1960 Nixon Presidency Effects on Republican Race Relations

Would Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson allow Nixon to get a win on Civil Rights, especially if he plans on running for the 1964 Democratic nomination? He may want to hold off on it so he could sign it himself once in office in 1965.
 
Would Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson allow Nixon to get a win on Civil Rights, especially if he plans on running for the 1964 Democratic nomination? He may want to hold off on it so he could sign it himself once in office in 1965.

I doubt he'd be the one to stop it. It would likely be stopped by other powerful southerners before it got to him. It may not even get past committee.
 
Would Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson allow Nixon to get a win on Civil Rights, especially if he plans on running for the 1964 Democratic nomination? He may want to hold off on it so he could sign it himself once in office in 1965.

More than likely he works hard for it. If he tries to block it, it will play into the national stereotype of Southron political leaders, that LBJ was working so hard to distance himself from throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Working with Nixon to get the bill passed would show Johnson as a Southron liberal, willing to cross the aisle to work with Republicans for the greater good, and would allow him to paint himself in a heroic light. I doubt Johnson would pass up the chance, especially when the alternative narrative could be disastrous for him on the national level.
 
I doubt he'd be the one to stop it. It would likely be stopped by other powerful southerners before it got to him. It may not even get past committee.

Of course LBJ wouldn't be seen as stopping it. But he wouldn't go out of his way to push it through Congress as well.
 
More than likely he works hard for it. If he tries to block it, it will play into the national stereotype of Southron political leaders, that LBJ was working so hard to distance himself from throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Working with Nixon to get the bill passed would show Johnson as a Southron liberal, willing to cross the aisle to work with Republicans for the greater good, and would allow him to paint himself in a heroic light. I doubt Johnson would pass up the chance, especially when the alternative narrative could be disastrous for him on the national level.

I disagree. He wouldn't actively work to block it, but wouldn't work to push it through either. I think he would hold off so he could take credit for it after getting elected President in 1964.
 
It'll certainly shore up the GOP as "the party of Lincoln" even if the proposed bills don't pass or are neutered.

There was a time line where something like that happened, only I believe It was some other LibRep instead of Nixon, where the Democrats Double Down on the South and stay socially conservative yet fiscally liberal
 
I disagree. He wouldn't actively work to block it, but wouldn't work to push it through either. I think he would hold off so he could take credit for it after getting elected President in 1964.

I disagree. Johnson was obsessed with trying to prove to the nation that he wasn't a typical Southern politician, and it strung him that the northern liberals did not fully trust him (there is a reason he built up such a strong working relationship with Humphrey in the Senate). There was a reason he worked so hard with Eisenhower on previous Civil Rights Act of 1957. First of all, he truly believed in it, but it also furthered his own political goals. Johnson is smart enough to know that he can exploit the victory in his own way and, if not overshadow Nixon, take his amount of credit for it. If the bill fails in the Senate, he would also know that Nixon would throw the blame on him as the leader of the Senate.
 
I doubt he'd be the one to stop it. It would likely be stopped by other powerful southerners before it got to him. It may not even get past committee.

Even if Johnson wanted to block Civil Rights being identified as the responsible figure would end any hope of the nomination. There are a lot of open questions. Is there still Rules Committee Reform? What are Nixon's other legislative priorities in 1963 and 1964? What's the actual makeup of Congress? How closely can LBJ and Nixon work together? Johnson would need to keep the Dixiecrat Senators from taking hostages, and that means either LBJ convinces Nixon to drop other priorities or otherwise removes them from the table in a way they can't be used as hostages. Even then, since the budget would be one such hostage, passing the act would require a close relationship between LBJ and Nixon. Nixon would have to be willing to listen when Johnson tells him that Civil Rights requires among other things a budget that Harry Byrd will not tie up.

And that's just on the Senate side of things. Rayburn is dead which limits Johnson's influence there considerably. Getting the Act out of the Rules Committee in time for the bill to have a serious chance at enactment was hard as it was and would be harder here.

I'm not saying that this can't happen but it would require a close working relationship between Nixon and Johnson that's a little hard to envision given Johnson is almost certain to at least attempt to run against him in 1964.
 
Johnson supports Nixon and the Republicans in passing the CRA-equivalent through Congress,

and when Johnson is on your side, you'd better believe that legislation is gonna get passed.

Johnson plays a major role in wrangling in the votes of fellow Democrats to pass the CRA, and so becomes an obvious contender for the nomination in 1968.

Johnson takes the nomination in 1968, but would probably have to go up against a former Democrat opposed to desegregation such as Wallace in the general election. With a southerner (Johnson) instead of a northerner (Humphrey) at the top of the Democratic ticket, the South is still a battleground and Johnson stands a good chance of winning the election.
 
very much like a timeline where Lyndon stays an engaged and effective Majority Leader of the Senate, instead of a sidelined and useless Vice President.

(office shouldn't be that way but it kind of is. Or, at least used to be)
 

Deleted member 96212

Makes me wonder where the whites opposed to the Civil Rights Act will go. Perhaps they stick with the Democrats, or go third party like with Wallace.
 
LBJ will run in 1964 given his belief that he was destined to have a short life. If the Civil Rights Bill passes he stands a better chance of being nominated although Southern anger could block him. In any event he's certain to try at the nomination and might well succeed.
 
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