History, Lyndon Johnsons Great Society

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Lyndon Banes Johnson who was initially a majority leader in senate before becoming Kennedy’s vice president was a great politician who quickly established himself in the office of the presidency. LBJ who took the office of the presidency after the shocking assassination of Kennedy was a man with extraordinary ability to get things done by either pleading or threatening people. As a president, he sought to use his supremacy insistently to get rid of poverty among the citizens. He further required spreading the benefits of prosperity to all by continuing with the work left by Kennedy. LJB’s ability to turn things around in America could not be evident if Kennedy was not assassinated to allow him get to power (Lerner 2012, 38-42).

Banes only had 11 months to prove himself to Americans that he was a true leader that America wanted. Johnson used his persuasion skill to have the civil rights bill which prohibited unfairness based on race and gender employment and further ended public facilities segregation passed. Johnson used the name “Great Society” to describe his reform program when after he declared war on poverty and this further intensified when he won a decisive victory over Barry Goldwater of Arizona. Economically, he pushed for economic act of 1964, which was aimed at fighting poverty, cutting tax, training for the poor and use of federal funds to attack unemployment and illiteracy (Boyer et al 2010, 673-675).

Indeed, Lyndon’s three years in power proved his sheer determination and hard work which he undoubtedly surprised liberals. Johnson successfully provided support for elementary and secondary schooling by allowing funds to be used in helping both public and private schools. Furthermore, an Omnibus housing act gave rent supplements for the less privileged in the society and provided funds to construct low-income housing. He additionally addressed transportation safety matters by signing two important transportation bills (Ahlberg 2008, 43-48).

During Johnson’s reign, American liberalism was at high tide due to a number of signed acts that greatly empowered the citizen. Some of the additional signed acts are wilderness protection act that saved almost 9.1 million acres of forestland from industrial development as well as the immigration act that ended discriminatory quotas based on ethnic origin. Besides, there was the national endowment for the arts and humanities, which allowed the use of public money to fund artists and galleries thus promoting art and creativity among the talented populace that could not afford to sponsor themselves (Boyer et al 2010, 673-675).

In addition, Baines Johnson introduced Medicare law to compensate the cost of healthcare for the old people and the voting rights act that banned literacy tests and other discriminatory methods of denying suffrage to the lager American population. He believed in universal stable democracy, political stability, financial stability, health, and education. Johnson based his foreign policy on universal stability through his Great Society belief.

Bibliographies

Ahlberg, Kristin L. Transplanting the Great Society Lyndon Johnson and Food for Peace. Columbia: University of Missouri, 2008.

Boyer et al.The Enduring Vision: A History Of The American People. Boston: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2010.

Lerner, Mitchell B. A Companion to Lyndon B. Johnson. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.