ABSTRACT
Lyndon Johnson had campaigned on a platform to create the Great Society, where poverty would be eliminated and everyone would have an "equal opportunity" to share in the American dream. The politics of fear were beginning to take their toll on Johnson and the conservative Democrats in Congress. Wealthy Americans contributed funds to create "think tanks" that promulgated the conservative ideology, and the power elite formed political action committees that infused massive sums into the political campaigns of conservatives. Richard Nixon focused on organized crime to keep crime at the forefront of the political agenda and thus to provide a smoke screen for an assault on civil liberties. Crime has been raised to the level of a national crisis by a coalition of interests. The politicians were supported by a staunch ally in creating panic over crime: the law enforcement bureaucracies.
