Brokaw and the sixties

I'm watching some MSNBC rerun of Brokaw being interviewed about his book Boom!: Voices of the Sixties Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today. He said a couple of things that struck me as wrong.

First was a comment about music. He included the Beatles as part of the hard rock music that replaced Elvis.

When I was a kid and the Beatles came to the US most kids I knew considered the Beatles almost girlie music. It was nice music to listen to, even dance to, it was popular, but it didn't speak to the disaffected nearly the way the Rolling Stones did.

The implication that I wanna hold your hand was rebellious while Get off my cloud wasn't is just insane.

The other thing that struck me was when he talked about the assassination of JFK. He drew a cause and effect line from the death of JFK to LBJ to Vietnam to the resurgence of Nixon.

He got the timeline right but I don't think it was Vietnam that got Nixon elected. I think it was the 1964 Civil Rights Act. That's something liberals like Brokaw don't want to give LBJ credit for but it's very doubtful that would have passed with JFK president.

I was living in the South then, and that's pretty much what killed LBJ's and the Democratic party's chance to carry the South.