Reply #27: Part of it was cultural. [View All]

[H2O Man]

In my father's family, one of the politicians they loved was Leland Olds. He had been a journalist, advocating for the railroad unions, before he went to work for the NY State Power Authority for Governor Franklin Roosevelt. He brought electricity to poor rural farmers, like my father's family's farm. He also worked with Mayor LaGuardia to supply power to the poor in NYCity.

In 1939, FDR brought lds to Washington to head the Federal Power Commission. After 5 years, when he was up for renomination, oil interests attacked him as a "socialist." FDR stuck with him. But in another 5 years, when oil attacked him again, Truman wasn't strong enough to protect him.

What was strange was that oil interests had LBJ stab Olds in the back. Yet years later, my father thought highly of LBJ as president. He recognized that LBJ had been vicious in the Olds incident, but he still thought he was the second FDR.