General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Broken Government [View all]merrily
(45,251 posts)IMO, LBJ was the sane alternative to Goldwater. Well, the saner alternative, but LOTE voting is mostly what our system has devolved to.
Goldwater was a conservative Republican, "strong on defense" and a rabid anti-communist who defended McCarthy to the bitter end. That he would have done any better than LBJ in Vietnam is highly doubtful. He certainly did very little to "debunk" the mushroom cloud ad Bill Moyers conceived of, so maybe it wasn't bunk.
LBJ did use all his considerable skills to get civil rights passed. Goldwater used the dog whistle of "states' rights" to justify doing nothing about Jim Crow.
LBJ pushed for Great Society legislation, including Head Start and Medicare. Goldwater was an extreme fiscal conservative for his day.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2006/02/daniel-mccarthy/neocon-myths-about-barry-goldwater/