LBJ's Great Society

Having come of age in the 1960s, during the Vietnam War, my memories of President Lyndon B. Johnson revolve mostly around that war, and they’re not positive (“Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids have you killed today?”). Yet walking through the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum in Austin today, I was jolted by the reminder of the expansive range of liberal legislation he was able to shove through in less than six years as a part of his Great Society reform of the economy, education, health care, the environment, and the arts and humanities. Just consider:

1963 (he took office in late November)
Higher Education Facilities Act
The Clean Air Act
The Vocational Education Act

1964
Inter-American Development Bank Act
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Urban Mass Transportation Act
Federal-Aid Highway Act
Criminal Justice Act
Food Stamp Act
Wilderness Act
National Arts Cultural Development Act

1965
Manpower Act
Older Americans Act
Social Security Amendments of 1965
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Housing and Urban Development Act
Public Works and Economic Development Act
Department of Housing and Urban Development Act
National Foundation of the Arts & Humanities Act
Amendment of Federal Water Pollution Control Act
Amendment to the Immigration and Naturalization Act
Higher Education Act

1966
Child Nutrition Act
Child Protection Act

1968
National School Lunch Act

Obviously there wasn’t a lot done after the first two years of his administration, but the war in Vietnam and race riots in the states had taken over the nation’s attention. And really, there wasn’t much more to do by that time. I can’t imagine the envy Barack Obama would feel if he were to stroll through the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum. Just look at what Johnson accomplished in his first 13 months in office. Did Obama get anything through in his first 13 months (when he had a Democratic controlled House and Senate)? And I can’t imagine he’s going to have any luck getting much through in the next couple of years, now that he’s lost the House. I’m probably not alone in looking back at the 60s and focusing on the war and social unrest. But perhaps we should be looking back at the 60s and seeing what it was LBJ and others were doing to get things done.