Remarkable film already available on a flat screen near you.
With a title that has a remarkable relevance to what's going on in 2016 America.
Julian Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University and a New America fellow. He is the author of "Jimmy Carter" and "The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society." The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.
(CNN)The release of HBO's "All The Way," a remake of
Robert Schenkkan's brilliant Tony-award winning play about President Lyndon
Johnson, is a welcome break in this anti-political campaign season. (HBO is
owned by CNN's corporate parent Time Warner.)
The film offers a compelling account
of the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the presidential election of 1964,
blending a dramatic recreation of the events that took place in these years
with actual dialogue drawn from White House telephone recordings.
While the film's creators take
liberties in how they tell this story, the essence of the film effectively
captures the kind of deal-making that was essential to pass the legislation
known as the Great Society. While we think of this decade as the heyday of
liberalism, the truth is that the forces of conservatism were strong in
Congress and the divisions among Democrats were intense.
While most recent accounts of LBJ
have emphasized his apparently magical ability to make things happen as the
wizard of Washington, this film reveals a President struggling through bitter
battles. This is a Johnson operating in a challenging political environment populated
by southern Democrats such as Richard Russell, Republicans such as Everett
Dirksen, liberals such as James Coleman of California, grassroots activists
such as Stokely Carmichael, and malicious forces inside the government like FBI
Director J. Edgar Hoover.
Although there are many moments
where we see LBJ leaning in on his opponents and allies to get what he wants,
there are many others where we watch the limits of presidential power.
The film highlights a debate over
voting rights, which LBJ insists on taking out of the Civil Rights bill, and
focusing instead on desegregation. In truth, voting rights were no longer a
central part of the legislation once Johnson became president, though the film
uses the issue to effectively convey the kinds of compromises Johnson was
forced to make.
We do see Illinois Sen. Everett
Dirksen insisting on weakening regulations on employment discrimination, which
is a key area where the administration agreed to soften the bill beyond the
comfort level of many liberals. This comes right out of the history books. In
exchange, Dirksen delivered enough Republican votes to end a filibuster. The
following year, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
LBJ,
the chess player
The film accurately captures the way
LBJ, like a chess player, was constantly trying to figure out how to align all
the various policies he hoped to push with the difficult realities of Capitol
Hill.
At one point in the film, we see the
President lying in bed broken out in sweat and trapped in frustration as he
explains to his wife Lady Bird in a despondent fashion that basically nobody
likes him. The scene effectively captures the kind of torment which is evident
on many of the phone recordings, where we can hear Johnson complaining to
colleagues about how he never received credit for his achievements.
Each legislative victory seemed to
bring him more critics. Throughout the film, he repeatedly tells people that
passage of a civil rights bill will require major concessions from all sides.
"This is not about principle,
it's about votes," Johnson barks out in one of the great lines of the
film.
Schenkkan's dialogue captures the
essential outlook of LBJ, even though he takes liberties with the chronology at
points. We lionize Johnson for his ability to use power to get what he wanted
but in fact his biggest skill was understanding the limits of the presidency
and knowing when to cut deals, as difficult as they could be.
He forces civil rights leaders to
accept that certain goals will have to be postponed until the following year
(like voting rights) and warns southern leaders that they can't keep saying
"no," because some form of a Civil Rights bill was going to pass.
"Now I love you more than my own daddy. But if you get in my way, I'll
crush you," Johnson threatens Sen. Richard Russell, his close friend and
mentor at a private dinner in the White House.
MLK's
anguish
The other main protagonist in the
film, Martin Luther King, also is depicted as having a keen understanding that
one of his most important roles would be to broker agreement among the civil
rights leaders portrayed in the film and to sell the movement leaders
compromise ideas that the administration was willing to push for.
While Johnson had been hoping that
the Democratic Convention in Atlantic City would be a celebration of his
achievements and his potential, the plans were upset when African-American
activists arrived as the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and insisted they
be seated instead of the lily white official delegation that was there.
The film recounts the bitter
negotiations that took place, with spokesmen for the President seeking to
defuse the challenge by the activists who had risked their lives by protesting
in Mississippi despite violent police and racist organizations and traveling on
roads that were not safe for African-Americans.
At one key moment, Johnson sends the
labor leader Walter Reuther to speak with the frustrated delegation. Reuther
warns that if they don't accept the deal the administration was offering (to
seat two at-large delegates from the delegation and promise that future
conventions would be desegregated), the unions would cut off all the funding
for the movement. The movement leaders accepted the deal to the consternation
of many young activists.
King, realizing that he was out of
options, sits quietly as his fellow leaders vent their enormous frustration
with this outcome. This is one of the most disappointing moments in the history
of the civil rights movement, a decision that left many younger activists
disillusioned with the leadership. But in this film, the negotiations are
depicted through the prism of a world in which this was the best option on the
table at the moment.
The Martin Luther King portrayed in
this film is not the famous orator or committed and fearless activist, but the
quiet and calculating political leader who understood that these kinds of deals
were necessary to achieve outcomes.
The appreciation for realism is
clear in how the film treats the difficult issue of wiretapping. In Ava
DuVernay's 2014 film "Selma," she depicted an adversarial
relationship between King, as he fought for voting rights in 1965, and LBJ,
who, in the film, has little enthusiasm for the bill and seems willing to let
FBI director Hoover conduct his ruthless covert wiretapping campaign against
the civil rights leader.
In "All The Way," we watch
a dance between two leaders who realize they will inevitably disappoint their
allies but who are working as hard as possible within the immense constraints they
face to make sure they don't lose this unique moment to obtain a bill. In this
movie, Johnson clearly wants much more and sympathizes with the movement, but
realizes as a seasoned politician that achieving wholesale change in race
relations would require incremental steps.
"All The Way" should be
required viewing in this polarized electoral atmosphere. The rhetoric in the
2016 election has been very different than the world depicted in the film.
Democrats have been animated by candidate Bernie Sanders, who appeals to
idealism and insists on political purity as the only antidote to the political
problems we face today. Many voters have been unimpressed by the inevitable
nominee, Hillary Clinton, who has spent her life in public service and believes
that compromise is the only way to move liberalism forward.
Clinton might want to watch the film
to look for some inspiration about how hard-nosed political pragmatism has been
essential to progressive breakthroughs.
The critical changes that took place
in those years offer some powerful evidence about why some of the critiques
coming from Sanders supporters about who Clinton is and what she can accomplish
are off the mark. Johnson was as hard-nosed and devious as they come, yet until
1966 he was able to use those attributes to vastly expand the social safety net
in ways that continue to shape American society.
The film is also a warning to
Clinton, who has tended to veer toward the more hawkish spectrum, about the costs
that can come from bad wars to a liberal agenda. Though the film only covers
the beginning of the escalation into the Vietnam conflict with the Gulf of
Tonkin Resolution, we see how LBJ's political and hawkish instincts planted the
seeds for his self-destruction.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I'm not usually much for "reviews" of films.
Every, and each, art form is a subjective work, eye of the beholder, different strokes, yada, yada.
But, regardless of my, again, subjective agree/disagree level here (and, for what ever difference it might make, I'm solidly in the agree column on this review and this movie), I'm recommending that you give this film a view.
Because it points out, in an entertaining and interesting fashion (think "spoonful of sugar"), a very important cog in the wheel of American Presidential politics that is conspicuously clack causing by its absence in the three way 2016 grudge match between Hillary the Hated, Donald The Demagogue and Bernie The Benevolent.
As recently as this past week, the topic of "end game" once again came up on the talk radio show I was hosting. Friday's program, in fact, was a panel show featuring three local friends/peers/neighbors, from assorted walks of life, with assorted and diverse philosophical back stories.
And when the conversation eventually, and inevitably, turned to the surreal reality show I've more than once nicknamed "Survivor-The Electoral College", we shared our respective P.O.V's on the state of the nation, the state of the race and the state of things in general.
Not so coincidentally, Lyndon Johnson's name found its way into our on air back and forth.
I say not so coincidentally because, while I would love to take credit for having some superior Spidey sense about topics both timely and topical, the truth is that I knew that the HBO movie was scheduled for a Saturday night debut, not to mention I'm currently concurrently reading two different books about Presidential politics and/or the LBJ period in U.S. history.
That didn't take away from the fact that I have been talking, here and there, every now and then, for months, about Lyndon Johnson and the style of governing and/or leadership that he brought to the table in the mid 1960's.
And his masterful use of the cog that I mentioned is missing in this year's "We The People Edition of Wheel of Fortune".
While Johnson wasn't the first, or even necessarily the best, in Hail to the Chief history when it came to masterful piloting of the ship of state, he was, by most current reckonings, the most recent and, arguably, the last one we've seen since.
And "All The Way" does a masterful job of illustrating just exactly what was, and, for that matter, still is, required to move past the talking of the talk and get down to the walking of the walk when it comes to moving America forward.
Or, as seems to be what the crowd these days is clamoring for, making America great again.
"....... in fact his biggest skill was understanding the limits of the presidency
and knowing when to cut deals, as difficult as they could be...."
Which brings us back to the "end game" I've been bell clanging about for a while now.
The history of American politics is chock-a-block full of battles and backbiting, struggles and sneak attacks, adversaries and animosities, but, throughout that history, in, arguably, the larger measure, the end game was always to move us forward as a people and as a nation.
And the truest, most legitimate patriots amongst us have always understood that the ultimate goal is not, and can never be, simply the defeat and/or destruction of the opposition.
Due respect to Bernie and his supporters, the prevailing winds, at this writing, blow ill at his chances of being on the final ballot.
So, assuming it comes down to Clinton and Trump....
Trump supporters, both those convinced he is the one true god of all things politic and those who are resigned to awarding Donald the "lesser of the evil" ribbon, are caught up in the frenzy generated by a guy who is, with a true and unprecedented genius for marketing the right product at the right time, making a lot of promises he is simply unlikely to be able to keep accentuated by massive doses of that tried and true method of swaying sentiment, telling people only and exactly what they want to hear.
Bold or brave or brazen or bullshit, as the case may be.
Hillary supporters, meanwhile, both those who are convinced that the time for a woman to be elected President is now, regardless of any dings or dents or wobbly wheels on this particular model, and those who are resigned to vote for anyone on the ballot who isn't Donald Trump are caught up in the frenzy generated by a woman who is, well, a woman.
And who isn't Donald Trump.
Come to think of it, it's probably Hillary's (remains to be seen) good fortune that this turned out to be the year that a lot of America decided to finally and actually pull the trigger on the oft loaded but never before fired gun they wave around every four years with screams of "throw the bums out..." and "we're mad as hell and we're not gonna...." blah blah.
Because given a more traditional choice, voters might have found a number of more reasonable and insightful reasons to pass on Hillary besides the three qualities to which her detractors seem to limit themselves.
1. WE HATE HER AND WE WANT HER TO DIE
2. SHE'S NOT DONALD TRUMP
3. WE HATE HER AND WE WANT HER TO DIE
All of that said, here's the thing about that cog that's missing.
Lyndon Johnson understood, even amidst the power playing and ego stroking and self loathing and intrinsically selfish human behavior that the finest act of genuine commitment to America a President can offer is the act of putting country, the whole country and everybody in it, ahead of self.
And to get, you sometimes, even often, have to give.
Trump supporters, at this point in the proceedings, are likely already writing the posts for the comment thread touting Donald's "business success" and skill at the "art of the deal."
Conveniently disregarding that every word spoken and/or written by or about Trump indicates that his definition of "give" is "give me what I want or I'll sue you or Tweet you to death."
Pretty sure that America wouldn't have ever been the "great" to which Donald wants to return us if the 42 previous guys to live at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave had been advocates of the "my way or the highway" school of Chief Exec-uting".
And Hillary?
Well, if we can somehow flip off the "WE HATE HER AND WE WANT HER TO DIE" switch for just a minute, an objective look at what she's offering doesn't have the look, feel or smell of a whole lot more than a lot more of the same old same old.
And, suddenly, Dr. Phil pops to mind.
"How's that workin' for ya?"
Believe it or not, though, there does seem to be one quality/trait/quirk/glitch both the Lady and The Trump share.
They really, really, really want to be President.
And they are pulling out every stop they know how to stop pull to get the job.
It's worth mention that the title of the article written by Professor Zelizer as posted on CNN.com is "LBJ's Secret To Getting Things Done".
Assuming that particular title isn't just (and one can't help but suspect/assume that it is) one more "sexy/mysterious/ultimately horse hockey" way of getting people's attention, the word "secret" both caught my eye and gave me a little chuckle.
For two reasons.
First, because just a little bitty bit of reading a little more American history and a little less "are Blake and Gwen really engaged" on TMZ will enlighten you, in a heartbeat, that it's not really a secret at all.
It's just a cog in the wheel that turns the generator that moves a nation forward to, hopefully, a better place for you and your kids.
And the second reason for the chuckle?
LBJ's "secret" to getting things done.
The secret was getting things done.
And the cog is not just getting the job.
But also, and ultimately, getting the job done.
For the people...and the nation....
All of the people.
The whole nation.
That's how the true patriots amongst us take us "all the way".
