P. J. O'Rourke Quotes
Lyndon Johnson faced some clear moral issues.
O'Rourke, P. J. The Baby Boom: How It Got That Way (And It Wasn't My Fault). Atlantic Monthly Press, 2014.
This quotation is puzzling to many in that Olasky seems to be castigating the President because he wanted to develop a “Great Society”—because he had a great vision for America. However, to Olasky and a small core of religious fundamentalist conservatives a President wanting to develop a great society was bad for two reasons. They do not believe that the government – any government should shape the nature of the society or interfere with individuals and families in shaping society. A government that could have such a vision and implement it must be a big government which is per se undesirable. In addition, in their orthodox view God has already determined the vision for society and no man should try and substitute his vision for God’s commandments. This concern of an energetic secular government having independent vision is not only a problem for the right wing Christian fundamentalists, but is typical of Muslim fundamentalists and Jewish also. There were a small minority of Jewish Israeli fundamentalists who objected to the creation of the State of Israel at the birth of the Jewish state for the same reasons that Olasky gives for opposing a strong visionary government.
He was right. Even the vaunted Southern Filibuster was broken by the strategy and tactics Johnson and Senator Humbert Humphry, the Floor Leader for the 1964 Civil Rights Bill.
Patrick Jake O'Rourke is an American political satirist and journalist. O'Rourke is the H. L. Mencken Research Fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute and is a regular correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, The American Spectator, and The Weekly Standard, and frequent panelist on National Public Radio's game show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! Since 2011, he has been a columnist at The Daily Beast.
