Democratic Primaries

For many Americans, the presidency of Lyndon Johnson is a distant memory marked by tragedy—the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and social turmoil. But it was also one of history’s most legislatively active presidencies. President Johnson was essential to the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Medicare, the Voting Rights Act and even the Public Broadcasting Act. Whether one views all this legislation as positive or not, its very volume and scale highlight the influence of a man who rose from the poverty of West Texas to become a Congressman, the youngest Senate majority leader in history and ultimately, president.

How did he do it? There is a wonderful photo of Lyndon Johnson and Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas. Johnson is towering over Fortas, smiling and invading his space as the jurist uncomfortably leans back and clinches his arms to his chest. That photo has become emblematic of what became known as the Johnson Treatment—Lyndon Johnson’s persuasive tactics described by Mary McGrory as “an incredible, potent mixture of persuasion, badgering, flattery, threats, reminders of past favors and future advantages.” As a participant in the Presidential Leadership Scholars (PLS), a leadership development program sponsored by four presidential libraries or centers, I had the opportunity to spend a weekend learning about the Johnson presidency at the LBJ Ranch and the LBJ Library. And I learned a great deal more about the 36th president’s approach to persuasion. It’s not for everyone—leadership styles are different—but it often worked for LBJ and is worth understanding today.

So how did LBJ persuade? First, he’d establish a vision and a purpose. In Mark Updegrove’s Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency, Jack Valenti recounts how, the evening of Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, Johnson sat at home with his team and spent five hours mapping what would become the Great Society agenda. “He knew with stunning precision the mountaintop to which he was going to summon people,” Valenti recalled. That vision for his presidency became the purpose and focal point of his persuasion. Often in seeking to persuade people we lose sight of the end goal—where we’re headed with our persuasion. But Johnson knew that vision and purpose are foundational to persuasion.

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Perhaps the most defining element of President Johnson’s persuasion was the Johnson Treatment itself—he was willing to push people. For better or worse, he would harangue, threaten, flatter and bully. This was evident in Johnson’s dealings with his mentor, longtime Georgia Senator Dick Russell. In establishing the Warren Commission—which was responsible for investigating the Kennedy assassination—Johnson knew Russell didn’t want to serve, but announced Russell’s involvement before asking him then bullied him into it in a phone call. As recorded in Indomitable Will, he then pushed past Russell—a dedicated segregationist—to get Civil Rights Act passed, telling him, “Dick, I love you and I owe you. But....I’m going to run over you if you challenge me on this civil-rights bill.” He did just that—leading to Russell boycotting the Democratic convention in 1964. Similarly, after Bloody Sunday in Selma, Johnson summoned George Wallace to a meeting at the White House [DOC] in which he physically loomed over the man and badgered him for hours on subjects from voting rights to protecting demonstrators. He made people uneasy. He invaded their space. And he kept after them. This kind of persistence is uncomfortable for most of us but essential for LBJ.