Editing Great Society (section)

== Conservative opposition ==
In the 1966 midterm elections, the Republicans made major gains in part through a challenge to the "War on Poverty." Large-scale civic unrest in the inner-city was escalating (reaching a climax in 1968), strengthening demand for [[Law and order (politics)|law and order]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Flamm |first1=Michael W. |title=Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism in the 1960s |date=2005 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-50972-5 }}{{page needed|date=April 2023}}</ref> Urban white ethnics who had been an important part of the [[New Deal Coalition]] felt abandoned by the Democratic Party's concentration on racial minorities.  Republican candidates ignored more popular programs, such as Medicare or the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and focused their attacks on less popular programs. Furthermore, Republicans made an effort to avoid the stigma of negativism and elitism that had dogged them since the days of the New Deal, and instead proposed well-crafted alternatives—such as their "Opportunity Crusade."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McLay |first1=Mark |title=A High-Wire Crusade: Republicans and the War on Poverty, 1966 |journal=Journal of Policy History |date=2019 |volume=31 |issue=3 |pages=382–405 |id={{Project MUSE|728522}} {{ProQuest|2239162451}} |doi=10.1017/S0898030619000125 |s2cid=197823008 |url=http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/188631/1/188631.pdf }}</ref>  The result was a major gain of 47 House seats for the GOP  in the [[1966 United States House of Representatives elections]] that put the conservative coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats back in business.<ref>"1966 Elections–A Major Republican Comeback." in ''CQ Almanac 1966'' (22nd ed., 1967) pp 1387-88. [http://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/cqal66-1299950 online]</ref>

Despite conservatives who attacked Johnson's Great Society making major gains in Congress in [[United States House of Representatives elections, 1966|the 1966 midterm elections]], and with anger and frustration mounting over the Vietnam War, Johnson was still able to secure the passage of additional programs during his last two years in office. Laws were passed to extend the Food Stamp Program, to expand consumer protection, to improve safety standards, to train health professionals, to assist handicapped Americans, and to further urban programs.<ref>M.J. Heale, ''The Sixties in America: History, Politics, and Protest'' (2001)</ref>