American History continues through the Lyndon Baines Johnson presidency:
The Great Not So Great Society by Michael Doyle LBJ entered his presidency aiming to be legendary Setting his sights on ending poverty through Great Society Johnson aimed to do this being a master of legislation Conversely, the Conservative movement was rising in our nation With his vastly arrayed quiver of proposed legislation And his actions to ensure black vote was franchised in our nation In favor of the Great Society is its decrease in poverty This, however, had it's Medicare increases that still cause anxiety Marriage became weakened under some of welfare's requirements The gap between promises and results grew from flawed government There was great question as to the ethics of the whole It would lead to much skepticism as to the government's role Civil Rights failures led to the Watts riots and across the nation These riots were a bloody sort that came in MLK's repudiation Which in turn caused damage to the plight and cause of civil rights In a tortuous path of the torn and tattered urban nights Vietnam and Southeast Asia experienced conflict's escalation As three torpedoes fired let the Tonkin Bay Resolution This led to a blank check war seemingly with no limitation One in four serving were drafted to stop a domino fall of nations Despite the agreement that there is no substitution for victory The politics of the time dictated our soldiers be limited capacity This Doctrine of Limited War led to the DMZ and how we fought And why victory could not be had not matter how hard sought Soldiers bled out on television screens in full gory real time Up close, personal and wearing away as touching on sublime Antiwar angst and unhappiness led to a general disaffection As radical movements angrily sought a different direction Counter culture in its alternatives struck its nihilistic pose A product of our affluence in rejection of materialism to propose And answer in echo of Eisenhower's warning against the inadequacy Of the emptiness found as we woke to reshape America's history Johnson was so rattled by all of this critical opposition That he stepped down as nominee in surrender to his contrition Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bobby Kennedy were shot dead Assassinated in a wave of violence that left our nation in dread Like last men standing, Richard Nixon ran against Hubert Humphry Peace with honor would lead the path to Nixon's victory Triumphant in his return to politics from the wilderness In the end, this too would lead to much lack of kindness (c) April 10, 2020 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
