on the street the way they usually do, and the lack of political signage also struck me as odd, but what do I know? I thought maybe primaries are different. It's been a long time since I voted in a presidential primary. I think John Kerry was pretty much locked in by the time of the Virginia primary in 2004. Anyway, I was inconvenienced due to my own ignorance.
Speaking of politics,
Master of the Senate is killing me, all 1040 pages of it. I am skimming. I can't help it. Lyndon Johnson was a very complex person, a mixture of charm and violence, probably one of the most forceful personalities of anyone who was a US president. Also a master of political maneuvering. This, the third volume of his biography, focuses on the time he was a senator, from 1948-1960. Being a senator wasn't enough, he had to be a powerful senator, and he managed to become the youngest Senate Majority leader in history and truly was the master of the US Senate. Much of the book details the civil rights struggle--these are the chapters you don't want to skim because Caro does an excellent job of portraying the life of an African American in the south in the 1950s. It makes me ashamed, but it also shows that we've come a long way, with Americans close to nominating an African-American as a presidential candidate.
One question I've had about the democratic party has now been answered. Not so long ago--at least at a time within my lifetime--the South was solidly democratic. I wondered why conservative southerners would be part of the liberal party. Now I know it's because it used to be a party divided. The southern, conservative democrats and the northern liberal democrats may have been part of the same party, but they did not vote together. It was up to Lyndon Johnson, a southern democrat to steer between these two forces, play both ends against the middle in order to achieve his own goal of the presidency. I hate some of the things he did, such as the
Leland Olds hearing, but you have to admire his skill at politics.
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Comments (8)
You showed up a week early to vote. Perfect!
I found the detailed info about the Senate was way too detailed. Caro's editors could have chopped 300 pages out of this, easily. I liked his theory about how LBJ worked his way into the trust of the southern segregationist senators by being their friend, that they were lonely. I'd have to read more to know if this was true or not, but it's an interesting examination of LBJ's social and political skills.
Probably the main reason the southern segregationists were Democrats was because the Republicans were the party of Lincoln, Sherman and Grant and the South wouldn't forget that easily.
He was an extremely powerful man who took the Vietnam war personally, by the accounts I have seen. My parents are/were great proponents of his social philosophy. Imagine my surprise when I opened the mailbox and found an invitation to his Inaugaration.
At the top of your page..."What would Nancy Drew do?"
Well, she had that little blue roadster, right? so the parking at least would not have been an issue..
thank you for voting :) !!!
Seems odd to think of him being young, ever. He always seemd incredibly crusty and old to me. Sounds like quite an in-depth portrait!
I am so completely uneducated in American history and politics. Periodically I try to force myself to read something like the Lyndon Johnson biography (IN THREE VOLUMES???) and then give it up for something like, "My Sister's Keeper." It's pathetic.
@ordinarybutloud -
It will probably end up in four (or even five!) volumes. This one ends before he even becomes president. Caro must be writing volume IV now. I think I've had enough in-depth biographies to last me for a while.
He is writing Vol. 4 actually. It might take him ten years, I think the last one took that long.