President Lyndon B. Johnson Describes Great Society

¶ … President Lyndon B. Johnson Describes Great Society" Michael P. Johnson's Reading American Past (pg. The historical epoch in which Lyndon B. Johnson conceived of and attempted to implement the Great Society represented a critical period in the history of America. Johnson began his presidency after the assassination of John F. Kennedy during the turbulent 1960's in which unresolved issues of poverty and race threatened to quite literally tear the country apart.

Some of these very issues were similar ones faced by Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the beginning of his lengthy tenure as president in which he attempted to restore America from the throes of the Great Depression. Johnson's Great Society was devised to provide answers to many of these problems, and to foster a new way of thinking about both the U.S. And the responsibilities of its citizens in a way that was every bit as pragmatic as it was ideal.

The goals of the Great Society were manifold, and essentially revolved around three critical components -- those pertaining to urban areas, rural areas, and to classrooms. All of these components were fastened with an ideology that literally attempted to raise the standards of the country and of those who lived in it, in which the full potential of both was actually achieved. The degree of idealism that accompanied Johnson's purported reforms in these areas was palpable, particularly for those relating to rural areas.

Throughout his May 22, 1964 address to the University of Michigan the president defined an aesthetic in which beauty of the mind and of one's surroundings were equally valued. In rural areas, this concept was denoted by a dedication to preserve the aesthetic qualities of America's ecology, in order to stimulate the minds of the people and to provide fertile land for future housing and for agriculture.

In articulating these concerns, the President even refers to aspects of spirituality that such reforms can enhance, which is also found in his attempts to improve formal academic learning. Johnson's goals in this aspect of the Great Society were to cultivate the mental capability of American citizens so they could become fully prepared to contribute to the process reforming the nation. Municipally, the president strove to eradicate indigence and provide sufficient housing and transportation.

The cumulative effect of these different facets of the president's plan was to create an atmosphere in which people in the country could excel and not just live, but live the good life. Many of the individual components of Johnson's plan for the Great Society -- which also included the eradication of racial prejudice in the country -- mirrored goals that Roosevelt had for his series of federal reforms known as the New Deal. In that sense, Johnson was actually continuing the work began by his predecessor.

What is noteworthy about the Great Society's function as an extension of the New Deal is the fact that the social, political, and economic climate had changed drastically between the two historical eras. The level of penury and its devastation to the country was significantly greater during Roosevelt's presidency than during Johnson's. In that respect, Roosevelt's reforms, although similar in nature to those of Johnson, were more pragmatic and simplified.

The New Deal largely lacked the lofty ideals of the Great Society regarding spiritual and the achievement of man's full potential, and merely focused on decreasing the level of destitution in the country. Yet virtually all of Johnson's reforms aimed at correcting needs of a financial nature -- his desire to create affordable housing, his need to eliminate poverty, the ability to remove penury as an obstacle to the learning experience -- descended directly from the New Deal.

More significant than individual measures proposed by each president is the overall ideology that they shared which mandated it would require a new mentality and a cooperative effort between the American people and their government to overcome the respective obstacles they faced. For all of the lofty idealism that Johnson imparted upon his audience in Michigan on the occasion of his address, his Great Society largely failed in most of its measures.

In fact, Johnson created a political climate that was notoriously hostile (as much as Kennedy's was revered) due to some of measures. His war on poverty, despite exacting a highly arduous toll on American taxpayers, yielded precious few tangible results. Even worse was his foreign policy, which intensified efforts in Vietnam and helped to prolong another costly war which yielded America little of value. His ideals for eliminating racism widely failed as well. There were a number of race riots that typified the rest of the 1960's following his presidency.

The racial climate was more hostile than ever, a fact that is underscored by the assignations of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and, to a lesser extent, Robert Kennedy. In hindsight, Johnson should be revered for the ideology he erected during the.