Lyndon Baines Johnson

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LBJ

Lyndon Baines Johnson, aka LBJ, (1908—1973) was the 36th President of the United States. Johnson succeeded John F. Kennedy as POTUS upon the latter's assassination, and subsequently won the office in his own right in 1964 by demolishing Barry Goldwater. Johnson declined to run for a second full term in 1968 due to his totally mucking up a conflict in Southeast Asia. This is such a shame since his other policies worked rather well.

Before running for the Vice Presidency, Johnson had a prominent Congressional career in the House from 1937-49 and in the Senate from 1949-60. He was the leader of the Democratic Senate from 1952-60. It is widely considered by historians[1] that Lyndon Johnson was the most powerful Senate Leader of all time. Among his achievements was the passing, in 1957, of the first Civil Rights Act since Reconstruction, which was a miraculous achievement given the Southern Democrats' strength in the Senate and the peculiar rules of the institution in which a third of the Senators can block passage of legislation by filibustering.

Johnson's Presidency is perhaps best remembered for his "Great Society" programs to assist poverty and basic needs in America as well. Johnson also took numerous steps in helping the civil rights movement achieve its goals. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Johnson also signed the Gun Control Act of 1968, which upset conservatives who believed that it was a massive conspiracy to take away their only defense from hippies who hid in the bushes and randomly attacked you unless you had a gun 24/7.

Johnson is no doubt the presidency's most successful failure.

[edit] The Great Society

The War on Poverty never worked! Ronald Reagan said so!

Programs launched by Johnson through his Great Society initiative include:

  • Head Start Program
  • Higher Education Act of 1965
  • Job Corps
  • Samuel Jefferson Mason
  • Model Cities Program
  • NASA Art Program
  • Bilingual Education Act
  • Community Action Agencies
  • Economic Opportunity Act of 1964
  • Elementary and Secondary Education
  • National Endowment for the Arts
  • National Endowment for the Humanities
  • Office of Economic Opportunity
  • Teacher Corps
  • Project Follow Through
  • Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
  • Upward Bound

For years conservatives have attacked Johnson for this "failed" initiative, but poverty dropped from 20% when he took office to 12% when he left. It clearly worked among the black community with a drop from 55% in 1960 to 27% in 1968. It was also the last time the Gini coefficient was less than .400 (still high today for the West) in the United States.[2] Not exactly a "failure," if anything staunch success by a rational estimate, but conservatives will never see fact with these estimates.

[edit] Lyndon Johnson conspiracy theories

Liberals have also attacked Johnson for what they see as a conspiracy to start the Vietnam War. However, evidence has suggested the Gulf of Tonkin incident was an NSA conspiracy to trick the president and Congress into believing there was a attack on the United States and there is no evidence that LBJ knew of the plot, proving that the theory is simply typical Kennedymania.

Some on both sides believe that he plotted Kennedy's death. This has no basis whatsoever and is as likely as Jackie Kennedy having being the gunman instead of Oswald. It also may be a sign of watching too much House of Cards.[3]

Wingnuts often cite the Johnson years as the start of the New World Order and contend that the Great Society was a communist plot to destroy "liberty," i.e., segregation. They also believe that the Vietnam War was a plan to enact communism despite the fact that the war was designed to contain communism.

Additionally, right-wingers often try to prop up a bullshit story about LBJ claiming that passing civil rights will "have those niggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years." Aside from the highly dubious nature of the quote,[4] it's often trotted out to deflect from the current Republican Party's rampant problem with minority issues.[5]

[edit] Footnotes

  1. For example Robert Caro, in Master of the Senate and Robert Dallek in Lone Star Rising
  2. How about that, Friedman?
  3. Oh yes, LBJ poisoned a Congressman, pushed a journalist into a subway and neither forensic evidence nor the media picked up on it.
  4. "Is this a real quote?" on /r/askhistorians
  5. There's a reason the Democrats lost the South.
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