James Clyburn, the Civil Rights warrior, now Congressman from South Carolina and House Whip, has been telling the Democratic Caucus the story of how LBJ took heat from progressives for weakening the Civil Rights Act so that it would pass. Additional protections were added later, but by weakening the otiginal bill to the dismay of progressives, LBJ was able to get the votes to pass a big first step.
Clyburn is telling the story to assure progressives that what they might consider a "watered down" health care bill very much needs to be passed.
"The civil rights community, Whitney Young, Roy Wilkins, Martin Luther King Jr. — all these people were for a big, comprehensive Civil Rights Act," Clyburn told the caucus. "Johnson realized he couldn’t get in one fell swoop all that they were asking for and made it very clear to them in the negotiations: ‘If you want me to put this bill on the floor, I’ll put the bill on the floor, but it’s not going to pass. If you want to pass something, then we have to go into this bill to see what will pass.’"
http://www.politico.com/...
President Obama, of course, has said exactly the same thing to progressives who have advocated for a single-payer system or a Medicare like public option in the health care reform bill. We don't like being told that we must compromise in order to get a bill passed, and it is tempting to say, "I'd rather pass nothing." But Clyburn, from his historical perspective, reminds us that isn't a politically savvy reaction.
In 1964, it was voting rights that was stripped from the bill in order to get it passed. What good is a Civil Rights bill if voting rights aren't protected, progressives complained. The voting rights provisions were added in later bills, in 1965 and in 1972. It took eight years, but the legal framework of the original weakened bill was eventually strengthened to what progressives had originally wanted.
It has been noted that President Obama has adopted LBJ rather than Clinton as his model for getting this bill passed. http://www.washingtonpost.com/.... It appears that the President's approach, in the end, will be successful. (In fact, in may play out exactly as the President told us it would play out, with a triggered public option).
"I didn’t want anyone to think that if you don’t get everything you want in this health care bill right now, that’s the end of the game," Clyburn said. "What we need to do is lay a foundation. Get passed what we can pass that will have a meaningful impact on people’s lives — not put too many of our people in jeopardy — and then build upon it later. It’s a long road."
We can learn from an old warrior like Clyburn.