LBJ was a great president, because he help get passed into law what JFK only talked about. As he said, "Jack is out kissing babies, and I was passing bills. Someone had to mind the store." He was hard, coarse, and unlikeable, but he paved the way for real equality among Americans. What he's saying in this quote is that when the Constitution was written, no one had ever conceived of the ideas of actually protecting basic human rights, and that WAS a radical idea. It still is today in many parts of the world. America stands alone by being the only country to attempt to do something as radical as protecting basic human rights for more than 200 years. LBJ understood that, and helped all Americans gain those rights. Give him a break! And, look up the definition of the world "radical," too. It's only the neo-cons who have given it a bad connotation.