LBJ versus DJT?
Bullying in today's environment
Dominic Raab, the Deputy leader in Britain’s Conservative Party, resigned today upon publication of an investigation about his behaviour. He had stated some time ago that he would resign should an investigation validate allegations of him bullying civil servants, though he declared the charges were completely false. Apparently investigators disagreed so Raab resigned.
In a Parliamentary system, without the separation of powers we cherish and deliberate slowness of action the Founders intended, Raab had little choice.
Just yesterday, my husband and I were discussing Lyndon Johnson. He raised the late president in context of how he handled the national agenda while I mused that I wondered whether LBJ could operate in today’s world.
Robert Caro’s multi-volume, still unfinished biography of this towering figure in both the legislative and executive branches between 1932 and 1968 (funny, reading about it seemed like he was the dominant figure from 1900 until he passed away in 1973 but I guess it’s Caro’s painstaking detail), portrays a sometimes cruel, powerful, unrelenting, at times cajoling figure.
His most iconic photograph was undoubtedly was him standing next to a dazed Jacqueline Kennedy mourning her husband’s assassination only hours earlier, taking the oath at President on 22 November 1963. The 1957 Tames photograph of the same man physically and apparently verbally overwhelming, if not intimidating 90 year old Rhode Island Senator Theodore Green was shocking yet by all indications accurate.1
Lyndon was a big man at 6 foot three and a half and completely comfortable reminding everyone of that. He harangued his staff during impromptu meetings while in the toilet and used harsh language, as tapes subsequently revealed, to comment on all who had crossed him—or he believed had done.
Dominic Raab is not the sole western politician to suffer consequences from staffers complaining about his disrespect. One of the more disgusting anecdotes from the 2020 Democratic race for president involved Minnesota Senator Amy Klobachar ranting to her staff for neglecting to provide cutlery for lunch, forcing the Senator to eat with a comb en lieu of a fork for her salad.2 The Senator’s health preferences aside, the slamming of staff is never a desirable state for a leader in any field.
Abusing staff and those we encounter in our day to day lives is no longer ignored. As Raab’s case indicates, it can lead to a significant reversal of fortunes. All of us can find instances we wish we had been more aware of others as we raged over something; goodness knows I wish I were less acerbic and sarcastic at times.
Yet how does that explain former President Donald Trump’s continued support, including by those who he has probably verbally attacked by all indications? What is it about him that seems to justify a pass from many he encounters?
Donald Trump was not a new phenomenon when he strode off the escalator in Manhattan; he was a well known figure. He had declared bankruptcy in the late 1980s, an action which would have appeared to preclude any presidential run—much less victory—but he did assume the White House. His repeated willingness to attack individuals, whether a handicapped reporter, a former Prisoner-of-War serving in the Senate, or a female reporter about whom he claimed to witness bodily functions, never registers among his supporters. Why not?
Certainly legal cases involving the former president attract attention much as any cases against the late president Johnson would have. A proportion of the public may still remain wedded to some norms of behaviour by elected officials but obviously many citizens do not care. But, Trump truly seems to be in a category of his own for reasons that are hard to fathom.
Dominic Raab was the Deputy Prime Minister of a major country but he is no longer in office following vindication by those he abused. The United States, priding itself on being a modern, respectful society intent on setting the norms for public behaviour, is apparently far more divided on this issue than is the United Kingdom.
Would Lyndon Johnson have survived such allegations and shifts in what the public tolerates? I thought I knew the answer yesterday but I am not as sure upon reflection today. The divides in our society are so profound and this won’t be any different from those other questions. No wonder we are increasingly divided rather than united.FIN
George Tames, ‘Lyndon Johnson and Theodore Green’, 1957, National Portrait Gallery, https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.94.185
Dartunurro Clark, ‘Klobachar at her salad with a comb, report says’, nbcnews.com, 19 February 2019, retrieved at https://ids.si.edu/ids/media_view?id=NPG-9400398C_1&container.fullpage&iframe=true&width=85%25&height=85%25