Was Lyndon B. Johnson A Liberal Or Liberal?

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In the second half of the 20th century, I think it’s safe to say we had two of the most iconic presidents of the time. Lyndon B. Johnson, who did have some conservative views, but all his policies proved otherwise and classified him as a liberal. We also had Ronald Reagan the conservative president who campaigned to build up a stronger national defense, to lower taxes, and to decrease the amount of government involvement in people’s everyday life. Both of these President’s came during a critical time for Americans, Johnson was President during the Vietnam War and Reagan came during a time of recession.
Johnson was towards reform and when he first came to office passed the Civil Rights Bill, fulfilling the promises of John F Kennedy to ban discrimination based on gender and race and also desegregating schools. He came up with a set of programs called the “Great Society”. Amongst these programs were, The Wilderness
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He was focused on fighting the war on poverty and giving everyone the same rights and equal opportunities. Johnson said, “Freedom is the right to share, share fully and equally, in American society--to vote, to hold a job, to enter a public place, to go to school. It is the right to be treated in every part of our national life as a person equal in dignity and promise to all others.” He thought that government involvement through these programs will help society and get everyone on the same track. While fighting the war on poverty, the pressure of the Vietnam War increased and in his “Peace without Conquest Speech” he states, “We often say how impressive power is. But I do not find it impressive at all. The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure. They are necessary symbols.

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