On this day in history, January 4, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson proposed a utopian new vision for the United States under a greatly expanded federal government, which he called a great It was named society.
“We aim to establish human and social harmony, so that each of us can expand the meaning of his life and all of us can improve the quality of civilization. This is the quest we begin tonight,” the President declared. He addressed the nation in his State of the Union address.
This was the first televised State of the Union address delivered directly to the American people in prime time, not just to the House and Senate as required by the Constitution.
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“Great societies ask not just how much but how good, not just how we create wealth but how we spend it, not just how fast we are progressing. , where we're headed,” the president added, calling on all Americans to take action. .
The Great Society, he said, “is not the gift of government or the creation of presidents.”
President Lyndon B. Johnson delivers the State of the Union message to a joint session of Congress. LBJ outlined his vision for a “Great Society” in his January 4, 1965 speech. (Getty Images)
Great Society supporters have long argued that Johnson's vision extended a helping hand to Americans most in need.
Critics say his vision has failed dramatically by any empirical measure, succeeding only in increasing the size and inefficiency of the federal bureaucracy and institutionalizing intergenerational poverty. have pointed out.
Mr. Johnson assumed the Oval Office after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963.
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LBJ was elected president a year later, defeating Arizona Republican Barry Goldwater (486 to 52 electoral votes) just nine weeks before the State of the Union address.
“The Great Society is not a product of government. It will require every American to travel…” — President Lyndon B. Johnson
He used his landslide victory as a mandate in the State of the Union, championing the need for greater U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and proposing a federal government as the solution to vast human ills and social problems.
“we [in Vietnam] “First of all,” he said, “because friendly countries have asked us for help against communist aggression…ignoring the invasion now increases the risk of a larger war.” Only,” he added.
Peaceful demonstrators hold signs calling the president a war criminal during a large anti-Vietnam War demonstration at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)
He then published nine direct proposals that would form the basis of a Great Society that would tackle everything from education and crime to the environment and urban renewal.
His challenge also included more vague goals.
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“I propose a full-scale campaign against waste and inefficiency,” Mr Johnson said in announcing his wish list for the federal government.
Johnson introduced the term “Great Society” during his 1964 campaign, a term coined by speechwriter Richard N. Goodwin.
His 1965 State of the Union address was followed by intense legislative activity on Capitol Hill by Democrats, who were in the midst of a 26-year period of control of both chambers of Congress (1955-1981). there were.
In the aftermath of President John F. Kennedy's assassination, Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) takes the oath of office as the 36th president. On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was sworn in by U.S. Judge Sarah T. Hughes (1896-1985) on Air Force One in Dallas, Texas, with Kennedy's widow, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy, by his side. Ta. (Universal History Archive/Getty Images)
“The 1965 State of the Union address heralded the creation of Medicare/Medicaid, Head Start, the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the White House Council on Natural Beauty,” History.com writes. There is. .
“Mr. Johnson also signed the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities Act, which created the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.”
“The War on Poverty was destined to be one of the great failures of 20th century liberalism.” — Allen J. Matusow, Historian
The Great Society was essentially an effort to attack poverty in America and the associated challenges to education, health, and opportunity.
A year earlier, Johnson had introduced the “war on poverty” in his State of the Union address.
In this central goal of reducing and even eliminating poverty, the Great Society has been a profiteer by any empirical measure.
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“The War on Poverty was destined to be one of the great failures of liberalism in the 20th century,” said historian and Rice University professor Allen J. Matusow, according to the Foundation for Economic Freedom.
Homeless people stand with their belongings in front of an outpatient mental health clinic in Los Angeles, California, on December 6, 2022. (Frederick J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)
He continued, “The most direct beneficiaries were middle-class doctors, teachers, social workers, builders, and banks who provided goods and services of sometimes questionable value with federal subsidies.'' It was the houses,” he said.
The foundation quotes Michael D. Tanner, a poverty researcher at the Cato Institute, who says, “Spending money on this problem has not reduced poverty or made poor people more self-sufficient. Instead, government programs are tearing apart the social fabric of the country, which is a key factor in increasing out-of-wedlock births with all their problems.”
“Throwing money at this problem will not reduce poverty or make poor people more self-sufficient.” — Michael D. Tanner, Cato Institute
“The most tragic thing is that the pathologies they cause are passed down from parent to child and from generation to generation.”
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Meanwhile, the quality of American public education has declined in all demographic and social areas since the 1960s, while the achievement gap between black and white children is wider than ever before. This has been revealed in educational research.
President Lyndon B. Johnson hands the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. a pen during the signing of the Voting Rights Act in Washington, D.C., August 6, 1965. (Washington Bureau/Getty Images)
The Great Society has succeeded in turning the Federal Government into an insatiable Leviathan.
According to the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara, the federal budget ballooned from $118.2 billion when Johnson took office in 1963 to $195.6 billion when he left office in 1969. This is an increase of 65.5%.
According to the report, last year's federal budget was $6 trillion, with a deficit of $1.8 trillion.
Matthew Dallek, a historian and professor of political management at George Washington University, said in 2015, “The hopes and promises expressed by Prime Minister Johnson are grandiose, and few presidents have ever been able to deliver realistically (such as ending poverty and racism).'' “inevitably raised unrealistic expectations.” .
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History.com says, “While many of Johnson's plans are still in place today, Johnson's legacy as a Great Society is his controversial decision to enlist even more American soldiers in the Vietnam War.” “It is greatly overshadowed by this,” he wrote.
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