On March 31, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson made a national address to the nation and included a surprised announcement that he would not seek reelection. His reasoning was sound:
“With America’s sons in the fields far away, with America’s future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world’s hopes for peace in the balance every day, I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office—the presidency of your country.”
He didn’t suggest that he would continue using his time to make shit-talking tweets about the weak, the oppressed and dispossessed, or his political opponents. On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, setting off the same kind national mourning and social unrest in our cities that we’re experiencing in the aftermath of the cold-blooded murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers. In retrospect, it was fortunate that LBJ had already realized that his credibility was shot along with his ability to unite or lead the nation.
Sometime on Friday night, the Secret Service approached President Donald Trump and told him that an angry mob was threatening to breach the White House compound and string him up with piano wire like Benito Mussolini.
Nervous for his safety, Secret Service agents abruptly rushed the president to the underground bunker used in the past during terrorist attacks.
By Sunday, the Secret Service was better prepared but the seething protestors remained outside, chanting against the police and the president, and setting fire to buildings across Lafayette Park. It was suggested that perhaps Trump should address the nation and call for calm, but ultimately no one thought he was capable of saying anything that would help.
One of the fires on H Street NW a block from the White House may have spread because soon afterward flames erupted in the basement of St. John’s Episcopal Church, the iconic “church of presidents” attended at least once by every chief executive going back to James Madison, but were soon doused by firefighters. Businesses far away from the White House boarded up to guard against vandalism, and Mayor Muriel E. Bowser ordered an 11 p.m. curfew. The White House turned off at least some of its exterior lights.
Mr. Trump remained cloistered inside, periodically sending out Twitter messages like “LAW & ORDER!” until the evening, when he went quiet.
Already impeached in the House and credibly prosecuted in the Senate, Trump faces a nation that has lost more than twice as many citizens to Covid-19 in two and a half months as President Johnson lost in Vietnam in five years. Of course, 1968 was the deadliest year of the Vietnam conflict, costing us almost 17,000 lives. Overall, about 48,000 Americans died in Vietnam on LBJ’s watch. The official novel coronavirus death count surpassed that number in the week of April 18-24.
Meanwhile, the official unemployment rate for April reached 14.7 percent. Bloomberg estimates that unemployment might have reached 20 percent in May, with payrolls nationally down about 29 million since the outbreak of the pandemic.
There are protests in nearly every city in the country, and widespread looting and disorder in most major metropolises. This will exacerbate both the viral outbreak and the staggering levels of job loss.
There is zero chance that Trump can set things right. His own White House advisers don’t even want him to try.
Some campaign advisers were pressing for a formal address to the nation as early as Sunday. But White House officials, recalling Mr. Trump’s error-filled Oval Office address in March about the spread of the coronavirus, cautioned that it was not necessary.
This was probably wise, since Trump only knows how to inflame the situation:
And other advisers said most top aides were unhappy with Mr. Trump’s 1 a.m. tweet on Friday invoking a 1967 quote from a Miami police chief about “shooting” black people during civil unrest.
He couldn’t even make a satisfactory condolence call to George Floyd’s brother, Philonise.
“He didn’t give me an opportunity to even speak,” Floyd said. “It was hard. I was trying to talk to him, but he just kept, like, pushing me off, like ‘I don’t want to hear what you’re talking about.’
“And I just told him, I want justice. I said that I couldn’t believe that they committed a modern-day lynching in broad daylight,” he said.
The brief conversation that lasted “probably two minutes” was in stark contrast the one he had with Joe Biden: “The Vice President – I loved this conversation. He talked to me for like 10 to 15 minutes,” Philonise said. “I was trying to talk his ear off … great conversation.”
In an indication of how sensitive Trump is to the history of African-Americans in our country, he followed up his phone call with Philonese by saying that the Secret Service was prepared to unleash “the most vicious dogs” and “ominous weapons” on White House protestors.
I’m sure that Trump would like to be reelected, but LBJ was perhaps the most ambitious politician in our nation’s history, and he saw the writing on the wall in 1968. He knew he was not going to be able to set things right. He could have fought on to the bitter end, and maybe he even could have been reelected. But he chose to sacrifice himself for the sake of the country.
LBJ’s withdrawal didn’t fix everything, because LBJ wasn’t the cause of all our problems.
The news that the President had refused to seek re-election sent waves of shock and elation through a stunned electorate. At the same time, his withdrawal from the race crystallized the nature of the conflicts that had split the country along ideological, racial, and class lines so deeply. But within days it became all too apparent that no single act of political sacrifice could repair the divisions in the country. Johnson’s presidency was a symbol and a reflection of the nation’s fissures, but it was not ultimately its root cause.
Like Johnson, Trump should step aside. It won’t fix everything, but he won’t fix anything. He is completely used up and utterly bankrupt. Again.
I don’t think wishful thinking will solve anything, However Biden is expected to speak at 12:45 today. Hopefully that will help
I agree, but he’ll never do it. I do quibble with your assertion that he was “credibly” prosecuted in the Senate, however.
Will you say what more you wanted from his prosecution?
I wanted the Senate to treat this as a proceeding where the actual truth mattered and the true consequences for the health of our entire nation were taken into account in a rational and ethical way. I wanted the Senate to summon witnesses that should have been allowed to testify, but McConnell et al were determined to ignore the ample evidence put forward by the House. In short, I WANTED it to be credible, though I was sure the proceedings and result were going to be the direct opposite of that, because the GOP has no coherent, moral, just philosophy underpinning their actions — just the raw exercise of power and the manipulation of “the system” to protect older, white, male privilege and unfair advantages.
Agreed
An article listing reasons Trump should resign, and yet the word ‘racism’ is never used. That’s just weird.
The economic anxiety of the white working class living in the Pennsylvania suburbs must be very strong.
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White folk with a small portfolio or 401k want to keep and grow it, as they do their positions at the mill. It sort of colors their opinions about things like pandemics and protests,
Another reason that the GOP’s push to privatize retirement planning has been so detrimental — when even older “liberals” (or those not rightwing racists) are more scared of their retirement savings diminishing in value than they are of the entire system collapsing, it’s a recipe for bad, short-term decision making (or ignoring of the inequities in society).
Let’s see, bankrupt the country, hollow out the government, loot the treasury for the rich, destroy our alliances, and now doing his level best to start a race war? As a force for good, Trump was spent before he was inaugurated. As a force for evil, I think he still has a lot of life left in him.
I’d not be happy if Trump resigned. The cancer that is the Republican party would be strengthened and Pence might get a honeymoon that drives the election. I’m hoping and against hope for a big wave repudiation of the entire party and everything they stand for. I don’t think it impossible but we’ll need Trump to be front and center.
He is not going to resign. His phone call today with the governors was aimed at a stronger response. And the evils of racism, poverty and income inequality will not go away under this president and maybe never. We have a long term problem that holds the potential to destroy us all. It is called greed. Far too many are more interested in their portfolios than anything that may alleviate the pain. And I doubt those four officers will see any real punishment. It turns out Per MSNBC that Minneapolis has used the tactic that killed Floyd for years and dozens were rendered unconscious. I do hope I am wrong. The original sins of slavery and unfettered capitalism that has enriched many to incredible wealth has us all in its grip.
As a long-time viewer of the greed channel, CNBC, they have had a number of interviews with black business owners today. It’s like they just woke up and decided to latch on to this new problem. Which does not surprise me.
Trump should also not be racist. I mean as long as we’re entertaining fantasies here.
seems like everyone wants to talk about 1968 today.
but he’s not going to step aside, you know it too, why bother speculating?
There a lot of differences between now and then but Boomers just keep refighting those fights.
Johnson declined to run for re-election, not mainly from any overriding sense of moral purpose to the nation (in spite of the pretty words in his speech quoted above) but more because he was being primaried by anti war candidates Eugene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy, and he might well have lost. He barely won New Hampshire and his polling looked terrible. He was a consummate politician and also a realist who could see the writing on the wall.
The current occupant of the whitehouse is neither a consummate politician nor a realist. Even if were he would not see a need to step aside as Johnson did, because he is not facing any challenges from within his own party. He owns the GOP lock stock and barrel, he is their creature and they are his. Their fates are locked together now. Come November all the rats will go down with the GOP ship and good riddance to them
Also Trump’s only viable option is to win. A has been like Biden can’t get away with “moving on” from Trump like Obama did with the Bushies. Trump’s best option fir self preservarion is the office.