Liberalism was very evident throughout the John F. Kennedy and the Lyndon Johnson years (1960-1968). During the Democratic National Convention of 1960, Kennedy announced his “New Frontier” theme for his administration’s drive to confront the “unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, [and the] unanswered questions about poverty and surplus”. (Roark, p. 933) Kennedy began his administration “promising activism and renewal and offering a new style of leadership that boasted of youth, energy, and effectiveness”. (Lecture, Week 8) Four years later, in 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson declared and expressed his ideas of the ideal “Great Society”, which revolved around “liberty for all and demands an end to poverty …show more content…
(Week 8, Doc. 25) Then he added later that American’s must “ask what you can do for your country, not what your country can do for you”. (Week 8, Doc. 25) He believed by working together, we could begin to solve the Nations social problems. Kennedy was trying to show American’s that it’s necessary to fight for what’s fair in society, and to help others help themselves in order to prosper. The public felt Kennedy, with his idealism and vigor, would be a good fit for Presidential leadership, and would be effective in reducing the many of America’s domestic problems. After failing to keep some of his campaign promises such as, expanding the welfare state, and health care programs, he acted, after much pressure from civil right activists and pushed Congress by calling for a comprehensive Civil Rights bill. After seeing poverty in Appalachia first hand, Kennedy eventually gained support for “a $2 billion urban renewal program” to encourage some businesses to help by locating new business ventures in economically depressed areas. (Roark, p. 934) In 1963 Kennedy had a plan to attack poverty, he asked Congress for a huge tax cut which would “infuse” money into the economy in order boost it and decrease unemployment. His belief was that “a rising tide lifts all boats”. (Roark, p. 934) As a result, the economy shot up annually by 7 -9 …show more content…
His Vice President, Lyndon Johnson, was sworn in as the new President and carried an equal, if not higher motivation to fight for and followed the same anti-poverty agenda that Kennedy aspired. Like Kennedy, Johnson’s ambitions as President took him on the path of a more liberal position in domestic matters. At the end of his presidency, Johnson had pushed through many domestic policy bills. It is said that he even outdid Roosevelt’s “New Deal” from the 1930s. (Roark, p. 935) Johnson’s “Great Society” was his outline to reduce poverty, it eventually created laws that helped and supported Civil Rights, Medicare, Medicaid, desegregation in schools, and more. Johnsons accomplishments included “War on Poverty”, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Immigration and Nationality act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. These accomplishments specifically outlawed racial segregation, outlawed voting discrimination, and gave equal opportunities to all no matter the race, religion, or origin. These accomplishments were very beneficial to many citizens who felt disenfranchised. The “number of families receiving assistance” went from less than 1 million to three million between 1960-1972. (Roark, p. 936) With the charm and idealism of John F. Kennedy, followed by the very aggressive Lyndon Johnson, and the favorable decisions of the “Warren Court” (1953-1969),
Out of the many problems we have in the world today, one main problems is poverty. Poverty has been around for thousands of years now, and people began to fight it as early as the 1960s. When Lyndon B. Johnson became president, he took it upon himself to fight poverty by creating the Great Society Plan. In the plan, many new programs and jobs were created to assist Americans living in poverty and to help improve their lifestyles. President Johnson’s Great Society Plan improved many poversed Americans lives by helping them obtain an education, find a job to provide for their families, and helping them with medical funds.
Medicare would provide health insurance for those 65 and older while Medicaid would offer a plan for America’s poor. The insurance plans aided 47 million people by 1975. It also accounted for twenty-five percent of the country’s health care expenses. In addition to Medicare, the Food Stamp Act passed during Johnson’s presidency would provide subsidies to the poor in order to feed their families. These two acts certainly improved the quality of life for many Americans who otherwise would have been
It did a lot to make sure that minorities were treated as equals. It showed the growth of Americans. Some people supported the ideas that Kennedy and Johnson shared. They believed it was time for America to make a change. These programs did just that for a lot of people.
Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency started and ended with immense sorrow, being that he was one of four vice presidents sworn in after the death of a president. After the death of John. F. Kennedy, the nation needed continuity and stability. Johnson took charge and advanced not only the Kennedy legacy, but his own as well, becoming one of the most influential presidents in history.
Was There an International Conspiracy to Assassinate John F. Kennedy? “Ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country,” John F. Kennedy proclaimed during his inaugural address. John F. Kennedy was the thirty-fifth president of the United States. President Kennedy became the youngest United States president elected into office at the age youthful age of forty-three. Kennedy was the first Roman Catholic president after winning by a slight margin from the republic nominee Richard M. Nixon in 1960.
Lyndon Baines Johnson had numerous accomplishments ranging from the Great Society legislation to the Vietnam war and the Immigration Act of 1965. Johnson’s first a major accomplishment came in the form of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Johnson’s knowledge and experience as a legislator pushed him into a more direct involvement in constructing winning coalitions and he was also able to attract southern voters for the Civil Rights Act of 1964(4). Johnson’s legislative mastery was useful in engineering a bill that satisfied both moderate Republicans and liberal Democrats. He had to use his experience as a legislator because without these two coalitions he would not have been able to get the act passed.
These morals and beliefs that Lyndon gained influenced him to devote his presidential reign to change the economic, political and spiritual views of the country. Accordingly, his dream helped him enact and form the major civil rights legislations of the 1960’s that improved the lives of African Americans in the USA. It was his personal determination and political experience that convinced a Congress of Republicans and conservative Democrats, whom were both strongly against the bills. He contributed to his dream of a “Great Society” by supplying political and economic opportunities and decreasing African American unemployment by 34%. Johnson’s caring and compassionate character also contributed to his innovation.
The Great Society operated with the objective of guaranteeing American equal opportunity. Despite some of the failures of the policies included in Johnson’s Great Society, the formulation of this depth of social policy was unprecedented, and changed the expectations
In addition to the things he'd already done, he tasked state and local governments with creating work training programs for up to 200,000 women and men (History.com Staff, “Great Society”). Other initiatives the War on Poverty offered were a Community Action program for people to tackle poverty within their own communities, the ability for the government to recruit and train skilled American volunteers to serve poverty-stricken communities, loans and guarantees for employers who offered jobs to the unemployed, funds for farmers to purchase land and establish agricultural co-ops, and help for unemployed parents preparing to enter the workforce (History.com Staff, “Great Society”). Johnson’s effort in helping this shows today when you are able to look at all of the acts he created in order to help this fight on the War on
Lyndon B. Johnson declared the war on poverty during a Union address in January 8th, 1964. This was in response to national poverty rates being around 19 percent at the time of his speech. Lyndon B. Johnson’s success in lowering poverty rates during the “war on poverty,” was due to legislations such as VISTA, Job Corps, Head Start, Medicaid, Medicare, and HUD. One major Legislation is VISTA.
Johnson's policies led to the expansion of social welfare programs and the impact is still widely seen in today’s
The Great Society On May 22nd of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson spoke to the graduating class of the University of Michigan on The Great Society, saying "The Great Society rest on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time”, words that were spoken by President Johnson. The main passage of “The Great Society” by Lyndon Baines Johnson was mainly concentrated on eliminating poverty and racial injustice as revealed through his parallelism and anaphora. With this compelling speech, Lyndon inspired many young Americans to take actions to better their country using persuasive proofs such as ethos, logos, and pathos His persuasive techniques that applied directly to the students’ emotions inspired them to construct a better America just like President Johnson’s plan.
Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon were both two very important presidents of the United States. Combined they were in the White House for 10 years and I think domestically they could be considered as good presidents. The thing that I think hurt their image the most was their foreign policies and in case of Nixon the Watergate scandal. Firstly, I will talk about Lyndon Johnson.
President Lyndon B. Johnson once said, “The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all,” in his speech that changed American’s views on society and the outcomes that can occur (“Great Society”).With the death of President Kennedy in November of 1963, it was Johnson’s duty to follow the path of Kennedy’s vision of making America and its future great for everyone. President Johnson named his vision and passion for the future of America that he strived to lead the Great Society(“Great Society”). Johnson’s speech on May 22, 1964 was played out for America and its people to educate the importance to supply our society with wealth, wisdom, and experience to successfully build a country where the struggled labor becomes a value for the
The Kennedy-Johnson years (1961-1969) provided the stimulant for social and economic re-form, but most of their policy initiatives were confounded by domestic strife and foreign policy failure. Discuss. The 1960s heralded a period of both social and economic change as both John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson attempted to continue the legacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’. However, “competing domestic and foreign policy constituencies” stymied some of their efforts at reform therefore whilst in many cases their policies stimulated reform in later decades much of their energies in the 1960s were focused overseas.