Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-20T14:38:59.346Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A High-Wire Crusade: Republicans and the War on Poverty, 1966

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2019

Mark McLay
Mark McLay*
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

During 1966, the Republican Party launched a largely successful challenge to Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” Republican candidates pursued an anti–War on Poverty midterm strategy, which made antipoverty programs the symbol of Great Society liberalism, rather than its more popular programs, such as Medicare or the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Moreover, in Congress and on the campaign trail, Republicans offered well-crafted alternatives—such as their “Opportunity Crusade”—to offset charges of negativism and elitism that had dogged the Grand Old Party (GOP) since the creation of the New Deal in the 1930s. Significantly, while the War on Poverty survived the year, the Republican minority was unexpectedly successful in making important changes to the Economic Opportunity Act during the antipoverty legislation’s renewal. Overall, the Republican challenge to the War on Poverty in 1966, boded ill for the program’s longevity when the GOP finally secured the levers of power.

Keywords

War on PovertyGreat SocietyOpportunity CrusadeEconomic Opportunity ActRepublican PartyLyndon B. Johnson
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Policy History , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , July 2019 , pp. 382 - 405
Copyright
Copyright © Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1. Matusow, Allen J., The Unraveling of America: A History of Liberalism in the 1960s (New York, 1984);Google Scholar Hamby, Alonzo, Liberalism and Its Challengers: From FDR to Reagan (New York, 1985);Google Scholar Hodgson, Godfrey, The World Turned Right Side Up: A History of the Conservative Ascendancy in America (New York, 1996);Google Scholar Katznelson, Ira, “Was the Great Society a Lost Opportunity?,” in The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order, 1930–1980, ed. Fraser, Steve and Gerstle, Gary (Princeton, 1989), 185–211.Google Scholar

2. Davies, Gareth, See Government Grow: Education Politics from Johnson to Reagan (Lawrence, Kans., 2007), 287;Google Scholar Patterson, James, The Eve of Destruction: How 1965 Transformed America (New York, 2012).Google Scholar

3. Zelizer, Julian E., The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress and the Battle for the Great Society (New York, 2015), 10.Google Scholar

4. Reagan, Ronald, quoted in Patterson, James T., America’s Struggle Against Poverty, 1900–1980 (Cambridge, Mass., 1981), 224.Google Scholar

5. Matusow, The Unraveling of America, 220.

6. Katz, Michael B., The Undeserving Poor: America’s Enduring Confrontation with Poverty (New York, 2013), x.Google Scholar

7. Quadagno, Jill, The Color of Welfare: How Racism Undermined the War on Poverty (New York, 1994);Google Scholar Brown, Michael K., Race, Money and the American Welfare State (Ithaca, 1999);Google Scholar Patterson, James T., “American Politics: The Bursts of Reform, 1930s–1970s,” in Paths to the Present: Interpretative Essays on American History since 1930, ed. Patterson, (Minneapolis, 1975), 57–101;Google Scholar Schmitt, Edward R., “The War on Poverty,” in A Companion to Lyndon B. Johnson , ed. Lerner, Mitchell B. (Malden, Mass., 2012), 93–110;Google Scholar Davies, Gareth, From Opportunity to Entitlement: The Transformation and Decline of Great Society Liberalism (Lawrence, Kans., 1996).Google Scholar

8. McLay, Mark, “The Black Sheep: Republicans and the War on Poverty, 1964–1968” (PhD diss., University of Edinburgh, 2015).Google Scholar

9. “Opportunity Crusade” was the name suggested in 1964 by Johnson’s eventual vice president, Hubert Humphrey, when the War on Poverty was being crafted. It’s unclear, however, if Republicans were aware of this fact.

10. Benham, Tom, RNC Executive Session, 20 June 1966,Google Scholar Papers of the Republican Party, Part 1, Series B, Reel 5.

11. Typology borrowed from James Reichley, A., Conservatives in an Age of Change: The Nixon and Ford Administrations (Washington, D.C., 1981), 22–34.Google Scholar

12. Zelizer, The Fierce Urgency of Now, 13.

13. “Ev and Jerry Show,” 11 January 1965, The Dirksen Congressional Center, http://www.dirksencenter.org/emd_audio/1.11.65/press011165.pdf (accessed 21 November 2011).

14. Mason, Robert, The Republican Party and American Politics from Hoover to Reagan (New York, 2012), 2.Google Scholar

15. Brooke, Edward, “A Negro Leader’s Advice to Republicans,” US News & World Report, February 1965.Google Scholar

16. Davies, See Government Grow, 63.

17. “Antipoverty Program Funds Doubled,” Congressional Quarterly Almanac 1965, 405–20.

18. Benham, Tom, RNC Executive Session, 20 June 1966,Google Scholar Papers of the Republican Party, Part 1, Series B, Reel 5.

19. Quie, Al, Poverty Memo, Congressional Record, 16 March 1966.Google Scholar

20. Quie, Congressional Record, 16 March 1966.Google Scholar

21. Goodell, Charles, Poverty Memo, Congressional Record, 18 March 1966, 5065.Google Scholar

22. Goodell, , Poverty Memo, Congressional Record, 17 March 1966.Google Scholar

23. Quie and Goodell, “Launch of Opportunity Crusade Act of 1966,” Congressional Record, 7 March 1966, 5030.Google Scholar

24. Goodell, Poverty Memo, 17 March 1966, 6165; Quie, Poverty Memo, Congressional Record, 16 March 1966.Google Scholar

25. Quie, Poverty Memo, Congressional Record, 27 September 1966.Google Scholar

26. “President’s ‘War on Poverty’ Approved,” Congressional Quarterly Almanac 1964.

27. Quie, “Launch of Opportunity Crusade Act of 1966.”

28. Quie and Goodell, Poverty Memo, Congressional Record, 18 March 1966.Google Scholar

29. Matusow, The Unraveling of America, 245–70.

30. Powell quoted in Quie and Goodell, Poverty Memo, Congressional Record, 29 March 1966.Google Scholar

31. Crowe, Daniel E., “HARYOU,” in Organizing Black America: An Encyclopaedia of African American Associations, ed. Mjagkij, Nina (New York, 2001), 259–60.Google Scholar

32. See Quadagno, The Color of Welfare.

33. RNC Research Division, “Improving the War on Poverty,” Papers of the Republican Party, 2 June 1966, Reel 4; Crowe, “HARYOU,” Organizing Black America.

34. Goodell, “Alice in Blunderland,” Congressional Record, 6 April 1966.Google Scholar

35. Quie and Goodell, Congressional Record, 7 March 1966, 5029.Google Scholar

36. Quie and Goodell, Congressional Record, 7 March 1966, 5030.Google Scholar

37. Quie and Goodell, Congressional Record, 7 March 1966, 5013.Google Scholar

38. Quie and Goodell, Congressional Record, 7 March 1966, 5030.Google Scholar

39. Quie and Goodell, Congressional Record, 7 March 1966, 5030.Google Scholar

40. Ayres, William, Congressional Record, 26 September 1966.Google Scholar

41. Loftus, Joseph A., “House Rejects Republican Plan to Revise Antipoverty Program,” New York Times, 29 September 1966, 36.Google Scholar

42. Cahill, William T., Congressional Record, 26 September 1966.Google Scholar

43. Bell, Alphonso, Congressional Record, 27 September 1966.Google Scholar

44. Fino, Paul, Congressional Record, 27 September 1966.Google Scholar

45. Fino, , Congressional Record, 27 September 1966.Google Scholar

46. Hunter, Marjorie, “Democrats Unite on Poverty Bill,” New York Times, 27 September 1966.Google Scholar

47. Gibbons, Sam, O’Hara, James, Joelson, Charles, Congressional Record, 27 September 1966.Google Scholar

48. O’Hara, , Congressional Record, 27 September 1966.Google Scholar

49. Joelson, , Congressional Record, 27 September 1966.Google Scholar

50. The Conservative Coalition, which had traditionally been a check on liberal initiatives since the 1938 midterm elections, was significantly weakened by the 1964 liberal landslide and Johnson’s astute cajoling of Southern Democrats to support his Great Society measures.

51. Bennett, Charles, Congressional Record, 27 September 1966.Google Scholar

52. Loftus, “House Rejects Republican Plan,” 82.

53. Loftus, Joseph A., “House Votes Poverty Bill: Mandates Role for Poor,” New York Times, 30 September 1966, 1.Google Scholar

54. Editorial, “The Nation: Everybody’s in the Poverty Act,” New York Times, 2 October 1966, 204.Google Scholar

55. “Antipoverty Funds Reduced and Earmarked,” Congressional Quarterly Almanac, 1966.

56. Murphy, George, Congressional Record, 4 October 1966.Google Scholar

57. “Antipoverty Funds,” Congressional Quarterly Almanac, 1966.

58. See Dallek, Matthew, The Right Moment: Ronald Reagan’s First Victory and the Decisive Turning Point in American Politics (New York, 2000);Google Scholar Busch, Andrew E., Horses in Midstream: U.S. Midterm Elections and Their Consequences, 1894–1998 (Pittsburgh, 1999);CrossRefGoogle Scholar Andrew, John A., Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society (Chicago, 1998).Google Scholar

59. The War on Poverty did, however, likely increase awareness among poorer Americans of their welfare rights and thus contributed to the sharp increase in those claiming assistance from the controversial Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program.

60. See Dallek, , The Right Moment; Lou Cannon, Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power (New York, 2003).Google Scholar

61. Reagan, Ronald W., The Reagan Diaries, ed. Brinkley, Douglas (New York, 2007), 65.Google Scholar

62. Reagan, Ronald W., “A Plan for Action,” 4 January 1966,Google Scholar box c30, 1966 Campaign, Ronald W. Reagan Library, Simi Valley, Calif.

63. Ronald W. Reagan campaign literature, 1966, box c30, 1966 Campaign, Ronald W. Reagan.

64. Ronald W. Reagan in Hayward, 27 September 1966,Google Scholar box c30, 1966 Campaign, Ronald W. Reagan.

65. Edward W. Brooke, on NBC’s Meet the Press, 13 February 1966, box 562, Edward William Brooke Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

66. Edward W. Brooke on NBC’s Meet the Press, 13 February 1966.

67. Ibid.

68. Remarks, Barack Obama awarding Congressional Gold Medal to Edward Brooke, 28 October 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/president-obama-honors-senator-edward-william-brooke-transcript (accessed 16 December 2013).

69. Edward W. Brooke, Meet the Press, 13 February 1966.

70. Race figures by DeNavas-Walt, Carmen, Proctor, Bernadette D., and Smith, Jessica C., U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2012, http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/p60-245.pdf, 61–64 (accessed 30 January 2014);Google Scholar Rural figures by Institute for Research on Poverty, “Who Is Poor,” University of Wisconsin–Madison, http://www.irp.wisc.edu/faqs/faq3.htm (accessed 30 January 2014).

71. A perception that the Great Society increasingly suffered from as outlined in Mason, The Republican Party, 210–11.

72. Thurber, Tim, Republicans and Race: The GOP’s Frayed Relationship with African Americans, 1945–1974 (Lawrence, Kans., 2013), 260.Google Scholar

73. AP, “Romney Lambasts Intrusion of ‘Great Society,’” State Journal, 24 November 1965

74. George W. Romney Campaign, “Republican Record, 1963–1966,” 1966, folder 362, box 34-G, George W. Romney Papers.

75. “Romney Takes Dig at Great Society,” State Journal, 13 January 1966.

76. Romney, George W. remarks at Republican Appreciation Dinner, Lincoln, 19 May 1966, folder 410, box 18, RG4 P-Whitman, Roosevelt Archive Center.Google Scholar

77. Ford, Gerald R. remarks at Wisconsin GOP Finance Committee Dinner, Milwaukee, 18 June 1966,Google Scholar box 59, Robert T. Hartmann Papers, Gerald R. Ford Papers.

78. Ford, Gerald R. remarks at Republican Women’s Conference, Washington, D.C., 18 June 1966,Google Scholar box 59, Robert T. Hartmann Papers, Gerald R. Ford Papers.

79. Everett M. Dirksen remarks on NBC’s Meet the Press, 7 August 1966, Releases, and Interviews, Remarks and Releases File, Everett M. Dirksen Papers, The Dirksen Congressional Center.

80. New York Daily News, quoted in RNC, “Party Clinches Comeback With 4 Million Vote Margin,” Republican 2, no. 11, 30 November 1966.

81. “Election Shocks 1966,” British Pathé, 17 November 1966, http://www.britishpathe.com/video/electionshocks/query/united+states (accessed 27 January 2014).

82. Johnson, Lyndon Baines, “Statement by the President Upon Signing Bill to Provide for Continued Progress in the Nation’s War on Poverty,” 8 November 1966, The American Presidency Project.Google Scholar

83. Lebreton, Edmond, “Reinforced Hill Republicans Pick Targets from President’s Programs,” Washington Post, 22 November 1966;Google Scholar Shepard, Lyn, “U.S. Legislative Logjam Seen,” Christian Science Monitor, 12 November 1966.Google Scholar

84. Moynihan quoted in Ball, Molly, “The Fall of the Heritage Foundation and the Death of Republican Ideas,” Atlantic, 25 September 2013.Google Scholar

85. Nixon, Richard M., “Address Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida,” 8 August 1968, The American Presidency Project.Google Scholar

86. Nixon, Richard M., “Special Message to the Congress on the Nation’s Antipoverty Programs,” 19 February 1969, TAPP.Google Scholar