What were the main domestic achievements of the New Frontier and the Great Society? Which accomplished more?

Answer 1

The greatest domestic achievement of the New Frontier was the heightened morale of the American people. Anything was possible, even going to the moon. Alan Sheperd's, First Man in Space...John Glenn, circling the earth. The Kennedy Administration was known for it's foreign policy much more so than it's domestic policies. It had a sympathy for the Civil Rights movement and did back up integration every way possible but was unable to achieve any substantive reform.

There were great failures of the Great Society (Urban Renewal, the War on Poverty, escalation of the war in Vietnam) but it's greatest success, for which LBJ deserves the lion share of credit, was the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. These revolutionized the lives of African-Americans.

The Great Society accomplished more for African-Americans but for everyone else, the impact of the war diminished any success Johnson may have realized and the heightened morale of the Kennedy years had an unmeasurable impact but no less signifigant.

Answer 2

Considering that Kennedy died before achieving his goals and Johnson cut his Presidency short due to the Vietnam War it is surprising how much was accomplished.
Actually the 'New Frontier' was a catchy tag line, a memorable phrase from Kennedy's inaugeral speech and was used to describe his administrative goals. On the other hand the Great Society was a comprehensive plan, an actual program that had been germinating in Johnson's brain for Decades - - - those Conspiracy Types don't fully recognize.the irony of Lyndon Johnson becoming President.

A Southerner. A Texan. He hated Racial Prejudice. He hated Poverty. No other man could have jammed the Great Society reforms down the throat of the Congress and the American People. Johnson was best pals with FBI Director J Edgar Hoover. Hoover was lie his namesake vacume cleaner. Hoover sucked dirt. Hoover had dirt on everyone. Congress lives to Bully Presidents who want to change the status quo. Congress could not bully Johnson. A few photos here and there of a Congressman squatting on his mistress's face dumping a load or rolling around in the hay with a hunky farm boy could destroy a man's life in the mid sixties (my how far the US of A has progressed - - - )....
The Great Society achieved a lot more than the New Frontier.
Johnson was alive to deliver his vision. JFK's vision was cut tragically short.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Society
""The Great Society was a set of domestic programs proposed or enacted in the United States on the initiative of President Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969). Two main goals of the Great Society social reforms were the elimination of poverty and racial injustice. New major spending programs that addressed education, medical care, urban problems, and transportation were launched during this period. The Great Society in scope and sweep resembled the New Deal domestic agenda of Franklin Roosevelt, but differed sharply in types of programs. Some Great Society proposals were stalled initiatives from John F. Kennedy's New Frontier. Johnson's success depended on his own remarkable skills at persuasion, coupled with the Democratic landslide in 1964 that brought in many new liberals. Anti-war Democrats complained that spending on the Vietnam War choked off the Great Society. While some of the programs have been eliminated or have had their funding reduced, many of them, including Medicare, Medicaid, and federal education funding, continue to the present.""

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Frontier
""The term New Frontier was used by John F. Kennedy in his acceptance speech in 1960 to the Democratic National Convention at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as the Democratic nominee. Originally just a slogan to inspire America to get behind him, the phrase developed into a label for his administration's domestic and foreign programs.

We stand at the edge of a New Frontier—the frontier of unfulfilled hopes and dreams. It will deal with unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus. """


The New Frontier showed great promise and put America on the path that Johnson used to the advanatge of the disadvantaged.

Pax------------------------