Lecture 12: In Search of the Great Society

Introduction

Largest expansion of federal government between now and the New Deal

The programs that led to this expansion were called Great Society programs - taken from LBJ speech

• Medicare and Medicaid was created

• Department of Housing and Urban Development among others were created

• Gov. gave money for public education through Title 1

• expanded food stamps program

• established national endowment for humanities and arts

• major environmental legislation → clean drinking water and curb air pollution

• repealed anti - immigration legislation

Context: Inequality amid Prosperity

• Overall good economic times

• Discrimination against Blacks in federal programs kept them away from this prosperity

• Poverty persisted in rural areas

• Poverty of the Elderly - retired, struggled to pay bills

A brief bio of Lyndon Baines Johnson

• Crew up in poverty in Texas

• Was first elected to congress at the height of the New Deal

• Believed that government was the best solution to solving America’s social problems

Johnson’s vision of the Great Society

Utopian

War on Poverty

• LBJ declared early in 1964

• 1st passed economic opportunity act of 1964

• created job training programs

• head start

The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 and “Maximum Feasible Participation”

• provided federal funds to start special programs to fight the war on poverty

• Created the office of Economic Opportunity - helped local governments and poor ppl to start programs to combat poverty

• Maximum Feasible Participation - Poor ppl had a hand in designing these programs

Head Start

• Government subsidized pre school program for poor children

Johnson re-elected in 1964 by a landslide

• over 60 % popular vote, ran against Barry Goldwater,

• 1st election that old confederate states voted republican instead of democrat because democrats passed the civil rights act in the summer before the election, Goldwater was a senator and voted against it.

• Also Dems had large majorities in the house and senate

• Forwarded 87 bills to congress, 84 passed

Medicare and Medicaid

• Medicare: government sponsored health insurance program for the elderly

• Medicaid: is for non - elderly poor

Title 1 of the Elementary and Secondary School Act of 1965

• First major federal foray into funding public education

• Gave federal money to school districts based on the number of poor students that those districts serve.

Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965

• children and grandchildren of immigrants were now in congress

• signed in 1965 by LBJ

• Determined eligibility for immigration based on two criteria.

  • Employment need of the US.

  • Familial connections in the US.

• still limited number of immigrants but thresholds were more egalitarian (equally across regions of the world) and much higher.

• In part responsible for the massive wave of immigration that has transformed American society over the past few decades

• still the major backbone US immigration today

• still exists today.

How Johnson accomplished so much

• best POTUS at pushing legislation through congress (had been both a house rep and senator)

• was senate majority leader - earned a reputation for rounding up votes

• Johnson treatment - would pester until he got the vote

• incredibly aggressive and detail oriented

• was upset when legislation passed by a large margin because….

Mixed Fate of the Great Society

• A number of programs were extremely successful in that they became a permanent part of the American Government

• Poverty rate did go down, but it still was very persistent.

• Maximum Feasible Participation: was a problem because mayors and local legislators were furious that they weren’t he ones that would decided how this new federal money was spent → Johnson administration got rid MFP and started giving money directly to these local governments, then the local governments did not use the money for helping the poor.

The Culture of Poverty

• Ppl thought poverty was because they were in a cycle of poverty and that the culture of this affected them and caused to do crime and not see the value in education.

• They didn’t look at getting more better paying jobs and increasing wages.

• LBJ and this colleagues thought that job creation would take care of itself.

The Watts Uprising (one example of many urban uprisings)

• Watts section of LA, Calif. - highly impoverished, predominantly black

• began when officer arrested black drunk drive who resisted arrest.

• Rumors spread that the police beat the man and kicked a pregnant woman.

• Wasn’t the first of the 1960s (1967 - 25 that lasted more than 2 days - most were sparked by police brutality)

• But it was the first big one

• Lasted 5 days was only stopped by 16000 national guards, troopers, police officers.

• 250 building burned to the ground.

• Many whites saw this as that these cities needed law order and were upset that gov helped poor and not them.

Underfunding due in large part to the Vietnam War

• LBJ tried doing a lot of this while increasing US military involvement in Vietnam.

• 1965 US start sending lots of troops

• LBJ said that Vietnam war killed the programs for war on poverty

• Failure of these antipoverty programs caused skepticism that government could solve social problems → led to the rise of a conservative movement rooted in his belief.