Domestic Programs of Lyndon B. Johnson

There have been two great periods of presidentially-initiated Congressional legislative activity in the 20th century: the first two years of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first term in office, 1933 and 1934 - and the first two years of the Lyndon Baines Johnson presidency, from November 1963 through the end of 1965. Roosevelt, or "FDR" as he was nicknamed, pushed through a willing Congress a barrage of domestic economic programs that he declared would cut a better, "New Deal" for the average American, who was being buffeted by the effects of the Great Depression in which the country was in the midst of wallowing. Johnson, emulating his hero's moniker with his own "LBJ" brand, also commandeered an ambitious set of domestic programs through the House of Representatives and the U. S. Senate and on into the reality of federal law and administration. He faced a far less "willing" legislative branch, though, and his programs were much more intentionally socially-oriented than the FDR package. There was no Great Depression to contend with; during LBJ's term, the United States of America was still the same economic king of the mountain it had been since the end of World War II. Johnson, moreover, was the presidential captain of two sets of legislative initiatives: the "New Frontier" programs left pending when his predecessor, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated, and his own "Great Society" vision of federal activism. The chronicle of Lyndon Baines Johnson's first two years in of

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econception of where this new leader would take them. Johnson himself apparently recognized that fact - in both its negative and positive connotations - and priority to projecting an image of stability, reassurance and continuance to his assumption of office. As defined in the terms of electoral support in the pages above, it was important in Johnson's initial concept of his assumed presidency to maintain the "Kennedy" imagery of the Executive Branch administration. He had never been close with Kennedy's "Irish Mafia" - Robert Kennedy, in particular, had been used by his older brother often enough to chastise the much-older Texan vice-President - but now the polished talents of the back room politician were exercised in a virtuoso display of skill. "Confiding" to such bona-fide liberal advisors as Arthur Schlesinger that "his own staff...was composed of able men but not in the same class as the White House staff Kennedy had gathered around him," Johnson persuaded the members of the Kennedy Administration to remain intact for the first few, important months of his new presidency. Even Robert Kennedy, who certainly did little to disguise his disrespect for Johnson, was impressed by the sincere desire the new president express

Category: Government - D