Dwarkesh Patel says Robert Caro's books are the best explorations of political power ever written, and that he spent six years chasing an interview with Caro.
Robert Moses drafted the Triborough Bridge Authority Act so his powers were written into bond contracts, shielding them from revocation short of a constitutional convention.
Patel says Lyndon Johnson made unanimous consent agreements the Senate norm and rewrote committee assignments through a steering committee he controlled, turning himself into the second most powerful person in America.
How Robert Moses and LBJ built power nobody could remove
Robert Caro's biographies show how individuals accumulate power inside systems built to resist it. Robert Moses, never elected, locked his authority into bond contracts and spread it across posts no single official could revoke. Lyndon Johnson made a Senate meant to have no leader his instrument by controlling its agenda, seats and deals.
Takeaways
Moses wrote his power into bond contracts. Through a sentence slipped into the 1933 Triborough Bridge Authority Act, the authority could issue new bonds for any corporate purpose and write its powers into bond contracts. The Constitution's contracts clause made those powers irrevocable, and refinancing extended them indefinitely.
Twelve overlapping posts made Moses unfireable. Moses held 12 posts at once, some appointed by the mayor and some by the governor. Removing him from any one meant making an enemy of New York's most powerful man. He threatened to quit so often that La Guardia's lawyer printed resignation forms.
Fast delivery and expertise made him indispensable. Moses finished 1,700 park renovations in four months and built 672 of 899 highway miles in New York State by 1964. Mayors lacked the technical expertise to draft rival plans, so they could build his projects or nothing.
A coalition of beneficiaries protected Moses. Banks bought his bonds at steep discounts without competitive bidding, while unions, lawyers and party bosses profited from projects. He courted newspaper owners, including The New York Times family. Patel calls it a Yimby coalition. Caro says Moses stayed money honest.
Johnson mastered a Senate designed to be leaderless. The majority leader's only formal power was first recognition on the floor. Johnson, 44 in a Senate averaging about 60, became America's second most powerful person by refusing to bring bills to the floor without unanimous consent agreements, which predecessors used rarely.
Control of seats and favours enforced loyalty. Johnson replaced seniority with a steering committee he controlled. After voting against him, Estes Kefauver lost a Foreign Relations seat to John F. Kennedy in 1957. Johnson could also steer Texas oil money to senators' campaigns.
Ideals need power, and power becomes addictive. Caro's Moses starts as a reformer beaten by Tammany Hall, learns ideals require power, then seeks it for its own sake. Johnson, an early opportunist aligned with Dixiecrats, later used power to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act.
How Johnson assembled the 1957 Civil Rights Act
Johnson wanted any civil rights bill passed, even a weak one, because he hoped to become president.
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On this episode 3
Show 1
Over seven months he stitched together factions whose interests had nothing to do with Southern voting rights.
Western senators got a long-sought vote on an Idaho dam, and Midwestern Republicans got jury trial rights for striking workers.
A clause let Black citizens serve on federal juries, and the bill stayed weak enough to avoid a Southern filibuster.