The 50th Anniversary of "Great Society"

President by Mistake
or Just a President who made Mistakes?

The 50th Anniversary of Lyndon Baines Johnson's "Great Society" Reforms
Were they really that great or were they just a quid pro quo to buy Black votes?

By Scott Rohter, February 2014

"The Federal Government is not supposed to be some kind of a drive through social service agency
where millions of Americans can just pull up to the drive in window and load up with
all kinds of government entitlements.” – Scott Rohter

“To understand the nature of politics in America all you have to do is compare the Democrat and Republican Party registration numbers for Black and White voters today with what they used to be like fifty or sixty years ago. Then ask yourself why there is such a dramatic difference?”

Did you ever wonder why the great majority of African Americans are Democrats? They weren’t always you know. It was after all Southern Democrats who enslaved many of their grandparents and great grandparents just a few generations ago. Southern Democrats owned the majority of slaves in America, and after the Civil War those same Southern Democrats enforced the strict segregation policies of the Deep South known as “Jim Crow” which many of their mothers and their fathers had to live under. It was these same Southern Democrats who owned slaves prior to the Civil War that believed in segregation and continued to practice racial discrimination long after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed into law. So how did it come to pass that most of the descendants of freed slaves belong to the same political Party today whose former leaders and members once enslaved their ancestors. The answer to this question should prove fascinating.

Fifty years ago Lyndon Baines Johnson declared war on poverty in America. In retrospect many of the so called “Great Society” programs that began in 1963 under his administration have been unmitigated disasters. Head Start, Food Stamps, and the Immigration Act of 1965 are government entitlement programs that all began during the Johnson Administration and they all had the support of the NAACP. All of the hype not withstanding they have not enabled a single American to work their way out of poverty or to become a more productive member of society. They have all been total failures in that regard. They have only served to enable millions of Americans to become progressively more and more dependent on the Federal Government while at the same time destroying their personal sense of self-esteem and the traditional values that form the basis for a solid family life. If you don’t believe me just take a long hard look at the condition of the nuclear Black family in America’s inner cities today in spite of everything that Lyndon Johnson or the NAACP have tried to do.

There are hundreds of thousands of unwed mothers living on welfare, many of them bearing the children of casual sexual encounters with several different men. There are a growing number of single parent homes headed up by Black women because many Black men are locked up behind bars and absent from their children’s lives. Thus many Black children are growing up today without any positive adult role models in their lives, male or female.

There are tens of thousands of drug dealers selling their poisonous merchandise to young Black children on the streets of America's cities. There is also a horrendous amount of Black on Black crime and gang warfare. As a result of all the violence there is a disproportionate number of Black men locked up in Federal prison on felony charges or aggravated assault. They are not locked up in jail just because they are Black in spite of what the mainstream media tells you. They are incarcerated because they broke the law. Being Black is not an excuse for committing murder or maiming someone, or robbing the local convenience store. All of these criminal activities and unhealthy social conditions owe their existence in large part to the misguided policies of the man who inherited the White House after the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. To say that Lyndon Baines Johnson became America’s 36th President by mistake would be wrong. He was not our President by mistake, but many of the things that he did as our 36th President were mistakes. Food Stamps, the Immigration Act of 1965, the Coinage Act (which removed the silver content of our dimes and quarters and de-coupled our money from anything of real value), and the Vietnam War are just some of the mistakes that President Johnson made.

If you will remember back just a generation ago to the hey-days of the Civil Rights Movement… you will recall that the great leader of the Civil Rights Movement was not a Democrat. Martin Luther King Jr. by most reliable accounts was not associated with any political Party, but his widow Coretta Scott King was a registered Democrat until the day of her death and all of his children are registered Democrats. So what caused Martin Luther King’s wife and all of his children to abandon the political non-partisanship of their father and embrace the Democrat Party that had enslaved their grandparents and their great grandparents? That is what I will examine in this article. Not only are MLK’s children and grandchildren all Democrats today, but all of his nieces and nephews are Democrats too except for Alveda King, who is the daughter of MLK’s younger brother. She is the lone exception.

After the assassination of John Kennedy in 1963, Lyndon Baines Johnson, a southern Democrat from the Party that had once embraced a culture of slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow rose to power as America’s 36th President. His administration adopted the policies that have since become known collectively as “the Great Society”. Under his Administration two new high level Cabinet Departments were created. The Department of Housing and Urban Development was created in 1965, and the Department of Transportation was created in 1966. During his Presidency new laws were also passed that attempted to ameliorate the consequences of enslaving one tenth of our Nation’s population for over two hundred years. The Civil Rights Act of 1968, the Fair Housing Act, Head Start, and Food Stamps are just some of the more important laws that were passed during President Johnson’s six years in office. There was also the Gun Control Act that became the law of the land in 1968.

The consequences of two hundred years of slavery were substantial. Those consequences were written on the scarred psyches of the recently freed slaves. Most White and Black Americans were united in the hope that the Great Society programs of Lyndon Baines Johnson would help to alleviate some of the unfortunate consequences of slavery. But most of the social welfare programs that were implemented during the Johnson years did nothing to alleviate the underlying social and psychological trauma and the overcompensation caused by over two hundred years of slavery and repression. Nevertheless some people today are still waiting and hoping that they will. They are still waiting for the Federal Government to fix what is wrong with us, but only we can do that by the grace of God. The Federal Government cannot fix what is wrong inside each of us.

I have not met many people who would turn down something for nothing. So it is not unusual that African Americans were not averse to receiving government handouts, and the Johnson Administration was only too happy to oblige them in return for their votes. It was this pandering that opened a veritable Pandora’s Box full of adverse consequences and created the Black Entitlement Mentality that is so endemic in African American communities today which dissuades many young African Americans from trying to work their way out of poverty. The entitlement programs of L.B.J. are literally responsible for destroying hundreds of thousands of African American lives. The Great Society is the bitter well from which springs forth an entire generation of urban deadbeats and degenerates. It is the source of a widespread decline in spiritual and family values and an overall increase in single parent homes. It is responsible for ripping apart the social fabric of African American communities everywhere throughout the United States. In reality the Great Society Programs of Lyndon Johnson didn’t help anybody, and they certainly didn’t help anybody get out of poverty. In view of all of their detrimental side effects the Great Society reforms of Lyndon Baines Johnson were really no favor to Black Americans.

So why is it that the overwhelming majority of Blacks are registered Democrats today in spite of their political Party’s disgraceful history of slave ownership and segregation. As I have already noted Martin Luther King Jr., the great leader of the Civil Rights Movement was not a Democrat. By most reliable accounts he was not a member of any political Party. He was neither a Democrat nor a Republican. But all of America's civil rights leaders today are all Democrats. Why? Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton are both members of the Democrat Party just to name two. All of the civil rights leaders today if they are old enough to have been around followed Dr. King when he was alive, but after his death in 1968 they gave up any pretense of non-partisanship to become registered members of the Democrat Party. Why?

Is it merely a strange coincidence that ninety percent of registered Black voters today are Democrats? I don’t believe that there are any coincidences in politics. There are only explanations. I believe that Lyndon Johnson made a grand deal with Dr. King and his followers that a Democrat controlled Congress would pass his Great Society reforms and he as President would sign them into law and in return they would agree to provide him with millions of new Black voters who would register as Democrats. Lyndon Johnson had already served in both Houses of Congress by the time he became Jack Kennedy's Vice Presidential candidate. And by the time he was our 36th President he was a very shrewd and skilled politician very used to making deals in order to get what he wanted. He convinced respected Black religious and civil leaders after Dr. King’s death to lead millions of Blacks from the distant memory of the cotton plantation right back on to a plantation of another sort where they would once again be taken care of. That is just the type of paternal, condescending mentality that many southern Whites whose families used to own slaves have always felt toward Blacks. I don’t know if Lyndon Johnson’s grandparents or great grandparents ever owned any slaves, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. Lyndon Johnson convinced Blacks to go from servitude on the cotton plantation to a new form of servitude on the Democrat plantation in return for the promise of government entitlements.

So African Americans went right from “King Cotton” to Dr. Martin Luther King and then right back on to a plantation again after his death… This time they would serve on the Democrat Plantation. The Great Society was just a quid pro quo to buy Black votes and to continue to try to keep Black people down. In return for their unwavering political loyalty the Democrat Party would provide the continuing government handouts to the descendants of former slaves for which it has become known. The Democrat Party would continue take care of Blacks in their rather condescending way, not like they took care of them during their years of slavery, but in a different way with free government handouts in return for their votes. It was an offer that Martin Luther King Jr's followers at the NAACP could not refuse which is why most Black-Americans are still loyal Democrats today. In other words Lyndon Johnson bought their votes and their loyalty with the promise of never-ending government handouts. There is a word for that. It is called bribery, and it is illegal. If you are caught offering anything in exchange for even a single vote then you will almost certainly go to jail, but of course President Johnson never went to jail. He never spent a single day behind bars. When his term as President was over he went back to his ranch in west Texas to write his memoirs.

What else would explain the very high percentage of Black Americans who are registered Democrats today? It had to be a very well-organized and well-coordinated plan to be so successful. Otherwise it would be perfectly logical to assume that Black voters, just like White voters in America would be split about equally along philosophical lines between Democrats, Republicans, and un-affiliated voters. However that is not the case. The Black vote in America is not at all like the White vote. It is 90% Democrat. The only thing that could explain that is a well-organized and coordinated effort from the leaders of the Black Community after Martin Luther King’s death. It is my contention that their allegiance and their votes were purchased with a price. That price was the Great Society Entitlement Programs of America’s 36th President, Lyndon Baines Johnson.