FDR was a Democrat; he had his progressive economic agenda passed because the country was in a progressive reformist mood. It was a mood to reform economics, as all progressive movements are. He did not back anti-lynching legislation in order to receive the backing of southern tier Democrats for his legislative agenda. He was a politician and all politicians are vote counters.
Lyndon Johnson knew that he was going to lose the southern Democrats to the Democratic Party but he went for civil rights legislation anyway. If he elected to run for a second term, would he have won? I doubt it, I remember being in a total snit about him; I might have sat that one out. Maybe.
War is politics: politics is war. Perhaps that is why MLK prevailed, he was in a struggle for human rights and social justice, not a war and by the way, he pointed out, that had economic implications. It is not clear if he would have prevailed convincing people that civil rights was in their best interest economically. Not with full employment, not with a war on, not with cheap gasoline. I remember hitch hiking three times across country with seven dollars in my pocket and turning down work.
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