Potus Geeks Book Review: Two Suns of the Southwest by Nancy Beck Young
The University of Kansas Press has a wonderful series of books entitled American Presidential Elections which chronicle and analyze past presidential contests. One of the latest of these electoral post-mortems is this year's revisiting of the 1964 Presidential election between Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater. They are the "two suns" in the title of Nancy Beck Young's book Two Suns of the Southwest: Lyndon Johnson, Barry Goldwater and the 1964 Battle between Liberalism and Conservatism.
While the 1964 US Presidential election was a landslide victory for Lyndon Johnson and an apparent crushing defeat for Goldwater, there is much more to the story of that contest than the final electoral college vote (486 to 52 for Johnson.) It was a year of transition in many ways. The Democratic Party would lose what had once been the solid south following the passage of landmark civil rights legislation. Control of the Republican Party would shift from the moderate eastern establishment, led by men such as Nelson Rockefeller, William Scranton and Henry Cabot Lodge. Leaders from the south and west would emerge to replace a string of presidents from the eastern states, paving the way for future Presidents like Reagan, Carter, Clinton and two Bushes. Professor Young exposes the significance of this seemingly insignificant election and how it transformed the two major political parties into what they are today.
The author sets out the background of both parties as the election of 1964 approached. For the Democrats, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and Johnson's sudden thrust into the political forefront called for all of his former skills as "Master of the Senate" to push through his ambitious civil rights agenda and his vision of a "Great Society" that would rival (and according to Johnson's wishes, eclipse) FDR's New Deal. For the Republicans, Richard Nixon's loss in the election of 1960 left a void in party leadership that would result in a schism between the party's moderate wing led by Rockefeller and Scranton, and the conservatives led by Goldwater. The moderate party of Dwight Eisenhower would undergo a transformation and a sharp ideological shift that would result in deep divisions with its membership.
This book takes the reader through the roller coaster Republican primaries and the fractious nominating convention which resulted in what the author refers to as "backlash and frontlash" with Johnson working to attract disaffected Republicans, while Goldwater doubled-down on a strategy designed to attract angry southern Democrats to his cause. While the result of the election appeared to be a foregone conclusion, it was not without its fascinating stories and anecdotes. These included the famous Daisy Ad, the arrest of Johnson's aide Walter Jenkins for a morals offense, and a number of colorful statements by Goldwater that hamstrung his electability. The author also describes how Republicans abandoned hopes for winning the White House, in order to concentrate on congressional races that would pave the way to future success.
The description of how campaigns were directed in 1964 is also interesting, especially when one compares this with how they are run today. Some readers make take issue with the author's portrayal of Goldwater as racist, or at least of pursuing an election strategy of catering to racists. Readers can draw their own conclusions as to whether or not this is a fair characterization. Overall, Professor Young provides a comprehensive and interesting analysis of what led up to the results of the election, as well as the consequences that flowed from this campaign and how the contributed to the future of both parties. That she does so in 207 pages is a worthy accomplishment.
Professor Young makes the case that the election campaign of 1964, while often overlooked, was actually a transitional one for both parties. The character of both parties changed direction toward the ideologies that dominate each of them today. For this reason, the 1964 electoral campaign deserves the careful study that is offered in this thoughtful book.
While the 1964 US Presidential election was a landslide victory for Lyndon Johnson and an apparent crushing defeat for Goldwater, there is much more to the story of that contest than the final electoral college vote (486 to 52 for Johnson.) It was a year of transition in many ways. The Democratic Party would lose what had once been the solid south following the passage of landmark civil rights legislation. Control of the Republican Party would shift from the moderate eastern establishment, led by men such as Nelson Rockefeller, William Scranton and Henry Cabot Lodge. Leaders from the south and west would emerge to replace a string of presidents from the eastern states, paving the way for future Presidents like Reagan, Carter, Clinton and two Bushes. Professor Young exposes the significance of this seemingly insignificant election and how it transformed the two major political parties into what they are today.
The author sets out the background of both parties as the election of 1964 approached. For the Democrats, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and Johnson's sudden thrust into the political forefront called for all of his former skills as "Master of the Senate" to push through his ambitious civil rights agenda and his vision of a "Great Society" that would rival (and according to Johnson's wishes, eclipse) FDR's New Deal. For the Republicans, Richard Nixon's loss in the election of 1960 left a void in party leadership that would result in a schism between the party's moderate wing led by Rockefeller and Scranton, and the conservatives led by Goldwater. The moderate party of Dwight Eisenhower would undergo a transformation and a sharp ideological shift that would result in deep divisions with its membership.
This book takes the reader through the roller coaster Republican primaries and the fractious nominating convention which resulted in what the author refers to as "backlash and frontlash" with Johnson working to attract disaffected Republicans, while Goldwater doubled-down on a strategy designed to attract angry southern Democrats to his cause. While the result of the election appeared to be a foregone conclusion, it was not without its fascinating stories and anecdotes. These included the famous Daisy Ad, the arrest of Johnson's aide Walter Jenkins for a morals offense, and a number of colorful statements by Goldwater that hamstrung his electability. The author also describes how Republicans abandoned hopes for winning the White House, in order to concentrate on congressional races that would pave the way to future success.
The description of how campaigns were directed in 1964 is also interesting, especially when one compares this with how they are run today. Some readers make take issue with the author's portrayal of Goldwater as racist, or at least of pursuing an election strategy of catering to racists. Readers can draw their own conclusions as to whether or not this is a fair characterization. Overall, Professor Young provides a comprehensive and interesting analysis of what led up to the results of the election, as well as the consequences that flowed from this campaign and how the contributed to the future of both parties. That she does so in 207 pages is a worthy accomplishment.
Professor Young makes the case that the election campaign of 1964, while often overlooked, was actually a transitional one for both parties. The character of both parties changed direction toward the ideologies that dominate each of them today. For this reason, the 1964 electoral campaign deserves the careful study that is offered in this thoughtful book.