When Texas Democrats Roamed the Earth

[TexasTowelie]

Two new books remind us that the Lone Star State once had a nationally powerful tradition of liberalism.


n the iconic image of Lyndon Johnson’s swearing in as president aboard Air Force One, a somber man with thinning hair and big ears stands just behind Jacqueline Kennedy. Jack Brooks—then in his sixth term as a congressman representing Beaumont and its environs—had been part of President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade earlier that afternoon in Dallas, a testament to his work on behalf of the Kennedy-Johnson ticket in 1960 and his subsequent support of JFK’s legislative program. After Kennedy’s assassination, Brooks was one of the people urging Johnson to take the oath of office as the plane sat on the tarmac at Love Field before returning to Washington. Brooks thought that the immediate installation of LBJ as president was necessary to guard against foreign machinations while obviating any interference from JFK’s brother, U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who loathed Johnson. Once LBJ had settled into the White House, Brooks played a critical role in smoothing the passage of Johnson’s Great Society legislation, including the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts of 1964 and 1965, which proved deeply unpopular across much of Texas.

For some observers, this must have seemed like the inexorable continuation of liberal Texan influence on Capitol Hill. Despite growing disagreement within its ranks over social issues, the state’s Democratic party had strengthened its grip during the Great Depression, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal alleviated economic distress in Texas. While reluctant at first to accept FDR’s promise of widespread federal assistance, residents of the Lone Star State came to embrace programs such as the Rural Electrification Act, which helped bring power to the 97 percent of Texas farms unconnected to any grid. Likewise, at its peak the Works Progress Administration employed 120,000 Texans, who completed signature projects such as the expansion of the San Antonio River Walk. The success of these and similar initiatives elevated Democratic Texas legislators, including House speaker Sam Rayburn and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, who dominated Congress during the fifties.

But in hindsight, these mid-century giants were actually dinosaurs, soon rendered all but extinct by a GOP asteroid that within a few decades obliterated one-party rule in Texas by Democrats and opened the door for Republicans eager to limit Washington’s influence within the state. A pair of new books featuring Brooks and Johnson brings to life this bygone era while offering clues as to how and why it slipped away.

In The Meanest Man in Congress: Jack Brooks and the Making of an American Century (NewSouth Books), the father-son team of Timothy and Brendan McNulty—a veteran journalist and a World Bank consultant, respectively—say their subject is regarded as “one of the most influential men that most Americans have never heard of.” This near-anonymity may stem from the fact that Brooks did not aspire to an office higher than the congressional seat he held from 1953 to 1995. Over the course of five-hundred-plus engrossing pages, the McNultys make a compelling case for Brooks’s importance.

Read more: https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/texas-democrats-roamed-earth/

[Tiggeroshii]

1. They are coming back. And if Beto is any indication, it won't be as the traditional blue dog

dixiecrats from the past.