Cast into the Presidency on the heels of the Kennedy assassination, Lyndon Baines Johnson was affirmed in office in 1964 by a landslide electoral victory. The Vietnam War was not yet the incendiary quagmire it would become later in his term, and Johnson was free to put his energies and his political capital to work on an ambitious program of domestic policy initiatives.
He plunged into this by proposing a sweeping set of social reforms and programs mustered under the rubric of "The Great Society." The President shared his vision and program concepts at graduation speeches, press conferences, and in a widely read article appearing in the Saturday Evening Post in October 1964. In these communications he painted a vision of the future of American society: that the U.S. could be a place where one can raise a family "free from the dark shadow of war and suspicion among nations;" that it can be a place where the country is growing not only richer and stronger but happier and wiser. Now, he said, we have an opportunity for the country to move, "not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society."
[...] Johnson arbitrarily abandoned the volatile term “demonstration” in its title and renamed it the Model Cities Act, which he signed into law on November Controlling the Votes Although there are more extreme examples of his “jawboning” style of governance his battle to hold down wages and inflationary pressures are legendary the journey of the Model Cities Act through the labyrinth of Congress is a typical example of Johnson's routine hands-on involvement in the passage of bills. A man of great personal energy, for whom no detail was too small to manage, his close advisor Joe Califano said of him that used his prodigious energy to mount a social revolution and to control everyone and everything around him. [...]
[...] Johnson met with McIntyre on July 19, a week before the Senate vote on the bill, and horse-trading ensued. The Senator wanted Johnson to downplay the closing of Portsmouth Naval Base which employed many of his constituents until after the election. He also wanted photos of himself with the President for his election campaign. He might vote for the bill if the funding package were reduced, but he absolutely would not support it at its current cost. On this point Johnson conferenced with his staff. [...]
[...] Working the System At a Democratic congressional leadership breakfast on May 31, Johnson hailed the Demonstration Cities bill as most important domestic measure before the Congress and to the future of the American cities.” Privately, he insisted he was going to get this bill this year from this Congress[10]. Marshaling Califano[11] and his chief congressional aide, Larry O'Brien, as his agents of action, Johnson began to methodically work the system and the persons who could get his bill passed. First he dispatched the Vice President Hubert Humphrey and HUD Secretary Robert Weaver to up the interest groups.” Timing and the order of the congressional business must be carefully orchestrated. [...]
[...] The progress of the Model Cities Act is a prime example of Johnson's style of cajolery, intimidation, persuasion, and masterful manipulation of members of Congress, in order to achieve his goals. This matter is examined more closely here as an exemplar of Johnson's particular approach to getting his way with Congress. Urban Renewal, Redux The concept of urban renewal came into its own in the 1950s, as businesses moved to suburbs and left city centers in economic decline. By the early 1960s, however, urban renewal had developed a reputation for gutting broad swaths of the urban landscape, forcefully acquiring property under eminent domain to build freeways and government structures, and for displacing the urban poor by razing their homes and moving them out of areas where high- rises would soon house middle-class workers.[5] Shortly after Johnson established the Department of Housing and Urban Development, he turned his attention to a new kind of program to a rebuild slums. [...]
[...] In medical care we passed 24 bills in all the years before, they passed Johnson was a notable, if irascible, architect of the world we live in today. As he once said of himself, “There never has been an era in American history where so much has been done for so many in such a short time.”[22] Bibliography Califano, Joseph. The Triumph & Tragedy of Lyndon B. Johnson. Texas A&M University Press Forsyth, Kristen. Smart Growth: how is your county doing?: a report on the Baltimore Metropolitan Region Friends of Maryland James, Judson L. [...]
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