President Johnson and the Great Society

• He was no Kennedy

Johnson’s Leadership StyleThe Johnson Treatment

A sense of insecurities –grew up poor

With every technique he could think of , Johnson sought to find consensuses, or general agreement. Many of the ideas that Kennedy had had, Johnson continued with—Civil Rights Act and Voting Acts

The Election of 1964

• President Johnson ran against Republican Barry Goldwater. In the middle of Cold War tensions, Goldwater appeared too extreme. His slogan “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice” actually hurt him. Johnson capitalized on his extremism—example

• http://youtu.be/63h_v6uf0Ao

Sympathy vote-Hardcore of Goldwater

The Great Society

• The Great Society was LBJ’s vision of the more perfect and equitable society the US could and should become .

• LBJ =FDR Part 2• Far-ranging program of social legislation since

the New Deal.• http://youtu.be/kx0K637mBVE

Great Society Programs

• Civil Rights: Civil Rights Act (1964)• Voting Rights Act (1965) • Immigration Act (1968)• War on Poverty: The Economic Opportunity Act• Job Corps• National Endowment for the Arts• NPR and PBS• Elementary and Secondary Education Act

• Medicare and Medicaid Acts—aid for the poor and elderly

• Aid to Cities—HUD• Environmental Acts• Consumer Protection Acts

• Medicade• il Rights Act

Legacy of the Great Society• These programs touched and improved millions

of lives in the US. Many still debate today whether or not the programs were successful.

• From a Liberal Perspective: government should create an equal opportunity—a basic level that everyone gets to—health insurance, literacy, education, etc.

• From a Conservative Perspective: anyone has the same chance, we don’t need these programs, it could create a dependency, it kills initiatives

• The Great Society does create bureaucracy—big government, and it expands the Federal government beyond its constitutional limits.

• A lack of funds did in fact hurt the effectiveness of many of the Great Society programs—When Johnson attempted to fund many of these domestic programs the increasingly cost of the Vietnam war got in the war. In the end it will be the Vietnam war that will be LBJ’s downfall.