“The sixteen-year long regime of "Landslide" Lyndon Johnson is often described as one of the most transformative eras in American history, serving as the nation’s longest-reigning leader with his legacy still being disputed amongst historians to this day. Beginning his career as little more than a volunteer schoolteacher-turned-political aide, it was no secret that Lyndon Johnson had higher ambitions early in his career, planning to use his political connections to possibly run for Congress in his home state of Texas. However, these ambitions for higher office would be cut short following the March on Washington and the arrest of President Roosevelt during the White House Putsch. The subsequent rise of the Legion Party and Secretary-General Butler had plunged Johnson into the world of military politics, after his political patron, John Nance Garner, voiced his support for the Legion.
Following the Putsch, Johnson took advantage of his political connections to President Garner to be appointed as a reserve commander of the US Army. During this same period, opposition to the Legion had begun a violent and chaotic phase in American history known as “The Pacification” in which a myriad of resistance groups attempted to rebel against the authority of Washington. Throughout the Pacification, Johnson would command a series of political re-education camps across the American Southwest, which often housed participants of worker-led rebellions from the Steel Belt. While the inhuman exploitation of these prisoners remains well-known to this day, Johnson’s efficient labor management and political reliability had earned him a great deal of praise from higher-ranking members of the military brass. However, his position as America’s most powerful prison warden would slowly begin to lose its influence following the official end of the five-year-long Pacification.
Eventually, the tides began to turn in Johnson’s favor, as the death of Butler would make way for a new American
caudillo whose brash, hard-driving personality earned him adoration from the American people. With the support of the party, the army, and President Prescott Bush himself, General George Patton would be sworn in as the next Secretary-General of America and quickly went to work appointing a new cabinet. Johnson himself would be appointed as Administrator of Veterans Affairs, a position which nominally held little influence other than organizing government programs that would ensure the well-being of American veterans. However, the Legion itself had also been originally founded to ensure the well-being of American veterans and would often turn to Johnson as their unofficial ambassador to the President. In turn, Patton, who had little interest and almost no understanding of party politics would task Johnson to ensure that the Legion would fall in line with his own plans for America.
Often using his imposing height and grandiose mannerisms to his advantage, Johnson became known as Patton’s “browbeater-in-chief”, commanding an incredible level of influence in the smoke-filled rooms of Legion politics. His job of ensuring cooperation between the Party and the President would prove to be incredibly crucial throughout the Pacific War, when Japan launched its fatal invasion of the Philippines. Johnson’s role in organizing the war effort would allow him to push for the mobilization of veterans, the participation of women in the workforce, and increased influence for government-backed trade unions. During this time, it was rumored that Patton’s personal distrust for “career politicians” had been a major factor in his decision to grant Johnson a greater level of influence in organizing the war effort than President Bush himself. A decision that would later spell Patton’s doom.
Eventually, the Japanese war machine would be brought to its knees after Operation Morning Star, a massive nuclear attack against the Japanese mainland. Following the surrender of the Emperor and the American occupation, public attention turned to post-war reconstruction on the domestic front. As Administrator of Veterans Affairs, Johnson began to take a more public approach in matters of governance, becoming America’s chief advocate for Pacific War veterans. Johnson would eagerly translate massive popularity amongst the American public into support for his 1948 Presidential campaign to replace the outgoing President Bush. As Patton’s greatest protégé was nominated by the Party and voted into power without any opposing candidates, it seemed that Johnson had reached his absolute zenith of power. However, this perception would soon change when Sergeant Isaac Woodard, a Medal of Honor recipient and prominent advocate for civil rights was lynched to death by the Klan in a horrific act witnessed by dozens.
While the perpetrators of the murder were later acquitted by an all-white jury, President Patton was unwilling to stomach an act of terror against a decorated war hero. This would all come to a head when Patton, once apathetic on the issue of civil rights, began to spell out his plans for the desegregation of the Armed Forces. And the public, who had already grown weary of America’s sluggish post-war economic recovery began to riot in the streets, seeing Patton’s proposal as an attack on their American values. As the fears of a Second March on Washington became all too clear, Johnson quickly moved to dismiss Patton as Secretary-General. This was considered an unprecedented move, for even though a sitting President could dismiss members of his cabinet, the dismissal of a Secretary-General, had never occurred throughout the Legion’s two decades in power. In fact, history had proven the opposite to be true, if Huey Long’s resignation was anything to go by.
After Patton agreed to peacefully leave office, Johnson’s advisors began to suggest names such as Edgar Hoover, Pierre du Pont, or Alfred Sloan as possible replacements for Patton. However, Johnson refused all of them and declared that he would appoint no one but himself as Secretary-General. The American people remained relatively supportive of this action, thanks to Johnson’s support for state’s rights and populist economic reforms. The army, led by the anti-Semitic and deeply nativist George Van Horn Moseley was happy to put a champion of veteran’s rights and opponent of desegregation into power. And the Legion figured that after all the infighting that occurred between Patton and Bush, with Butler and Long quarreling before that, perhaps the system of two leaders needed to die. With the support of America behind him, President-Secretary-General Johnson quickly announced his grandiose plans for a “Great Society”, providing education, health, and welfare to the people of America.
Another feature of the Johnson administration was how the election of 1952, had become the freest in Legion history. For the first time, voters had could choose from a myriad of liberal, socialist, progressive, and fascist parties. However, the political opposition had little time to organize against the popular incumbent that led America to victory, leading to Johnson’s re-election, with 74.9% of the popular vote. During his second term, Johnson would begin to marginalize the oligarchs who benefited off of the Legion’s corporatist policies from politics in favor of his redistributionist policies. Despite plans from the “economic royalists” to oust Johnson, the President’s stranglehold over party politics ensured his unanimous re-nomination and re-election as 65.4% of voters cast their ballots for the Legion. As America began to transfer to a semi-democratic system of government, Johnson’s use of political patronage and populist mannerisms ensured his own popularity amongst the voters throughout his early years.
The level of massive turnout in favor of Johnson had earned the President the moniker “Landslide Lyndon” amongst American voters as every single state would cast their ballots for the Legion in the elections of 1952 and 1956. And while opposition to the Legion had gained some prominence throughout the 50s, factions that stood against the Legion were crippled by infighting and immense pro-Johnson media bias. The greatest of Landslide Lyndon’s detractors would be anti-Indochina War activist and Liberal Party chairman, Barry Goldwater, who criticized the nuclear destruction of Haiphong as, “American imperialism enforced by tyranny and hellfire.” However, Goldwater’s attempts at forming a United Opposition were hampered by the rising popularity of progressive leaders such as Ronald Reagan, who were alienated by Goldwater’s pro-corporate views. Despite Goldwater’s political failures, he would remain a free man throughout his entire life, unlike other opposition members who were detained as "risks to internal security" or in the case of Thomas Dewey, mysteriously disappeared.
Eventually, the new decade had come around and the people of America were all too eager to re-elect the man who had built the Great Society for a fourth term. Despite this, Johnson had grown weary of governance and had already accomplished his plans to bring prosperity to the American people. While Johnson had originally planned for Vice President Richard Nixon to replace him, Nixon had been assassinated by a communist demonstrator during a diplomatic visit to Peru. And with no other candidates popular, capable, or loyal enough to succeed Landslide Lyndon, the President would be re-elected with 61.2% of the vote in an election marred by allegations of fraud. During the first half of his fourth term, Johnson would begin a series of minor reforms, granting independence for the Philippines, abolishing the Department for Genetic Hygiene, and desegregating of the armed forces which, ironically enough, faced little opposition.
As Johnson began to take a more hands-off approach to governance he would delegate power to entrusted cabinet members such as John Connally, Abe Fortas, Walter Jenkins, and Malcolm Wallace. Known as the
Texan Mafia by political detractors, the group would later include the First Lady herself, Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson, a senior executive at Columbia Broadcasting Systems. During the early Johnson years, Lady Bird’s sway over the media would be seen as a major cause of solidifying her husband’s power and delegitimizing opposition to the Legion, making her the true force behind Lyndon’s Landslides. Soon, Lady Bird’s public image would transform as the Johnson years creaked on, transforming from the dutiful First Lady to a Lady Macbeth who ran America from behind closed doors, keeping her philandering husband busy with legions of secretaries. Johnson’s popularity would take yet another blow after the fall of Fascist Italy while shockwaves of the subsequent global recession began to reach America.
The recession of 1962 would be seen as the beginning of The Aggression as economic downturn fuelled anti-establishment terrorism, crime waves, and racial strife within the heart of America. During this period, Johnson would begin a series of major reforms, culminating in the New Frontiers Imitative, dedicated to amending race relations and providing economic rights to American citizens. Much like Patton before him, Johnson’s sudden reforms had alienated backers of the ruling coalition, who plotted for his removal. While a military coup or impeachment was certainly out of the question, the men in those smoke-filled rooms began a movement to draft a candidate of their own as President, New York Senator William F. Buckley. To oppose Buckley, Johnson would back the Presidential campaign of John Connally, only for the Senator from New York to clinch the nomination in the very end.
Personal accounts describe how Johnson was filled with dread upon realizing he had lost control over the Legion and feared that a President Buckley would worsen the Aggression simply to benefit the economic royalists. However, Buckley would face a major challenge during the election in the form of Elliott Roosevelt, a fortunate son of the deposed President whose ties to the Hearst Corporation had protected him from the Pacification. Popular amongst progressive and liberal groups, Roosevelt’s independent campaign for President had united America under the message of restoring American democracy. The election was fierce, with Buckley’s personal charisma, backing from corporate leaders, and sharp political attacks buoying his standing amongst voters. But with a public fatigued after thirty-five years of Legion rule combined with the support of labor unions and the CBS media empire, a Roosevelt would enter the White House once more on March 4th, 1969, after winning 52.4% of voters.
Four years after conceding power to the President-elect, the last of the American
caudillos would die from a heart attack surrounded by his family and loved ones. While despised by both the people and his own benefactors during the end of his term, Johnson's dedication to a peaceful transition of power and his campaigns against poverty and segregation would earn praise from all sides of the political aisle. The political gridlock and corruption of the Roosevelt administration would later cause many influential political leaders such as Scoop Jackson, Chuck Robb, and James E. Jones to use Landslide Lyndon's post-mortem popularity to their advantage. Though many criticized him as an egotist who cared only for his basest desires of sex and power, Johnson's desire to improve the life of the American common man remained clear throughout his entire reign. A man fraught with feelings of ambition, emptiness, spite, and later remorse, Lyndon Johnson remains one of the most fascinating and influential characters in all of American history.
-
The Life and Legacy of Landslide Lyndon, by David Petraeus