Shaming the Liberal Past

LBJ used the word "Negro."

After the assassination of JFK and Lyndon Johnson's landslide victory over Goldwater Congress was in a position to move the goalposts on civil rights. 

We passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act in 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. These ended legal segregation and discrimination by governments and the public, in places of public accommodation, in voting, and in housing. 

The arc of history bent toward justice. We celebrate the progress and watch the recordings. LBJ said the word "Negro" in speeches. So did Martin Luther King. 

When we see Martin Luther King say "Negro" it sounds to the ear as old fashioned. When we hear white Texan LBJ say it it seems vaguely racist, certainly odd, and severely un-woke. No one says "Negro" now, certainly no white politician.

Videotape freezes LBJ into an unacceptable past. 

Democrats are in a war against the past, and it is a war Democrats will lose. Indeed, they are fighting on the wrong side of that war. 

Kamala Harris won support by taking on Biden on the issue of court ordered busing of the early 1970s. You opposed federally mandated busing, she said. The Biden position on this issue--supporting busing, but saying he wanted it to be shaped by local school districts, not by federal judges--was near the forefront of liberal thinking at the time. Few, if any politicians of any party, were saying that busing decisions created by federal judges was the best way to do it. Busing was disruptive. Kids rode buses past their own neighborhood school to attend one across town. There were protests. It created the 1970's version of the Tea Party revolution, and it helped get Reagan elected. It was divisive and unpopular.

Populist revolt in Boston

"Unpopular."

Woke, populist, leftist Democrats of today might take a moment to reflect on their own language and politics. They defend their positions by saying it empowers the people. That their positions put the interests of the average citizen--working people, the proletariat-- over that of out of touch established elites in authority. Working class populism of the 1970's existed, and it was anti-busing.

The busing issue is now remote enough that current leftist populists can condemn the leftist populists of the past. Biden was wrong, Harris said. It was hurtful, she said. 

What was populist progressive liberal then, and probably the most forward position an elected official could take, isn't progressive liberal anymore. 

Click: History.com

We see it on other issues, too. On homosexuality, what was acceptable, forward-thinking, daringly progressive thought in the 1980's and 1990's is condemned now. Don't-ask-don't-tell used to be the most forward thing an elected official could advocate in any jurisdiction other than the West Hollywood and Castro neighborhoods in California. 

Twenty five years ago left, progressives would get in trouble for advocating toleration and acceptance; now the only acceptable position is celebration and pride. Civil-unions used to be progressive; now people get married. 

It is progress, and attitudes have changed. As they have on racially mixed marriages. As they have on unmarried couples living together. As they have on marijuana. As they have on women in positions of authority in the workplace, on smoking in public places, on the acceptability of divorced politicians or ones who don't regularly attend church. 

Democrats are looking back and seeing change and progress, and condemning past thinking. That process punishes longevity and experience. It diminishes their support with older voters because the approach is to shame them, not for what they think but for what they thought.

Democrats are the party of progressive change. There should be no surprise or shame in observing that the mores and beliefs of the past were different. 

But Biden swung and missed. He could have hit a home run. He had not planed for the trap nor have a rhetorical way out of it. That is evidence Biden would be a weak candidate against Trump. 

He should have turned his past into a positive. He should have been ready with something like this:

     "Senator you are right, and I thank God we have made progress, and a strong powerful black woman Senator is the proof of it. Back in 1974 I was at the front end of progressive political thinking on busing and I caught hell for it, just like people today catch hell for "Medicare for All" and the Green New Deal. Progressives are always a step or two ahead, catching flack, but making progress, pulling the people along with us. What was possible back then was advocating for community-run busing. I supported busing, and I was fighting for community buy-in. We got it done, so now it looks easy, but at the time I was ahead of the country a little, just like you are now, maybe a step or two. Good. In thirty years I hope we have made so much progress on health care and the environment that people will be saying what you are saying and believing is old fashioned, and you could have done more. Progressives like us keep pushing what is possible. Well, I pushed and I am still pushing."

In short, Joe Biden should have leaned in, thanked her, and taken credit. 

The right candidate will know what to do in a political fight.