Is President-elect Donald Trump More Despised Than President Lyndon Johnson Was?
President Lyndon Johnson in Melbourne Australia October 21, 1966 after his limousine was attacked by paint. photo: Herald Sun
President-Elect Donald Trump has not been sworn in office yet and protests have sprung up in many places across the United States against his impending assumption of power. “Not My President,” is the slogan protesters have adopted.
I do not particularly care for Donald Trump. But he is now going to be our president.
As unpopular as Trump seems to be at this moment, he is probably no more despised than President Lyndon Johnson (1963-1969) was during the latter half of his presidency.
This photograph shows President Johnson in his Lincoln Continental limousine moments after the automobile was pelted with plastic bags filled with paint by two brothers, David and John Langley on October 21, 1966 in Melbourne, Australia.
The escalating Vietnam War and the draft was one of the main reasons President Johnson was deeply loathed by so many. While the majority of people initially supported the war at home and abroad, millions of people were firmly against it. According to a Gallup poll taken In August 1965, 24% of Americans thought the U.S. was making a mistake sending troops to fight in Vietnam. By October 1967 that number had risen to 47%.
With President Johnson stopping in Australia as a stopover on his trip to Manila, Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt declared Australia was “all the way with LBJ” in Vietnam.
That was not the way many in Australia felt about LBJ and their involvement in Vietnam. The popular protest chant in Australia and the United States against Johnson was, ‘Hey! Hey! LBJ! How many kids have you killed today?’”
In the United States, President Johnson’s policies and his vision for the “Great Society” endeared him to a large amount of the populace. I can tell you, having lived through President Johnson’s administration, he was reviled by just as many as those who loved him.
Donald Trump’s proposed policies have frightened and upset millions of people. Will he make good his campaign promises or was it all rhetoric to get elected? Who knows? No one, possibly not even Donald Trump.
The point here is, nobody knows how bad or good a president Donald Trump will be. Trump hasn’t enacted anything…yet.
If Trump is corrupt, he is not yet a corrupt politician owing favors to any of the other career politicians, PACs and lobbyists who dictate policy. Maybe Donald Trump will surprise everyone and choose to do what is in the best interests of the American people.
I’m all for exercising your first amendment rights. After Donald Trump takes the oath of office and actually does something that offends the masses, then go protest whatever bothers you. In the meantime protesters are wasting tax dollars paying for the police to chaperone them in a pointless task. Trump will not be impeached or resign.
“Not My President?” Sorry. For better or worse he is the president. As American’s shouldn’t we want the president to succeed?
If not, what do we want?
And if he does change his positions for the better, who will be more ticked-off? The right, who want him to stick with his more extreme positions, or the left, who don’t want to agree with him even if they to?
By the way, I agree with your post.
“For better or worse he is the president. As American’s shouldn’t we want the president to succeed?”
Yes, he is the President. But no, I absolutely do NOT want him to succeed at a good number of his policy goals. I do NOT want him to succeed wasting money on a border wall. I do NOT want him to succeed at gutting the Federal Government, destroying the ACA, and cutting back Medicare. I do NOT want him to succeed at implementing massive tax cuts that everyone agrees are reckless and unsustainable. I do NOT want him to succeed at his stated goal of gagging the free speech of the media.
His definition of “Success” is not my definition. I do not want him to succeed.
Kevin,
Points well taken.
By succeed I mean, not in the follow through of many of Trump’s campaign statements, but, helping the country in the creation of jobs; stopping the killing of our soldiers; opening dialogue with those who have differing viewpoints both domestically and internationally; and uniting people, not dividing them. Looking through rose-colored glasses I realize these are all longshots and probably will not happen. As Dave Leonhardt writes in the 11/15 op-ed pages of the New York Times:
All the previous studies, polls and predictions about Trump were wrong. Maybe, just maybe he will surprise everyone with what he ends up doing when he becomes president and help our democracy, not harm it. If not, we’re in for trouble.