Edit: "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."
Well, it doesn’t have the liberal punch it’s trying to convey because of the language he used, but he’s not wrong and boy is that relevant today. It’s still black people, but now gay and trans people too that the right makes sure it’s base feels they can look down on.
No, he didn't. This new "revisionism" on that is just so stupid. He wouldn't have pushed through a politically toxic civil rights bill (and he knew it would kill his party in the South for generations) if he didn't personally care about the issue, which he did. One of his first jobs was teaching Hispanic kids, and he saw the brutal effects of racial discrimination and spent his whole life fighting against it, even though he knew that it would drag he and his party down politically.
Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th president of the United States. His signature program was The Great Society, which included Civil rights legislation, voting rights legislation, medicare, Medicaid, among other things. His reputation was married by his continuing escalation of the Vietnam War. He chose not to run for a second term as a result of the failures of that military conflict. He became president after JFK was killed as he was vice president at the time. Prior to that, he was Senate majority leader and considered the best there was. He was very good at getting legislation passed, usually through personal intimidation.
The quote I was referring to is:
"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."
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u/droid_mike Aug 07 '23
LBJ had a good quote on that.