Nixon and War on Poverty

Max B. Sawicky sawicky at epinet.org
Tue Jun 29 06:27:16 PDT 1999


Date: Sun, 27 Jun 1999 22:10:46 -0700 (PDT) From: Chuck Grimes <cgrimes at tsoft.com> Subject: Re: Americans' concerns about moral decline


>> . . .
One of the best things about Johnson's War on Poverty programs was you had to go to Washington every year for proposal and grant reviews. The effect of meeting everyone else engaged in essentially the same activities, facing very similar problems, as to say the least explosive. When Nixon wanted to kill all this activism off, he couldn't just shut off the money--although he tried.
>>

I don't mean to shock the list, but my reading of the history has Dems, especially urban, ethnic machines deeply complicit in the transformation of social spending from 'empowerment' directed stuff to bureaucratized forms. There was the Edith Green amendment in Congress which was a key blow to community action programs.


>>
. . . The point to that had nothing to do with state government power, it had to do with getting the liberals and progressives out of the federal system by turning them out to their little hidebound, provincial regions. . . . >>

Now I'm confused. I've learned here and on PEN-L that the liberals and progressives are the real problem . . .

Cheers,

mbs



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