Dinner with the Johnsons by Kyle

Dinner with the Johnsons by Kyle - October 2017 Scholarship Essay

In 1964, president Lyndon B Johnson won re-election, signed The Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, and accidentally recorded himself burping into a white house phone receiver while ordering custom pants. Since then, no president matched his fiery tenacity nor his dramatic flare. Anyone would relish the opportunity to converse with this powerhouse of personality.

In the span of four years and eleven months (due to the assassination of previous president JFK) Social Security, Medicare, The civil rights act of 1964, The Voting Rights Act, The Wildlife Preservation Act, several air, food, and water quality acts, and much more were passed under the Johnson administration. No administration before or since passed so many human rights and basic quality of life laws in such little time and I admire both politically and personally.

Johnson's personal carnival he brought with him wherever he went was arguably responsible for his political prowess. His political style was eclectic and erratic, he had a habit of doing wacky or scandalous things for seemingly no reason which always threw everyone around him mentally off-balance. Many interpreted this to mean he was unintelligent, low-brow, or incompetent; however, this strategy served him well as a legislator. While he was holding meetings in the white house bathroom, the people meeting with him were so shaken at the ridiculousness of it they failed to recognize he was undermining the integrity of their Jim Crow laws. while everyone was distracted with the way he spit when he talked or laughed, they barely noticed when he set aside funds for publicly funded radio, publicly funded television, and food stamps.