President Lyndon B. Johnson continued and expanded President Kennedy's agenda with his Great Society program, which aimed to eliminate poverty and racial injustice through new civil rights laws and social welfare programs. The Great Society established Medicare, Medicaid, aid to education and cities, and environmental protections. However, the escalating costs of the Vietnam War drained funds from the Great Society and ultimately undermined Johnson's presidency.

1. President Johnson and the Great
Society
• He was no Kennedy

2. Johnson’s Leadership Style
The Johnson Treatment

4. A sense of insecurities –grew up
poor

5. 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

6. 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

7. Sympathy vote-
Hardcore of Goldwater

8. 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

9. 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

10. • Medicare and Medicaid Acts—aid for the poor
and elderly
• Aid to Cities—HUD
• Environmental Acts
• Consumer Protection Acts

11. • Medicade
• il Rights Act

12. 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

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

14. • 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.