Lyndon B Johnson 1964 TV Ad - LBJ Goldwater KKK

Controversial ad showcasing the endorsement of Barry Goldwater by the Ku Klux Klan

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  Entertainment

[Frank S.]

30 users are segregationists.

[Gastrophetes]

The KKK hated all the 'ism's in the world?

I knew they were ignorant... but to collectively not know the word racism? That's pretty bad.

[paulyscrate1]

Stan Rizzo worked on this ad! (Mad Men joke)

[Mrdie]

Both LBJ and Goldwater claimed to support civil rights. The latter, however, was for a more "cautious" government policy and brought up the issue of "states' rights," something racists also did. You thus had Democratic racists whose family lineages were ones of proud racist Democrats, and more politically astute types who contrasted the increasingly worker and youth-focused Democrats to the increasingly socially conservative Republicans.

[therealsebknight]

It's true that they were part of the Democratic coalition that split later, but they were really only Democrats in name only. The were both socially and fiscally conservative and thus were out of step with the Democratic mainstream, and many of them were generational Democrats - their fathers, grandfathers and so on were members of the party, which is why they joined the party.

[WarGoatHK417]

And people think TODAY's political rhetoric is extreme...

[Mrpastry909]

Is this really true? The large majority of KKK were still Democratic then, and even George Wallace ran as a (semi) Democrat in 1968. Plus, Goldwater's family was Jewish (although he himself was not). Isn't that still Jewish enough for the KKK?

[Themaddprof]

I recall that there was a similar ad against Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election.

[Greg Meyer]

Goldwater won the south.

[TheCrayonMan529]

It's an ad for Johnson not Goldwater. At that time, the South voted Democrat and didn't start voting for Republicans till Nixon when he used the Southern Strategy to win over the those states.

[TheSanguineOne]

Well, scare tactics with campaigns have existed forever. In the first couple elections, newspapers printed anything they pleased, information that today would be considered libel, in order to support their candidate.

[PeachWookiee]

It was only the beginning.