Meanwhile, as in 1964, when the ugly specter of racism reared its head at the Republican National Convention in San Francisco, we have seen evidence of it at Tea Party rallies with signs showing Obama as a simian monkey.
Donald Trump spouts thinly veiled racist commentary by asking the rhetorical question of how Obama managed to get into prestigious Ivy League universities, whose places should be reserved for the like of him along with his cronies.
On the domestic front the Tea Party influenced Republicans in Congress show signs of uprooting Medicare and Social Security under the guise of attacking America's debt. Goldwater won much John Birch support in the sixties by proposing that Social Security be made a voluntary rather than mandatory program.
Once that Johnson achieved his massive victory, which also resulted in sizable gains in both houses of Congress, he became a war president by carrying out policies in Vietnam that he had rejected in the 1964 campaign while administration spear carriers such as Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara denounced Goldwater as irresponsible and trigger happy.
The current question is whether the pattern of 1964 will repeat itself. Will Obama, flush from a massive victory over Palin or some other Republican candidate under heavy Tea Party influence, claim a national mandate and move in a direction comparable to Johnson with Iran his immediate target?
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