Rhetorical Analysis Of Lyndon B. Johnson's Speech The Great Society

When Lyndon B. Johnson succeeded the presidency after John F. Kennedy's assassination he spoke of his vision of a Great Society in America. This Great Society included "an end to poverty and racial injustice," and also was intended to turn America into a place where kids can enhance their mind, broaden their talents, and people could restore their connection with the environment. In order to reach his goal, LBJ enacted numerous proposals involving taxes, civil rights, poverty, and much more. For the most part Johnson did an excellent job on delivering his promises, but international affairs threatened the Great Society and although LBJ won the presidency in a landslide victory in 1964, by 1966 he and the Supreme Court began to face

     The next steps in his greatness came out of his involvement in legislation. His biggest piece of legislation was the Great Society. His Great Society plan was similar to another “great” president FDR. LBJ had followed in FDR’s footsteps for years. He admired and carefully learned from him, but he wanted to do better than FDR and become history’s greatest president ever, and to truly make a difference in society. Through his efforts, he “revolutionized the relationship between the

LBJ’s plan didn’t turn out so great when the Vietnam war caused the U.S. to lose it prestige

The Great Society was a proposed plan of actions intended to benefit the American people. Johnson developed the Great Society in a utopian fashion that proposed programs concerning the cities, the environment and education which in return brought modern liberalism into turmoil and broadened the administrative state. Taking office after the assassination of John F. Kennedy put tremendous pressure on Johnson. Not only did he have his own ideas, he also needed to fulfill the legacy left by Kennedy. In order to do both, he created the Great Society. Johnson wished to create the glue that kept the American people together and according to Paul C. Aiken and John M. Redding (1965) he fulfilled his famous words of, “Let us continue...” while addressing the country after that fatal day in Dallas and passing several acts to better the country.

The presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson had many high reaching domestic reforms that had positive outcomes for Americans. For example, the first of which was his request of Congress to pass Kennedy's civil rights bill in as a memorial in the year of 1964 (Schultz 2014). But for Johnson, the intention was to improve the lives of the poor, elderly and uneducated citizens of our country. Another area where the president wanted to fire up interest was in reforming policies for improved civil rights laws and to rewrite the immigration laws.

The third chapter focuses on health care and education. Johnson felt that all people should be entitled to an education and healthcare. He signed the Medicare and Medicaid programs in 1965 which provided funding for health care to people. These got overwhelming public support, most

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930’s and President Lyndon B. Johnson Great Society in the 1960’s had several policies, which led to some good outcomes and some not so much. New norms that guided and redefined administration organizations led to the development of schools and educators and to the courses offered for the students. The great society held instruction with less eagerness yet viewed as not that critical. Rather the great society concentrated on more positions globally and acquiring government relief. The New Deal was to fix the unemployment by creating jobs and improve the economy. The Great Society was supporting Civil Rights, lower the unemployment, create a welfare state, and desegregation in education.

On May 22nd of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson spoke to the graduating class of the University of Michigan on The Great Society, saying, “ … in your time we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward, to the Great Society … “ In his address, he used rhetoric to inspire young Americans to take action to better their country. In order to successfully impact them, President Johnson utilized the persuasive proofs as well as an understanding of his audience. logos, is an appeal to the logical mind of the audience, and is derived from arguments within the issue a speaker presents. President Johnson definitely made an attempt to persuade his listeners by presenting them with anecdotal and statistical evidence. For instance, he referenced the Peace Corps, which were founded at Michigan, and the good works they did, much like the works he was asking the graduates to do for America and her citizens. He also mentioned statistics related to the areas he hoped his audience would seek to improve, like the 54 million Americans who never completed high school and the 100,000 students who would not go to college because they could not afford it. He satisfied both the desire to better society that is common in the minds of college students and the need for numeric, factual support they learned to ask for through their education. By presenting this balanced, well-reasoned argument,

A national poll indicated that at least 60% of Americans approved his presidential stature. However, Kennedy was soon going to learn that all of his good will and future plans would be evaporated. On November 22, 1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. Millions of Americans watched his own death as he greeted the crowd strolling down a street in Dallas, Texas. The New Frontier was over. After Kennedy’s assassination vice president Lyndon B. Johnson took over Presidency. LBJ was the complete opposite of Kennedy. He lacked the charisma that Kennedy used to win his audiences. LBJ immediately assured the world that America was going to make it through this awkward time in history. LBJ understood that America needed a plan like the New Frontier for support. He created the “Great Society”. The Great Society was a program that used America’s prosperity as a means to improve the economy and help people live a prosperous lifestyle. It was based on the New Frontier. Like the New Frontier it had both accomplishments and failures. The Great Society’s main reforms were in medical care for the elderly, aids to education, and plans to diminish poverty. At the time many families lived a life of poverty and/or were barely getting by. Thus the “unconditional war on poverty” was put into effect. Federal programs to help the poor were created. These programs included loans to those in need, low-income housing, and job training. To some the effort was a success and nearly 10 million

One of the biggest problems in America was the poverty that ran through the country. Over 50 percent of black individuals were in poverty and white people were above 15 percent(doc H). Johnson thought that this was a huge problem and tried to pass laws to get this country-wide problem solved as shown in Doc

Shortly after the Great Depression began, society began to fail quickly. The stock market crashed, the unemployment rate skyrocketed, business’ and banks were closing and people were losing their homes they had worked so hard for. Although President Hoover was attempting to help society, he believed that instead of governmental interventions you should be self-reliant and would not fund welfare programs that may incentivize not working. Hoover’s “attempts” to aide the economy were not enough to turn it around, and people began to set their sights on Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the oncoming election. FDR made it his goal to ensure relief, recovery and reform were provided for the country to counteract the Great Depression and to make up for all of the years of negligence and non interference from the government, collectively called the “New Deal” 15 major laws were created in just the first 100 days he was in office, and his “New Deal” was coming into fruition and the governments role was now to step in and take care of it’s people, and to neglect them no longer.

The purpose of Medicare was to provide federal aid to the elderly for medical expenses regardless if they were on welfare or not. Medicaid was created to give medical assistance to welfare recipients and other poverty-stricken people. Another thing that the Johnson administration did in attempt to conquer poverty was the Economic Opportunity act of 1964. The purpose of this act was not only to expand old programs, but to introduce new ones that will help. In an address to congress in 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson affirms that this act would benefit underprivileged Americans continue their education and develop skills that will help them find good jobs and eventually escape from poverty (Doc B). President Johnson was dedicated to abolishing segregation within schools, the workplace and in public. The United States still had a lot to do to deal with racial and gender inequality issues. As Stokely Carmichael said in “What We Want” on September 22nd 1966, African-American families were enduring issues such as unemployment, starvation and murder. However, despite these hardships,

Great society was a reform program and an idealistic call promoted by Lyndon Johnson in 1964 for improved environmental, conservation, racial, educational, and health programs. Johnson wanted to build a better American by government 's help and funding. In 1965, Congress passed many Great Society measures, including Medicare, civil rights legislation, and federal aid to education. It represented government began to reform the society and started to play a more significant role in the country.

The words of Johnson outline the premise of the liberal consensus, that given the opportunity individuals would work to The "Great Society" programs that were to enable the change, were for the most part enacted under Johnson during his term in office. This stems largely from his experience and power with Congress.

On May 22nd of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson spoke to the graduating class of the University of Michigan on The Great Society, saying, “ … in your time we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward, to the Great Society … “ In his address, he used rhetoric to inspire young Americans to take action to better their country. In order to successfully impact them, President Johnson utilized the persuasive proofs as well as an understanding of his audience. logos, is an appeal to the logical mind of the audience, and is derived from arguments within the issue a speaker presents. President Johnson definitely made an attempt to persuade his listeners by presenting them with anecdotal and statistical evidence. For instance, he referenced the Peace Corps, which were founded at Michigan, and the good works they did, much like the works he was asking the graduates to do for America and her citizens. He also mentioned statistics related to the areas he hoped his audience would seek to improve, like the 54 million Americans who never completed high school and the 100,000 students who would not go to college because they could not afford it. He satisfied both the desire to better society that is common in the minds of college students and the need for numeric, factual support they learned to ask for through their education. By presenting this balanced, well-reasoned argument,