The OLD Philosopher – John M. Miller
Lyndon Johnson despised being the vice president of the United States. He agreed with John Adams, who was vice president for two terms under George Washington, that the vice presidency is “the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.”
Nonetheless when Johnson was suddenly thrust into the presidency of a nation completely stunned into a catatonic state by the assassination of the suddenly wildly popular and deceased JFK, LBJ instinctively knew that he must seize that moment to begin the process of passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Both LBJ and JFK had always been strong proponents of civil rights. Johnson personally engineered the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first such act in nine decades. He was always an action-oriented politician, and not a mere tilter at windmills.
Lyndon Johnson was a master manipulator for collectively convincing Senators to do what they had no intention of doing. In his years as the Senate Majority Leader before becoming the Vice President, he enthusiastically twisted the arms of Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, Northerners and Southerners to cast compromise legislative votes it was anathema to their nature to cast.
To the degree his short presidency allowed, John Kennedy had sought to better the lives of people whom laws and customs had shoved into third-class citizenship. Having seen his youthful boss fail to accomplish his noblest goals, LBJ immediately set out to orchestrate the enactment of another civil rights bill that far outdistanced his own 1957 act.
Lyndon Johnson had an uncanny knack for seeing political opportunity in the midst of political disaster. It is possible the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 would never have passed had President Kennedy not be killed. Knowing how hard it had been for LBJ to wrestle the civil rights bill into reality, he was coaxed into seizing the moment once again to attempt a voting rights bill. Apparent catastrophes can ultimately lead to obvious triumphs which might never have been accomplished had the catastrophes not occurred.
After the Voting Rights Act was passed, the ever-vigilant political animal Lyndon Johnson told an adviser that the result of its passage would be the loss of the South to the Republican Party for a generation. He was wrong; the South became a Republican stronghold for two generations. Whether any southern states shall go blue in 2020 remains to be seen. Regardless, the Voting Rights Act was the right thing to do, even if it was tortuous for LBJ to shepherd it into existence..
By now it has become obvious that the COVID-19 virus will not be conquered in 2020, and possibly not even in 2021, ’22, or ‘23. Thus it is conceivable that modern chronology may be informally divided into BC and AC: Before COVID and After COVID.
We are still a long way from fully hoisting the responsibilities the pandemic has laid on our shoulders. For many reasons, the American reaction to the virus has been appallingly uneven and unsteady. Collectively and individually, we are nowhere near adopting a wise course of action in the lengthening crisis which has descended upon us.
Individually too many of us have developed a counterproductive personal rhythm for however long it takes for the virus to be overcome. Collectively, there has been no nationwide will to follow the necessary steps to attack and destroy the virus. We must attempt to give renewed meaning to life when a universal disease has stolen its ordinary meaning from us.
The election may produce a leader who recognizes both the danger and the opportunity represented by the pandemic. It is widely known what must be done to achieve that goal, and we have heard it from the opening assaults. We must wear masks in public, socially distance at all times, wash our hands frequently, get tested if necessary, and avoid large, closely packed crowds.
The War Powers Act gave the president authority to act swiftly in wartime to take limited measures on behalf of national security. A Pandemic Powers Act might empower the president to demand adherence to those reasonable steps, despite the foolhardy objections of obdurate local and state governments. Such legislation might also mandate realistic penalties for disobeying the executive orders.
Carpe Diem: “Seize the Day” and the days and weeks and months and years needed to obliterate the plague. If we refuse the opportunity posed by the pandemic, we may be forced to wallow in sociological, psychological, and economic squalor for generations to come.
John Miller is Pastor of The Chapel Without Walls on Hilton Head Island, SC. More of his writings may be viewed at www.chapelwithoutwalls.org.