Johnson & Great Society

1.  LBJ

• Grew up in TX hill country
• History teacher one year
• campaign manager
• 1937 representative - New Deal Democrat
• 1948 Senator
• persuasive, behind scenes maneuvering- the Johnson Treatment
• Senate Majority Leader
• 1960- VP: Southern, Protestant, congressional connections
• After JFK's death, LBJ asked congress to pass his civil rights bill and tax cuts
• Tax cut spurred consumer spending; boosted economy
• Johnson pushed CR Bill through summer
• stopped discrimination in hiring, equal access to public facilities

2. War On Poverty

• LBJ's domestic plan-
• economic opportunity act
• job corps (training)
• VISTA (domestic peace corps)
• Project head Start (edu for pre-schoolers)
• Community Action Program (poor enlisted in public works)

3. Election 1964:

• All the way with LBJ
• Barry Goldwater- (AZ) against social programs like Social Security
• wanted to sell off TVA
• on Vietnam:
  
• Goldwater threatened to bomb Vietnam back to the stone age
• LBJ: I'm not going to sent American boys 9 or 10,000 miles to do a job Asian boys ought to be doing.
• daisy girl commercial
• "Landslide Lyndon"

4. Great Society

• War on Poverty: just the beginning
• Elementary & Secondary Ed. Act: 1965: $1 bill for public, parochial schools
• health care: medicare for low cost hosp & insurance for elderly
• Medicaid to welfare recipients
• Dept of Housing and Urban Development
• $$ for low cost housing in cities
• Immigration Act 1965 ended quotas of 1920s, opening door to eastern Europeans and Asians
• Water Quality Act of 65, due to Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring"
• Safety Laws
• Truth in packaging Law
• Standards for automobiles & tires
• Wholesome meat act

5. The Warren Court- most far reaching since John Marshall

• Banned state sanctioned prayer in schools
• Desegregated public schools (Brown)
• Limited censorship
• Expanded right to free speech
• Addressed reapportionment-#s of congressmen based on pop in districts (Baker v Carr- one man, one vote)
• Mapp v. Ohio- evidence illegally seized cannot be used in court
• Gideon v. Wainwright- free legal counsel for the poor
• Escobedo v Illinois Right to have a lawyer in questioning
• Miranda v AZ- you must be read your rights
• supporters say these cases put necessary limits on police and support citizen's rights
• critics say these cases protected crininals
• Republicans say they are proof Democrats are soft on crime

6. Effect of Great Society

• War on poverty helped; fell from 21% to 11%
• tax cut helped economy
• Cost of Great Society was steep-
  
• will be stopped by cost of Vietnam