By MIKE MAGEE

That is the 52nd anniversary of Lyndon Baines Johnson's dying from his fifth coronary heart assault. And two days in the past marked the thirty ninth anniversary of the primary new federal vacation: Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In signing that authentic proclamation in 1983, President Ronald Reagan mentioned: “The majesty of his message, the dignity of his bearing, and the righteousness of his trigger are an everlasting legacy. In only a few quick years, he modified America ceaselessly.”

The MLK Federal Vacation Wasn't SoKum ba sure” (“Come over right here”) this yr. President Trump was in no temper to be lectured on this Sixties phrase, derived from an African-American religious made well-known by Pete Seeger. As a substitute, he took benefit of the confluence of MLK's time and his personal coronation to destroy all the pieces associated to DEI (range, fairness, inclusion).

Of those that supported the president's second time period, from right here and overseas, few may have had a wider smile on his face than the dearly departed (July 4, 2008) former North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms. Helm led the opposition to the MLK invoice, submitting a 300-page report that labeled King an “action-oriented Marxist” and a communist. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (NY) was so enraged on the time that he referred to as the report a “bundle of filth,” threw it on the Senate flooring after which unceremoniously stomped on it repeatedly.

In order a nation now we have been down this highway earlier than.

As historical past.com studies: “On the day of Nixon's second inaugural celebration, Johnson appeared on sullenly as Nixon introduced the dismantling of a lot of Johnson's Nice Society social packages… The following day, whereas Woman Fowl and their daughters have been in Austin, Johnson suffered a deadly coronary heart assault at his ranch in Johnson Metropolis.”

In yesterday's Washington Put up, George Will offered us all with a much-needed actuality test by quoting Stanford professor of presidency Stephen Kotkin, who mentioned within the run-up to the election: “Who’s the 'we'? Trump isn’t an alien who landed from one other planet.”

“That is somebody the American individuals voted for and who displays one thing profound and enduring in American tradition. Consider all of the worlds he has inhabited and which have elevated him. Professional wrestling. Actuality TV. Casinos and playing, which now not solely happen in Las Vegas or Atlantic Metropolis, however all over the place, embedded in on a regular basis life. Superstar tradition. Social media. That each one looks as if America to me. And sure, that features fraud and blatant mendacity, and PT Barnum, carnival barker stuff. However there may be an viewers, and never a small viewers, for the place Trump got here from and who he’s.”

LBJ was 64 when he died. At this time he would have turned 117. The Civil Rights Act, which he signed on July 2, 1964, “modified America's authorized, political, and social panorama as radically as any legislation of the 20th century,” in keeping with presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. And but LBJ outlined himself extra as a pragmatist than in heroic phrases. He mentioned, “I do know lots of people round these Georgetown events say I wasn't actually a civil rights crusader once I was within the Senate. On stability, they’re proper so far as I'm involved. I used to be not a crusader. I represented a southern state, and if I obtained too far forward of my constituents, they might have despatched me proper again to Johnson Metropolis. . . Now I characterize all the nation and I can do what all the nation thinks is true.”

His feedback on the July 2 signing have been lofty:

We consider that every one individuals are created equal. But many are denied equal therapy.

We consider that every one individuals have sure unalienable rights. But many Individuals don’t take pleasure in these rights.

We consider that every one individuals are entitled to the blessings of freedom. But thousands and thousands of individuals are robbed of those blessings – not due to their very own failures, however due to the colour of their pores and skin.

Nevertheless it can’t proceed. Our Structure, the inspiration of our republic, forbids it… Morality forbids it. And the legislation I’ll signal tonight prohibits it.

We’ve now entered a time of testing. We should not fail. Let's shut the sources of racial poison.”

That very same night, LBJ's speechwriters, Invoice Moyers and Dick Goodwin, met their boss in a pensive temper. This was the anniversary of his huge coronary heart assault in 1955. When requested what was bothering him, he replied, “I believe we've turned the South over to the Republican Celebration for a very long time.”

A few years later, Dick Goodwin's reminiscences of that evening's occasions have been recorded by his historian spouse, Doris Kearns Goodwin. He mentioned, “Who would have thought that the testing time that awaited us would nonetheless be with us greater than half a century later, that the sources of racial poison are nonetheless not closed?”

Trump clearly desires his personal Kennedy, even when solely a junior. However on this 52nd anniversary of his dying, I’m “All The Method With LBJ.”

Mike Magee MD is a medical historian and common contributor to THCB. He’s the writer of CODE BLUE: Inside America's Medical Industrial Complicated. (Grove/2020)