Great Society

American  

noun

1. the goal of the Democratic Party under the leadership of President Lyndon B. Johnson, chiefly to enact domestic programs to improve education, provide medical care for the aged, and eliminate poverty.

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Great Society Cultural  

1. The name President Lyndon Johnson gave to his aims in domestic policy. The programs of the Great Society had several goals, including clean air and water, expanded educational opportunities, and the lessening of poverty and disease in the United States. (See War on Poverty.)

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Compare meaning

How does great-society compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• New Deal vs. Great Society

Example Sentences

“We’re working for a future that we can enjoy and look forward to, and it needs to include all these different pieces. This isn’t a time for half measures. It’s a time for big solutions. And we need a plan for this century that’s every bit as ambitious as the New Deal or the Great Society, and it’s going to require just as much conflict with the economic elites in order to win it,” Lawrence said.

From Salon

The Vietnam War was draining federal coffers, forcing Lyndon Johnson to balance military spending with domestic programs like the Great Society.

From The Wall Street Journal

On the domestic front, however, he was the force behind the Great Society, including the creation of Medicaid and Medicare and the establishment of the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968, all laws he was able to pass via bullying and manipulation.

From Slate

But when his speech called for “self-reliance and teamwork” — and when, on countless occasions throughout the 1990s, he invoked the buzzwords “opportunity” and “responsibility” — he was firing from a New Democrat arsenal that targeted “handouts” and “special interests” as obsolete relics of the 1930s New Deal and the 1960s Great Society.

From Salon

Eli Steele’s 2020 documentary, “What Killed Michael Brown?,” offered a superb critique of liberal social policies emanating from the New Deal and Great Society.

From The Wall Street Journal