"1964 in HINDSIGHT"

What is hindsight? Hindsight is the ability to look backward, and re-evaluate a previous action or decision. We have all practiced this in the past in regard to one or more decisions in our lives; sometimes it can be as simple as “I should never have ordered that soup”, other times it can be as complicated as “I never should have moved into this neighborhood”. I’m guessing there are times that George W. Bush sits in his living room and says, “If I knew then ,what I know now…”; but as the man says, “Hindsight is always 20-20”. Some decisions must be made in a hurry, like a policeman making an arrest, there isn’t always time to negotiate before taking action. Later, that same officer, may say he would have liked to do things differently, but there just wasn’t the time.

In November of 1963, America didn’t have a choice; in a split second Lyndon Johnson became the President of the United States. Our nation went into trauma mode as we watched John F. Kennedy laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. It would only be one year before the next Presidential Election and until 1:00P.M. CST in Dallas Texas, on November 22, 1963 it was presumed that John F. Kennedy was going to run again.

Lyndon Johnson was thrust into the role as the sitting President, and the presumptive nominee of the Democrat Party the next year. On the coat-tails of an assassination, Lyndon Johnson took the mantle of the Democrats in the 1964 election.

Unlike his predecessor, Johnson was a real “new deal Democrat”; he believed in large government spending and welfare. Those of you who are about my age must remember the “War on Poverty”; a fiasco that ushered in the “welfare mentality” that America has been burdened with ever since. LBJ had the Vietnam War land right in his lap, and he tried to escalate it until media pressure caused him to “re-think” his policy to one of rationed power, rather than full use of our military for complete victory.

LBJ faced Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) as his opponent in the ’64 election. Goldwater was a staunch conservative, practically the polar opposite of Johnson. He was a believer in free market capitalism, and small federal government, much the same as Ronald Reagan. Mr. Goldwater believed in a strong military and dealing with tyranny through strength, much like Ronald Reagan.

In “hindsight”, it surely looks as if we would have been much better off with Goldwater as our leader during the Vietnam War. I don’t believe Mr. Goldwater would have been swayed much by media pressure, and perhaps Vietnam would have had a better end for America; but as I said earlier, “hindsight is 20-20”.

Yesterday, our President, Barack Hussein Obama, said this year’s election will be similar to the election of 1964. He believes the presumed nominee, Mitt Romney, is the new Barry Goldwater, so I guess that makes Mr. Obama the new LBJ. Well, I guess that is a fair assumption if you believe that tax and spend is a core belief of both of these men. It seems Mr. Obama believes that Mr. Goldwater shares some traits of Mr. Romney, and would be wrong for America. Romney has shown that he is a believer in the free market economy, just like Goldwater and Reagan. Romney believes in a strong military, just like Goldwater and Reagan, so perhaps Mr. Obama has a point. So I have to ask this, “Would it be bad to have a President that believes in a free market economy, and a strong military sitting in the White House?” Mr. Obama, you are correct in saying there is a real choice in the next election. We can choose “strength and freedom” or “tax and spending”. I already know where Mr. Obama stands; how do you feel America?