Lyndon Johnson's Ambivalent Legacy

[ashling]

http://truth-out.org/news/item/22159-lyndon-johnsons-ambivalent-legacy

While considered by many a warmonger, President Lyndon Johnson deserves inclusion in his book celebrating heroes and heroines of social justice, says author Peter Dreier, because in terms of alleviating suffering, addressing racial injustice and promoting public welfare, his domestic reforms were almost unrivaled.

Johnson's political career reflects the major components of post-World War II liberalism, which included government activism to challenge social injustice and Cold War imperialism and militarism.

Because Johnson's domestic achievements include the creation of Medicare and Medicaid, antipoverty programs, and civil rights legislation, his other domestic accomplishments are often overlooked.

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. If not for Vietnam LBJ would rank with FDR and Lincoln.

[cali]

2. exactly. have you read any of Caro's bio?

[Spider Jerusalem]

3. Yep...

most recently "The Passage of Power" (which was quite interesting for the insights it gave into the working of Congress and Johnson's willingness to burn up his political capital on passing the Civil Rights Act; I'd say that Caro's Johnson books are one of the best political biographies I've read, right up there with Martin Gilbert's Churchill bio).

[madrchsod]

4. ike has to be included in at least this century.