Was Lyndon Johnson a good President?

[Oakvale]

Best president in the past 50 years.

Cry me a river about Vietnam, because literally every President since sans Carter is guilty of something like it.

So yeah, the silly neocon that brought forth the Great Society and CRA of 1964 is definitely superior to the silly neocons who also bring forth silly Reaganomics

"Cry me a river" about slaughtering people in the millions because of a psychotic machismo?

[Cory]

"Cry me a river" about slaughtering people in the millions because of a psychotic machismo?

It wasn't that simple and you know it. It's not like the whole thing was his idea. It was widely believed in Washington that South Vietnam would just be the first "domino" to fall leading to Communist domination of Indo-China and Thailand.

Once the going got rough we couldn't "just withdraw" or else we would look weak in the eyes of the world. Geo-politics isn't pretty. It just really seems like a lot of people on this forum just utterly don't get how these things work.

[SATW]

Absolutely not! HP.

[Mercenary]

No. He was rather bad.

[Dazey]

I don't see what's so bad about signing Civil Rights legislation, creating Medicare, Medicaid, putting a man on the Moon, creating NASA (this he did before becoming President, too), creating Head Start, signing the first real gun control laws, signing the first real Environmentalist laws with the Clean Air Act and Clean Highways Act, putting a ton of nurses to work with the Nurse Training Act, making college much more accessible, and creating PBS. Truly a horrible guy.

FYI, Vietnam was pretty inescapable when he took over. Eisenhower had committed us to helping Vietnam. Kennedy dramatically expanded our involvement from just a few hundred guys to over 15,000 in two years, and killed Diem, which destroyed South Vietnam as a legitimate government and began a series of almost endless coups which made the idea of an independent South Vietnam without US assistance pretty much impossible. It was the 1960s, the height of the Cold War and the Domino Theory. Go listen to his tapes sometime. The last place in the world LBJ wanted to be was Vietnam. Listen to his calls to Senators, to Ike, to Truman for advice, who all tell him there's pretty much no way out that isn't a loss.

[TNF]

Nothing like liberals justifying mass murder because of 'muh social programs'

It's really unsurprising that they idolize a guy who sent thousands of Americans to concentration camps, too

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

His adequate domestic policy does not make up for his godawful foreign policy. Bad president.

[Dazey]

Nothing like liberals justifying mass murder because of 'muh social programs'

It's really unsurprising that they idolize a guy who sent thousands of Americans to concentration camps, too

Mass murder? You're being a bit hysterical now.
The Vietnam War was inevitable. You can thank Ike and JFK for that.

[Dazey]

His adequate domestic policy does not make up for his godawful foreign policy. Bad president.

Adequate? His domestic policies were about as stellar, if not in some ways moreso, than FDR's. It does make up for his goddawful foreign policy. People need to stop crying about Vietnam.

[Ebsy]

I'm not at all surprised that Atlas has somehow deluded itself into thinking that somehow LBJ created the containment doctrine.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

He was a pretty average president, but as a person, he was one of the worst.

[AggregateDemand]

I don't see what's so bad about signing Civil Rights legislation, creating Medicare, Medicaid, putting a man on the Moon, creating NASA (this he did before becoming President, too), creating Head Start, signing the first real gun control laws, signing the first real Environmentalist laws with the Clean Air Act and Clean Highways Act, putting a ton of nurses to work with the Nurse Training Act, making college much more accessible, and creating PBS. Truly a horrible guy.

Civil Rights = Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander knew color meant nothing
Medicaid + Medicare = worst single-payer systems on the planet
Anti-pollution = decent work
Nurse Training Act = shoddy version of what the military did during WWII
PBS = Propaganda wing of the Democratic Party, thankfully libs are more interested in documentaries than propaganda.....until their funding might get cut.

[Dazey]

I don't see what's so bad about signing Civil Rights legislation, creating Medicare, Medicaid, putting a man on the Moon, creating NASA (this he did before becoming President, too), creating Head Start, signing the first real gun control laws, signing the first real Environmentalist laws with the Clean Air Act and Clean Highways Act, putting a ton of nurses to work with the Nurse Training Act, making college much more accessible, and creating PBS. Truly a horrible guy.

Civil Rights = Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander knew color meant nothing
Medicaid + Medicare = worst single-payer systems on the planet
Anti-pollution = decent work
Nurse Training Act = shoddy version of what the military did during WWII
PBS = Propaganda wing of the Democratic Party, thankfully libs are more interested in documentaries than propaganda.....until their funding might get cut.

Civil Rights = Eisenhower, 1957 Act which barely passed. LBJ = 1964 Civil Rights Act, 1965 Voting Rights Act, 1968 Equal Housing Act.
Medicaid + Medicaid = Helped a lot of people I know - shrug-
Nurse Training Act = What the military did during WWII, and a bill which helped civilians in the 60s and years after, are two different things
PBS = Awesome channel, far from propaganda. Love your little evil Tea Bagger "until their funding might get cut". You can only hope, Tea Bagger. See, Tea Baggers aren't my countrymen. I wouldn't call the fire department even if a Tea Bagger's house, with their family in it, was on fire.

[Cory]

"It wasn't that simple and you know it. It's not like the whole thing was his idea. It was widely believed in Washington that Georgia would just be the first "domino" to fall leading to Indian domination of Carolina and Virginia.

That might be the most asinine comparison you could have possibly made.

Try again.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I don't see what's so bad about signing Civil Rights legislation, creating Medicare, Medicaid, putting a man on the Moon, creating NASA (this he did before becoming President, too), creating Head Start, signing the first real gun control laws, signing the first real Environmentalist laws with the Clean Air Act and Clean Highways Act, putting a ton of nurses to work with the Nurse Training Act, making college much more accessible, and creating PBS. Truly a horrible guy.

Civil Rights = Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander knew color meant nothing opposed the Brown ruling and enforced it only when the alternative was a violent mob
Medicaid + Medicare = worst single-payer systems on the planet More cost effective than private health insurance
Anti-pollution = decent work
Nurse Training Act = shoddy version of what the military did during WWII Increased the number of nurses and the likelihood that they would stick with their chosen profession
PBS = Propaganda wing of the Democratic Party, thankfully libs are more interested in documentaries than propaganda.....until their funding might get cut. "This program funded in part by... David H. Koch" (actual quote that appears at the beginning of most science programs)

Fixed

[morgieb]

Domestic policy mostly decent, foreign policy largely a disaster. Unfortunately this makes him better than any President since then, with the possible exception of Obama.

[Sol]

The Charles Taylor of America.