As Senate majority leader, Lyndon Johnson became the most effective legislative leader of his time. Johnson believed that finding the middle ground was the essence of legislative leadership. Referring to one of his father’s favorite passages from the Bible, he would say to a Senator, “Come now, let us reason together. . . .” which is an excerpt from the Bible verse Isaiah 1:18.
After he became president, Johnson continued to use his skills as a master legislator. One of the most important laws he pushed through Congress was the Voting Rights Act of 1965. President Obama’s election in 2008 was really the culmination of a push that had its origins in that Voting Rights Act.
The full verse from the Bible is: “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
It’s ironic that Lyndon Johnson, who was such a successful politician in domestic affairs, became so vilified by liberals because of his foreign policy decisions in Vietnam. Being successful in politics is as much a matter of instinct as anything else, and Lyndon Johnson’s instincts failed him 🙁