congressional_record: CREC-1998-12-17-pt1-PgE2336-2
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| CREC-1998-12-17-pt1-PgE2336-2 | 1998-12-17 | 105 | 2 | THE MAN BEHIND THE VOTES | HOUSE | EXTENSIONS | ALLOTHER | E2336 | E2337 | [{"name": "Gene Green", "role": "speaking"}] | 144 Cong. Rec. E2336 | Congressional Record, Volume 144 Issue 153 (Thursday, December 17, 1998) [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. ____________________ |