How Times Have Changed

TW: When I dug up yesterday's LBJ reference from White's "Making of the President 1964" I recalled another passage"

From "Making Of the President 1964":
"On October 7th [1964], Walter Jenkins, the President's closest personal associate...walked...to the basement of the DC YMCA, a notorious gathering place of homosexuals...35 minutes later, in the men's room, he was arrested...within 48 hours the story leaked to the Republicans...Barry Goldwater...had been informed...but he remained silent...[several days later the story leaked out to the MSM and was publicized widely]

...it was apparent...that Jenkins...must be hospitalized...the nation had to face the fact that the President's closest assistant...was a sexual deviate...

For 24 full hours Republicans and Democrats alike held their breath to see how the nation would react. And perhaps the most amazing of all events of the campaign of 1964 is that the nation faced the fact fully- and shrugged it shoulders.

...the only important matter was national security- had Jenkin's illness weakened or opened a latch on matters of security..."

TW: Two things struck me from the passage. One, the event occurred on October 7th just about a month before the election amidst the white heat of a race for the White House (albeit one that was not close at the time). In today's environment a scandal of this sort would have blown into the central theme of the campaign for at least a week. Whereas Barry Goldwater and his surrogates largely ignored the event, I suspect pundits and surrogates in either party would have turned the scandal into a complete 24/7 obsessive free for all overflowing with righteous indignation and extrapolated implications. In this respect, the good old days are perhaps missed.

Secondly, the way homosexuality was treated. Ted White was a progressive but took pity on Jenkins as a diseased deviate requiring hospitalization. Perhaps one of the reasons for the muted public reaction was how far beyond the pale such matters were considered 45 years ago. Nevertheless, to say the role of gays in society has evolved in the past decades is a considerable understatement.