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The slow decline of America since LBJ launched the Great Society
Washington Post ^ | 05/17/2014 | George Will

Posted on 05/17/2014 6:43:32 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Standing on his presidential limousine, Lyndon Johnson, campaigning in Providence, R.I., in September 1964, bellowed through a bullhorn: “We’re in favor of a lot of things and we’re against mighty few.” This was a synopsis of what he had said four months earlier.

Fifty years ago this Thursday, at the University of Michigan, Johnson had proposed legislating into existence a Great Society. It would end poverty and racial injustice, “but that is just the beginning.” It would “rebuild the entire urban United States” while fending off “boredom and restlessness,” slaking “the hunger for community” and enhancing “the meaning of our lives” — all by assembling “the best thought and the broadest knowledge.”

In 1964, 76 percent of Americans trusted government to do the right thing “just about always or most of the time”; today, 19 percent do. The former number is one reason Johnson did so much; the latter is one consequence of his doing so.

Barry Goldwater, Johnson’s 1964 opponent who assumed that Americans would vote to have a third president in 14 months, suffered a landslide defeat. After voters rebuked FDR in 1938 for attempting to “pack” the Supreme Court, Republicans and Southern Democrats prevented any liberal legislating majority in Congress until 1965. That year, however, when 68 senators and 295 representatives were Democrats, Johnson was unfettered.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: america; decline; greatsociety; lbj
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To: Misterioso

Oswald was exactly what he said he was, a patsy. It is unlikely that he even fired a shot on that fateful November day.


21 posted on 05/17/2014 7:35:53 PM PDT by MHGinTN
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To: SeekAndFind

On the day that LBJ promised to “rebuild the entire urban United States”,Detroit was one of the wealthiest cities on earth.Twenty trillion dollars in wealth redistribution later "wealthy" is one word that few would use to describe the city.

22 posted on 05/17/2014 7:35:54 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Rat Party Policy:Lie,Deny,Refuse To Comply)
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To: SeekAndFind

Johnson sounded like a complete psycho, from what I’ve read.


23 posted on 05/17/2014 7:36:20 PM PDT by 4Liberty (Optimal institutions - optimal economy.)
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To: SeekAndFind

An explanation for liberalism:

“The instinct of submission, an ardent desire to obey and be ruled by some strong man, is at least as prominent in human psychology as the will-to-power, and politically perhaps more relevant.”

- Hannah Arendt -


24 posted on 05/17/2014 7:36:43 PM PDT by griswold3 (I was born heI're in America. I will die here in a third world country. Obama succeeded.)
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To: SeekAndFind
"I'll have those n*ggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years."
-- Lyndon B. Johnson to two governors on Air Force One according Ronald Kessler's Book, "Inside The White House"
25 posted on 05/17/2014 7:36:53 PM PDT by Bratch
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To: All
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26 posted on 05/17/2014 7:39:16 PM PDT by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
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To: 4Liberty

I still can’t believe Johnson got away with running an ad implying that Goldwater would get us into a nuclear war.


27 posted on 05/17/2014 7:39:18 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: MUDDOG
The 1965 Immigration Act: Anatomy of a Disaster By: Ben Johnson
28 posted on 05/17/2014 7:40:08 PM PDT by kabar
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To: Misterioso
Are you saying that all our problems can be attributed to Lee Harvey Oswald?

Actually, I've never gotten over the suspicion that LBJ was somehow connected. The first thing we all thought when we heard about the assassination was, who benefits?

29 posted on 05/17/2014 7:40:35 PM PDT by Liberty Wins ( The average lefty is synapse challenged)
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To: SeekAndFind
well, we're 50 years into his 200 year prediction, but the problem is, America prolly won't be recognizable 150 years from now, if it even still exists that is...
30 posted on 05/17/2014 7:42:30 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -vvv- NO Pity for the LAZY - 86-44)
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To: SeekAndFind

The following quotes are from Ronald Kessler’s “Inside The White House”

“I’ll have those niggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years.” —Lyndon B. Johnson to two governors on Air Force One

“These Negroes, they’re getting pretty uppity these days and that’s a problem for us since they’ve got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we’ve got to do something about this, we’ve got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference.”—LBJ


31 posted on 05/17/2014 7:45:29 PM PDT by DMZFrank
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To: DMZFrank

Hes about 25% of the way there already.


32 posted on 05/17/2014 7:46:31 PM PDT by DMZFrank
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To: SeekAndFind

Don’t forget the War On Poverty.


33 posted on 05/17/2014 7:47:44 PM PDT by SkyDancer (I Believe In The Law Until It Intereferes With Justice. And Pay Your Liberty Tax Citizen.)
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To: kabar
Thanks for the link. Informative and sickening.

We had a great country, and the politicians simply threw it away.

34 posted on 05/17/2014 7:48:41 PM PDT by MUDDOG
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To: SeekAndFind

“The slow decline of America since LBJ launched the Great Society”

Me thinks it has rapidly picked up speed since Jan, 2009.


35 posted on 05/17/2014 7:52:48 PM PDT by upchuck (Support ABLE, the Anybody But Lindsey Effort. Yes, we are the ABLE!!)
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To: SeekAndFind

“Yep! He is a nice man a good man and when he is done there will be a bunch of lazy bastards.” Said sometime in the 30’s by my fathers father.


36 posted on 05/17/2014 8:40:33 PM PDT by the_daug
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To: cherry
No, that wasn't a random comment.

Although there were some SCOTUS problems earlier, the atheistic Fabian Progressive Socialists began to emerge as a force around 1900. Before 1900, the federal government wasn't much of an issue in the lives of Americans. Government spending at the start of the 20th century was less than 7 percent of GDP. By the 1920's it had doubled and off we went.

The slow decline of America can be traced in the early 1900's to government's growth and easy access to our money (income tax 16th Amendment in 1913 influenced by Roosevelt who tried to pass a "progressive" income tax a few years earlier).

37 posted on 05/17/2014 9:02:07 PM PDT by PapaNew
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To: SeekAndFind

!


38 posted on 05/17/2014 9:15:44 PM PDT by skinkinthegrass (The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun..0'Bathhouse/"Rustler" Reid? :-)
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To: dfwgator
"I still can’t believe Johnson got away with running an ad implying that Goldwater would get us into a nuclear war."

See this: "Daisy", "Daisy Girl" or "Peace, Little Girl

39 posted on 05/17/2014 9:22:06 PM PDT by blam
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To: Misterioso
Are you saying that all our problems can be attributed to Lee Harvey Oswald?

In a sense, yes. Goldwater likely would have won. Kennedy was ineffective and on the ropes. But with a dead martyr President in JFK, there was no way. It was blasphemy to vote against our young, dead, martyred President - which is what a vote for Goldwater was portrayed as by the Liberals.

It worked.

40 posted on 05/17/2014 9:27:33 PM PDT by Gritty (Climate hysterics shriek on. Loud and apocalyptic is the only setting on the machine.-Mark Steyn)
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