True Believer: Hubert Humphrey’s Quest for a More Just America by James Traub

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Hubert Humphrey was the first Vice President for me as a youngster, as I was too young to remember LBJ in that position. Humphrey, in my view, was one of the most consequential American political figures of the 20th Century. James Traub does a really good job of bringing the Humphrey life out, and does so in a balanced way. Humphrey, like most, was not perfect, but he led a life of consequence and achievement. Traub manages to give us the full story, even when the facts are not so sympathetic to the subject.

Where to start with a review? Before I read the book I confess to a life long empathy for Humphrey, and I always regretted the way that he was treated by many on the “new left” that became ascendant in the Democratic Party. As someone who read and enjoyed Hunter Thompson I would wince when the good doctor launched his vitriolic attacks on Humphrey, but those attacks were largely in line with the thinking of the younger folks that took over the Democratic Party in 1972. I wondered whether Traub would reference Thompson, and sure enough he did.

“Stewart Alsop, a confirmed centrist, like most of the members of the permanent establishment, even quoted the gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson to the effect that Humphrey ‘was a swine in 1968, and he’s a swine now. He should be put in a bottle and sent out with the Japanese current.’ “

Traub, James True Believer: Hubert Humphrey’s Quest for a More Just America pg. 420

For a more accurate version of the quote, which is even more brutal than the one above, see the Hunter Thompson classic “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72” pg. 158.

Of course I get ahead of myself. Traub gives us just enough biographical information on Humphrey, showing us how his youth influenced the politician he became. There were some contradictions in that upbringing, and Humphrey became a politician of some of those contradictions. He was a Mayor, of Minneapolis, but struggled to get started. He was a progressive when it was not so fashionable, especially in the mid-west, and a true leader on civil rights when such leadership was not wanted or valued in the Democratic Party. His speech at the 1948 Democratic Convention, calling for the Party to “get out of the shadow of states rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights” both electrified the convention and split the Party, leading to a walk out of the Mississippi delegation. This fissure would eventually lead to the migration of the segregationists to the Republican Party. Humphrey, in his role as Mayor, and eventually as U.S. Senator, was a driving force in the creation of the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) as well as the brains and political force behind the fusion of the Minnesota Democratic Party with the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, creating the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party. In this effort Humphrey established himself firmly as a progressive, but also as a strong anti-communist voice. The party building effort looked to eliminate, or mute, socialist influence where it had existed prior. Humphrey never wavered from this conviction. His leadership in Minnesota was a given, and he mentored much political talent, including Gene McCarthy and Walter Mondale.

Humphrey’s ascent to the Senate brought him to a new level of politics, and one, quite frankly, that he did not take to immediately. His full bore charge ahead on what he considered to be important issues not only brought conflict with his colleagues, but some level of ostracizing from those colleagues. He did not understand the game, but he was soon to get taught by possibly the greatest Senate Leader of all time, Lyndon Johnson. The life story of Hubert Humphrey cannot be told without a pretty big role for LBJ. Coming to know LBJ was both a blessing and a curse to Humphrey, who was brought along by LBJ in the Senate. Johnson helped Humphrey to overcome some of the initial animus of his Senate colleagues by showing him the legislative ropes and lending Humphrey some of his own massive credibility in the Senate. Traub describes Humphrey as a “star pupil” in the “Lyndon Johnson Academy” and gives us a couple of LBJ anecdotes that show what a legislative master he was.

“During the minimum wage debate he was standing by Johnson’s side when the majority leader turned to him and said ‘ I think we’ll pass that minimum wage bill now.’ Johnson had waited until Spessard Holland, who had been leading the opposition, left the floor. He instantly issued a quorum call, which was required for a vote, and then just as rapidly called for a vote before Holland had had a chance to return and rally his troops.”

Traub, James True Believer: Hubert Humphrey’s Quest for a More Just America pg. 176

“On the housing bill, Humphrey’s vote was crucial, but his flight from Minnesota, due to land at 2:30 in the afternoon, was delayed. In a tour de force, even by his own standards, Johnson used every parliamentary tactic in his bag of tricks to put off the vote while simultaneously bullying air traffic controllers to get Humphrey’s flight on the ground. The plane landed at 4:45, Humphrey was whisked to the Senate, and he cast the deciding vote to build one hundred thousand units of public housing rather than the thirty-five thousand Ike had called for.”

Traub, James True Believer: Hubert Humphrey’s Quest for a More Just America pg. 176-177

Johnson’s influence helped to establish Humphrey in the Senate as a man that could get things done. But in order to achieve legislatively compromise was a necessary part of the process. Humphrey was willing to do what he needed to do to get legislative victories, but compromise was not something that some of his liberal friends were interested in. Humphrey lost some ideological support during this period, and those losses continued right to the very end of his career. Traub described him as “ideologically incoherent” but sincere nonetheless.

Humphrey ran for President in 1960, but was simply trampled by the money and organization of the Kennedy family. LBJ always considered Humphrey as a “bridge” to the northern liberals, and selected Humphrey in 1964 to run with him as his Vice President after the assassination of JFK. As tough as LBJ was as Senate Leader he was even more mercurial as President. Humphrey would feel the LBJ lash continuously, and any independent thoughts he might have had as Vice President were ruthlessly suppressed by President Johnson. His 1965 memo to Johnson on Vietnam, in my view, showed where his head was at all along. After that private memo LBJ essentially froze Humphrey out of everything, forcing the Vice President to heel. Humphrey would suffer with this legacy as people, especially the anti-war activists, simply wrote him off on the war. LBJ, as smart as he was, always believed Humphrey to be “soft” on the war, and I think the 1965 memo is where his head stayed, no matter what came out of his mouth. In the tumultuous political year of 1968 Hubert Humphrey became the Democratic nominee for President without entering a primary. Super delegates indeed. The disaster that was the Chicago nominating convention in 1968 for the Democratic Party hurt Humphrey badly. His Republican opponent, Richard Nixon, had managed to tap into the backlash in the country over civil rights, Vietnam, and the LBJ Great Society, and it appeared that Humphrey’s candidacy was a lost cause after Chicago. Humphrey, despite the bad start and the lukewarm endorsement of LBJ, rallied to close the gap substantially, but not enough. He lost to Nixon by about 500,000 votes (43.4% to 42.7%) but the Electoral College margin was wider (301-191, with George Wallace at 46) The fissure in the Democratic Party started by Humphrey in 1948, and made permanent by the LBJ/Humphrey Civil Rights bills of 1964-65 drove the South away from the Democratic Party permanently. The Nixon “Southern Strategy” was borne out of the ramifications of that fissure.

This book gives you a great view, from Humphrey’s perspective, on some of the most monumental events in American history. After Humphrey’s loss in 1968 he managed to return to the Senate from Minnesota, and his estrangement from the left continued, as Humphrey grappled with the school busing issue, and the issue of crime, which Nixon had gotten such great political mileage out of in 1968. His old base of support blanched at some of his ideas on those matters, and the “Happy Warrior” continued to lose some old friends.

If you do not know much about Huber Horatio Humphrey Jr. this book is a great place to start. He was one of the major players in post World War II America, and one of the impactful participants in the watershed year of 1968. His early leadership on Civil Rights changed forever the Democratic Party, and arguably led to a major realignment in the American two-party system. While Humphrey may have brought on some of the enmity showered on him by the “new left” in the end that treatment, in my mind, was largely unfair, and shortsighted. This book is highly recommended.

The Humphrey 1948 speech to the Democratic Convention is linked directly below.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/8nwIdIUVFm4?si=JWUe16Lh94kIQPmy

Link to the Vice President Humphrey 1965 Memo on Vietnam to President Johnson.




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