LBJ's Domestic Agenda without Vietnam

I was at the LBJ library today, and before this I was never really aware of how cognizant LBJ was in the moment that Vietnam was killing domestic agenda, even during the Golf Tonkin Resolution period when most of Congress was behind him. It made me wonder, without Vietnam, what does a 66-68(68-LBJ death) domestic agenda look like?

[To expand on the point, even in 66 they have recorded phone calls of LBJ telling cabinet members that Vietnam was going to end the Great Society, but there was no reasonable way for him to get out without it killing his Presidency. They have some interesting contrasts from Kearns-Goodwin and Dalleck noting how caught in the moment everyone was.]
 
I would posit 1964/1965 domestic response with growing hair and longer sideburns. There was a great deal of American public optimism even among youth which would erode as Vietnam became worse and never seemed to stop. A major issue is do the Republicans make the gains they did in this 1966. Because that is what stifled the Great Society. 1964 brought in the Liberals who could pass the Great Society. 1966 was the year of a Republican rebound, and it was sufficient to stifle LBJ legislatively. There is a mythology that Johnson was magic, which is absolutely not true. That is a simple narrative, overly supported by Caro. (And I think Caro's problem is that he is so close to Johnson after so many decades with him that he has come to see the world as Johnson himself did, rather than objectively). It is simply that he had a legislature which had its own heroes who applied pressure and crafted the narrative, and which overcame opposition to make the Great Society a reality. In 1961-1964, the numbers were not there, and the opposition was too strong. In 1964-1966, that was washed away. In 1966, that started to return. Even LBJ admitted that. I wish I recalled the exact quote and context. When pressed on why he could not just twist arms and make it happen, he said he could not do that because there was simply not the legislative membership or support to make it happen. So 1966 is going to be important.

http://ashbrook.org/publications/oped-busch-06-1966/

And I will post the link above to explain that further.
 
Top