As we sort through the mostly-fragrant ashes of Campaign 2008, I took a little time to think about a theme I've heard the TV talkers refer to a fair amount this week:
"Since 1964"
You know the easy ones: Indiana. Virginia.
But there's more I unearthed in my ponderings. I invite you to follow me beyond the event horizon and ponder with me.....
1964 was quite a year.
The Phillies, this year's World Series winners, blew the NL pennant in the last fortnight with one of the most amazing collapses in baseball history.
Cassius Clay was not yet Muhammad Ali, but was electrifying the still-semi-respectable world of pro boxing.
Four lads from Liverpool had exploded out our TV screens courtesy of Ed Sullivan, and began to transform the culture of a generation.
Millions of us were still in shock and mourning because of the assassination of President Kennedy. The new President, Lyndon Johnson, cruised to a landslide victory in the fall election, defeating Sen. Barry Goldwater of .... Arizona!
Now LBJ is often remembered today as the man who squandered his reputation in the Big Muddy of Vietnam. In 1964, I, as did another 16-year-old named Hillary Rodham, supported the quixotic Goldwater campaign, in my case because I sensed the wrong course LBJ was going to pursue in Vietnam. Though I am neither an LBJ-idolater nor -basher, I have come to respect the great and costly commitment he made to use his immense political leverage to advance the civil rights of minorities and the condition of the economically marginal population.
Looking back, I have discovered a number of intriguing ways in which 1964 and 2008 can now be seen as bookends or parentheses. We heard the TV gang tell us "Indiana hasn't gone for a D since 1964", "Virginia hasn't gone for a D since 1964". Indeed. The Democratic Landslide of 1964 is something like the speed of sound, a tough barrier to break through for Democrats wanting to set marks for electoral excellence. You might call it "The LBJ Wall". But there's more.
Barack Obama is a trailblazer, no doubt about it. First President born in Hawaii. First of notably multi-racial background. First of noticeably African heritage. Only the third US Senator to go directly from the Senate to the White House.
But Lyndon Johnson was also a trailblazer in the White House; although he moved there under tragic and horrific circumstances. He was the first totally Texan president (Ike was born there but grew up in Kansas, homeland of Barack's mother). LBJ was also the first post-Civil War Democratic president to hail from a state that had been part of the Confederacy (yeah, Wilson was Virginian by birth, but he got Yankee cred by serving as Gov. of NJ, yo!).
So there are some intriguing links between 1964, when Lyndon won an unquestioned landslide, and 2008, when Barack won a borderline, electoral-vote landslide (if he ends up carrying Missouri when all is certified, he's at 375, which is Nate Silver's threshold for landslide, which outcome his model only pegged at 28.26% probability....if he gets the NE-2 EV also, that's 376....Georgia might still be flippable if there really are hundreds of thousands of yet-to-be-counted votes...that could inch the total up to 391!).
It's not just Indiana....or Virginia....cool as those landmarks are. Did You Know That.....
as of 1:40 PM PST on 7-Nov-08, the AP data in the dKos election scorecard had Barack's popular vote percentage at 52.6%, which just happens to be the highest for a Democrat since......
LBJ in 1964.
Many look back now and see 1964 as the peak and beginning-of-the-end for the era of New Deal Liberalism, and 1964's failed Goldwater crusade as the Concord Bridge of the "Reagan Revolution". Interesting that Sarah Heath Palin should have been born in 1964, while Barack was born in 1961, a very-late-but-still-official baby boomer, born in the year JFK was inaugurated. Forty-four years after LBJ's big year, will 2008 come to be seen as the end of the "Reagan Revolution" storyline and the beginning of a wonderful new humane and progressive era in American life?
Yes. It. Can. But only if we keep up our organizing efforts, and our analysis and reflection and dialogue. Barack often reminded us the campaign was not about him, but about all of us. Through change.gov he's invited us to participate. Let us never cease to take the invitation seriously, and the new era, whether or not it will be remembered as the "Obama Transformation", will have a far better chance of being an era of peace and prosperity, of justice and compassion, of vision and progress, for America and the world.
Let it be so. Let us make it so. Amen.
change.gov
UPDATE: Dave Sund has found a story in Nebraska media which may point to another encounter with The LBJ Wall of 1964! Go look here!here