Essay - Lyndon Johnson's Texas Roots Lyndon Baines Johnson Was a Southern...

Lyndon Johnson's Texas Roots

Lyndon Baines Johnson was a southern President with a Texas accent. In some ways he exemplified the stereotypical Texan. ***** seeking a link between his social identity as a Texan and his liberal political views, however, it is difficult to see any strong causal connection. Th***** essay will *****k the question, how closely connected were his liberal politics to ***** persona as a Texan? Of course, as a senator from Texas, he had to be involved in Texas politics and to be concerned about voter issues in *****, but it would be hard to prove that he agreed with ***** social and ***** views of his fellow **********. In this essay, I ***** argue ***** LBJ's communication style clearly reflected his Texas roots, but his liberal politics came ***** his father's influence ***** the poverty of ***** upbringing.

A distinction can be drawn ***** Johnson's style, which was Texan, and his political ideals, which were *****. *****ese two aspects of his psychology co-existed. As columnist Richard Strout ***** The New Republic commented, "[Johnson is] impulsive, emotional, sentimental, sensitive bumptious, corny, prolix, able and Texan. He's also on ***** right side of some fine things and is pushing them with skilled and ferocious energy" (cited in Schulman, 1995, p. 75). Moreover, maintaining ***** distinction ********** ***** and ***** vision ***** important to functioning as an effective leader, for once the distinction faded ***** ***** ego merged with *****ticommunist liberalism, Johnson failed and fell.

Lyndon Johnson was born in the poorest part of Texas where the land and ***** weather were unsuitable and inhospitable to farming. No rich oil barons lived there. Farmers in the Hill country could barely eke out a liv*****g, *****nd one good year for crops was nearly always cancelled out by ***** or more years of drought and loss. Johnson's father was a state representative in the days when representatives were paid only $5 a day for two months ***** service a ye*****r--$2 a ***** if they didn't get done on time. Presum*****bly, state representatives were expected to hold office for the "honor" of it. Other elected officials made up for the lack of pay by accepting graft ***** bribes and using the system to en***** *****selves, but Lyndon Johnson's father Sam Ealy Johnson ***** incorr*****tible. He never accepted so much as a cup of coffee from a lobbyist or *****one that could ask a political favor of him in return.

***** John*****n was behold***** to no one, but the Johnson family was poor. Lyndon Johnson grew up with first-hand knowledge ***** what poverty really is—***** drudgery and demean*****g aspects ***** ruin the quality of real people's lives. He may have blamed some of the ********** poor financial circumstances on h***** father's integrity and unwillingness to bend his moral principles. We don't know that for sure, however, because the book (Schulman, 199*****) doesn't discuss ***** possibility; however, the ***** does state that ***** neighbors considered Sam Johnson impractical. "***** Country neighbors admired Sam's compassion