Not really. He spent most of his career fighting against the New Deal, and was the first Republican to run the "Southern Strategy" that Nixon later perfected.

While he was fairly egalitarian in regard to civil rights, he was overwhelmingly Libertarian. He wasn't for black people having equal rights as much as he was against the federal government making a law. The KKK endorsed him (though he, of course, denounced them)

He was very critical of Eisenhower (the actual last conservative you could respect) for being too liberal. He was also a massive war hawk, who pushed to have tactical nukes (the "small" ones) be used against the USSR (The classic "Daisy" ad was Johnson's attack on him).

In short, he was proto-Reagan. He was proto-Dubya. He is the turning point, where Republicans pivoted from being conservative to fascist.

The author of Nixons Southern Strategy, and the reason we've had to deal with Reagans, Bushes, and Twimps.

Old school, yes. Cool, no.

"...you guys smell like $#!+!"

"Kinda makes you homesick, don't it?"

"It kinda does, you know?"