[[LBJ and Baraq advanced the “progressive” agenda in a huge manner.]]
Yes, and the Republicans helped LBJ advance his agenda.
This is a period of history I have been rethinking in the last decade. It is ugly all the way around.
The Republicans (mostly North Eastern Liberals) started pushing to remove the payment of taxes as a requirement to vote. Their intent was to add millions of previously denied Black Voters to the voting roles, to support their agenda.
The Democrats, (especially in the South) had used "Poll Taxes" and other Tax requirements to prevent many black people from voting. The Republicans figured that if they eliminate the requirement to pay taxes to vote, they would reap a huge windfall of new Black voters to support them, because in those days, Black folk generally voted Republican.
LBJ may have been a vile person, but he was no idiot. He realized immediately what the political significance would be of the 24th amendment. He launched his great "War on Poverty" shortly thereafter, and started spending federal dollars to bribe newly enfranchised poor voters.
He flipped all the votes the Republicans thought they would get, and thereby outsmarted them politically.
That he set the country on a course with financial destruction was simply not comprehended by him at the time. All he wanted was to secure more political power, and he did so by using federal dollars to bribe new voters into supporting the Democrats, which they have faithfully done ever since.
LBJ was a horribly destructive President both socially and financially, but I'm not certain his legacy is worse than Carter's. If Iran gets a Nuke bomb, Carter's legacy may indeed turn out to be the worse.