The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate

"I always tell people that this is one of the first books you should read if you’re really interested in congressional history. It’s a wonderful book, the third part of Caro’s multi-volume biography of President Lyndon Johnson that focuses on his time as Senate Majority Leader. It’s also a splendid history of the Senate itself. He has a section that takes you through the Senate’s organization, showing the power individual Senators always had in that institution, and some of the weaknesses parties had because of its design. He explains all the arcana, such as where the filibuster comes from and why is it so essential to understanding how the upper chamber works. He lays out that history so the reader can see how Lyndon Johnson reorganizes the Democratic Party to overcome fragmentation. Johnson amassed his own power by starting to bring the Senate under greater control. So, as you read a riveting narrative of the individual you come to understand the Congress. Caro uses his tools as a journalist and a general nonfiction writer, like Joanne Freeman, to brings the institution alive. It’s not just roll call votes; it’s real people, real conflicts, and real drama. This is incredibly difficult to do. As I said, Congress is not an institution that naturally lends itself to a crisp narrative. This is what makes his achievement so remarkable. You can make an argument that Mitch McConnell is as—if not more—important than President Trump. To borrow Mayhew’s quip about Senator Wagner and FDR, McConnell finally found a president who would send him his judges and tax cut legislation. The Republican Party’s protection of President Trump is thanks to McConnell. McConnell has tight control over the Senate. He has run the majority in a very disciplined and very ruthless fashion. He has made sure, up until now at least, that members don’t defect because of any happiness they have with the president. And because of McConnell’s control, we’ve seen consequential changes under his command, most dramatically with the federal courts. So, McConnell is someone we will focus on in congressional history and someone who will be remembered as incredibly consequential."

"Yes. Perhaps it’s only for the true believers. It is quite an enterprise to read, but compelling partly because Lyndon Johnson was such a beautifully unattractive character. He was a horrible bully who humiliated his staff and who found a way of endearing himself to the oil barons of Texas by launching a McCarthyite campaign, before McCarthy, against the electricity regulator. He ruined this guy’s life by accusing him of being a communist when he was nothing of the sort. So, on the one hand he was an ogre, but on the other hand he was the first person to get any civil rights legislation through the senate since the Civil War. The question is: do the ends justify the means? In his case the means were unspeakable but until Lyndon Johnson the Southern Democrats (some of whom were white supremacists) used the filibuster to stop any civil rights legislation getting through. He convinced them that he was on their side. I don’t particularly think so. I ended up not admiring him even though this book is an attempt to rehabilitate him. He left office completely discredited after his part in the Vietnam War. Caro has him as the Bevan and Attlee of America, but his means were unspeakable and he would never get away with it now. He wouldn’t survive a week in modern politics. This goes back to Marshall Ganz and Bobby Kennedy – Kennedy was, like Obama, campaigning for something he really believed in and when he was shot it broke the hearts of the American left and they have only really got the belief back now with Obama."