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Pro.
The
Great Society, the only thing Lyndon Johnson was able to do correctly during
his train wreck of a presidency, may have been the best set of social reforms
introduced by a president since FDR’s New Deal. The Great Society introduced
many new laws and federal institutions that were designed to help those in
poverty. It also helped many African Americans by creating many laws designed
to give them equal rights. LBJ’s Great Society was very helpful and successful,
but it was overshadowed by the Vietnam War, so he is not remembered fondly.
The Great Society introduced some education reforms
such as the Higher Education Act. The HEA allowed many poor students attend
college and get degrees. This benefitted society by diversifying the white
collar workforce. Before this act was created, many minorities were unable to
obtain degrees because they simply couldn’t afford college tuition. With these
degrees, minorities were finally eligible to compete for higher paying jobs and
were then able to rise into the middle and upper classes. Another education
reform was the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This act granted federal
money to schools so all schools could have the same quality of education. This
was beneficial because everyone was given equal chances to get to college.
African Americans benefitted from the Civil Rights
Act. This outlawed “separate-but-equal” facilities. They were finally beginning
to receive equal treatment, which was good because they are human, too.
The Great Society created a welfare system for the
American people. This was helpful because it lowered the poverty level to just
11% of the population. Many people who lost their jobs were able to receive
welfare during their time of need.
Overall, the Great Society was very helpful. It
solved many problems American Society faced. However, coupled with Vietnam, the
Great Society caused a huge budget deficit. This deficit that Johnson created
along with the Vietnam War meant the end of his political career, but the Great
Society persevered and is still beneficial in modern times.
CON
The War on Poverty
represented the crowning triumph of the liberal vision of society, and of
government programs as the solution to social problems.
In the liberal vision,
slums bred crime. But brand-new government housing projects almost immediately
became new centers of crime and quickly declined into new slums.
Rates of teenage
pregnancy and venereal disease had been going down for years before the new
1960s attitudes toward sex spread rapidly through the schools, helped by War on
Poverty money. These downward trends suddenly reversed and skyrocketed.
The murder rate had
also been going down, for decades, and in 1960 was just under half of what it
had been in 1934. Then the new 1960s policies toward curing the "root
causes" of crime and creating new "rights" for criminals began.
Rates of violent crime, including murder, skyrocketed.
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