Johnston misjudges Great Society’s strides
A commonly held misperception regards the social policy solutions implemented by President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society as unsuccessful. Johnson’s failure allegedly proved that the liberal vision of a government that takes responsibility for the well being of its people wasn’t realistic. As Peter Johnston put it in his column Wednesday (“In liberal circles, Great Society rhetoric lingers,” 4/2): “The programs failed to live up to the hype despite their high price tag,” and “liberalism lost its cache by association.” He argues that “the state cannot solve all social problems”; government...
Thank you for calling out Mr. Johnston on yet another twisted column. "Liberalism" became taboo due to the hard work of the conservative movement, not due to its own failings. There should be a permanent column for someone to debunk all of nonsense Johnston spews out on a weekly basis.
I'm glad that the fact that people are still on welfare after 40 years means that the program succeeded. Also, the current crisis is not caused by dilapidated housing, which is, in fact, what all urban projects are, but because middle class Americans felt inclined to buy 300-600 thousand dollar houses with little or no down payment while earning average incomes.
America was built to protect income inequality, which is fundamentally just given people's different abilities to contribute to society via trade. If you don't like it, go look for handouts in France or Canada before they also decide to abolish ineffective, obsolete, and unsustainable social democratic programs.