[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 153 (Thursday, December 17, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2336-E2337]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        THE MAN BEHIND THE VOTES

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. GENE GREEN

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, December 17, 1998

  Mr. GREEN. Mr. Speaker, credit for the Democratic party's success in 
the November elections is due to our sustained commitment to the issues 
affecting American families. In a recent editorial in the Washington 
Post, Joseph A. Califano, Jr., a former aide to President Lyndon 
Johnson, describes the birth of many of those policies. Voting rights 
for minorities, a Medicare system that provides health care for the 
elderly and disabled, and Social Security that lifted more than 2 
million seniors out of poverty are just a few of President Johnson's 
initiatives that Democrats have been fighting for over the past 30 
years. In fact, just about every issue Democrats hold most dearly were 
conceptualized and implemented during the Johnson Administration. 
Initiatives like elementary and secondary education, protecting the 
environment, and clean air and water have been the cornerstones of the 
Democratic party since President Johnson had the wisdom to push his 
Great Society agenda.
  Despite efforts by some Members to cut or eliminate many of these 
programs, Democrats have held firm in our convictions. The American 
people sent a clear message to their elected officials in the November 
elections--a message to fight for the issues that help hardworking 
Americans, like Medicare, Social Security, education and the 
environment. I for one am proud of our party's accomplishments and look 
forward to continuing to work toward President Johnson's goals.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit the editorial by Mr. Califano for inclusion in 
the Record.

               [From the Washington Post, Nov. 18, 1998]

                        The Man Behind the Votes

                      (By Joseph A. Califano Jr.)

       The president most responsible for the Democratic victories 
     in 1998 is the stealth president whom Democrats are loath to 
     mention: Lyndon Johnson.
       In March of 1965, when racial tension was high and taking a 
     pro-civil rights stand was sure to put the solid South (and 
     much of the North) in political play, President Johnson 
     addressed a joint session of Congress to propose the Voting 
     Rights Act. Flying in the face of polls that showed his 
     position was hurting his popularity, he said that ensuring 
     everyone the right to vote was an act of obedience to the 
     oath that the president and Congress take before ``God to 
     support and defend the Constitution.'' Looking members on the 
     floor straight in the eye, he closed by intoning the battle 
     hymn of the civil rights movement, ``And we shall overcome.'' 
     One southern congressman seated next to White House counsel 
     Harry McPherson exclaimed in shocked surprise, ``God damn!''
       That summer, with Johnson hovering over it, Congress passed 
     the Voting Rights Act. The president was so excited that he 
     rushed over to the Capitol to have a few celebratory drinks 
     with Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield and Republican 
     Minority leader Everett Dirksen. The next day LBJ pressed 
     Martin Luther King Jr. and other black leaders to turn their 
     energy to registering black voters.
       LBJ planned every detail of the signing ceremony in the 
     Capitol Rotunda. He wanted ``a section for special people I 
     can invite,'' such as Rosa Parks (the 42-year-old black 
     seamstress who refused to give up her seat on a bus in 
     Montgomery) and Vivian Malone (the first black woman admitted 
     to the University of Alabama, in 1963). He told me to get ``a 
     table so people can say, `This is the table on which LBJ 
     signed the Voting Rights Bill.' ''
       He was exuberant as he drove with me and other staffers up 
     to Capitol Hill for the signing. Riding in the presidential 
     limo he spoke of a new day, ``If, if, if, if,'' he said, 
     ``the Negro leaders get their people to register and vote.''
       I rarely saw him happier than on that day. For years after 
     that, he fretted that too many black leaders were more 
     interested in a rousing speech or demonstration full of sound 
     bites and action for the TV cameras than in marshaling the 
     voting power of their people.
       Well, if he was looking down on us on Nov. 3--and I'm sure 
     he was up there counting votes--he saw his dream come true. 
     Without the heavy black turnout, the Democrats would not have 
     held their own in the Senate, picked up seats in the House 
     and moved into more state houses. In Georgia, the black share 
     of the total vote rose 10 points to 29 percent, helping to 
     elect a Democratic governor and the state's first black 
     attorney general.
       In Maryland, that share rose eight points to 21 percent, 
     saving the unpopular Gov. Parris Glendening from defeat. The 
     black vote in South Carolina kept Fritz Hollings in his 
     Senate seat, defeated Lauch Faircloth in North Carolina and 
     ensured Chuck Schumer's victory over Al D'Amato in New York.
       Here and there across the country, the black vote provided 
     the margin of victory for democratic governors and 
     congressmen--and where Republicans such as the Bush brothers 
     attracted large percentages of Hispanic and black voters, 
     helped roll up majorities with national implications.
       The Voting Rights Act is not the only thing Democrats can 
     thank LBJ for. Johnson captured for the Democratic Party 
     issues that were decisively important in this election. He 
     got Congress to pass the Elementary and Secondary Education 
     Act, which for the first time told the people they could look 
     to the federal government for help in local school districts. 
     It is his Medicare that Democrats promised to protect from 
     conservative Republican sledgehammers. LBJ was the president 
     who ratcheted up Social Security payments to lift more than 2 
     million Americans above the poverty line.
       Together Medicare and Social Security have changed the 
     nature of growing old in America and freed millions of baby 
     boomers to buy homes and send their kids to college rather 
     than spend the money to help their aging parents. The Great 
     Society's Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, Motor Vehicle 
     Pollution, Solid Waste Disposal and Highway Beautification 
     acts have given Democrats a lock on environmental issues.
       LBJ was also the president who created the unified budget 
     to include Social Security, which helped produce a balanced 
     budget in fiscal year 1969. Without that budget system, 
     President Clinton would not be able to claim credit for 
     producing the first balanced budget in 30 years.
       As exit polls showed, the Democratic command of the terrain 
     of education, health care, Social Security, the economy and 
     the environment--and the growth of the minority vote--paved 
     the road to electoral success in 1998.

[[Page E2337]]

       With the demise of Newt Gingrich, many Republicans think 
     it's time to mute his libelous assault on the Great Society 
     programs he loved to hate. Isn't it also time for Democrats 
     to come out of the closet and recognize the legacy of the 
     president who opened the polls to minorities and established 
     federal beachheads in education, health care and the 
     environment. After all, it's the Democrats' promise to 
     protect these beachheads and forge forward that accounts for 
     much of their success this November and offers their best 
     chance to retain the White House and recapture the House of 
     Representatives in 2000.

     

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