One of the "winners" of the Goldwater debacle was Ronald Reagan. Reagan launched his own political career with an October 1964 speech supporting Goldwater for president.

Reagan directly attacked the Great Society for expanding government at the expense of individual liberty. It was an argument he would repeat for the next 20 years and one that he rode to the White House. In his first inaugural address in 1981, Reagan claimed, "Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem" (source). Reagan famously and hilariously said at a press conference in 1986 that he'd always believed that "the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"

The Reagan Revolution brought a wave of neoconservatives to power, and they were committed to reversing the Great Society.

In the 1990s, House Speaker Newt Gingrich blamed everything from government spending to increased social violence on the Great Society. (He wasn't crazy about federal funding for the arts or public broadcasting either, which put a bulls-eye on Big Bird.) More recently, House Speaker Paul Ryan called the Great Society's signature programs a failure (source).

Great Society grinches, in government and outside of it, have one very fundamental problem: Americans might want their government to spend less, but very few are willing to accept cuts to popular programs like Medicare and Medicaid—both legacies of LBJ's Great Society.

Which can lead to head-scratching situations like this.