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The rest of us? We are either suffering or really scared.
That was not true in the 1960s.
We did not have the technology we have today, but we had a lot more hope. There was more poverty in one sense, but there was a lot less homelessness, less disparity in incomes, less of a sense of unfairness.
The soldiers who returned from Viet Nam were really treated badly. It's blamed on the demonstrators but it was really the government that cut the benefits that earlier generations of GIs had enjoyed.
African-Americans took to the streets and won their "rights," but their victories did not give them economic equality.
Until 1968, being White and enjoying a good education and good health (psychological as well as physical) pretty much insured that you would have opportunities. It was possible for the white majority to characterize the poor, the unemployed as "them," those "lazy folks," and too often, and inaccurately, the "minorities."
Today, white people cannot point a finger at "them." Because everyone except the upper 1-10% regardless of color or education is facing or actually experiencing economic deprivation, lack of jobs and low pay.
And if they cut Social Security and Medicare, even those who are older and vote Republican as a rule will begin to ask questions and look toward OWS-type movements for hope.
Obama ran on hope, but he seems pretty beaten down himself.
If he is half as smart as we think he is, he may secretly be solaced by the OWS movements.
These people marching in their own streets are the armies of the Democratic Party. It has always been so (at least since FDR). To the extent that Obama has tried to ignore that fact, he has faced defeat at the hands of Republicans, but also of "moderate" Republicans.
Remember the old song, "Which side are you on?"
It seems divisive to think in those terms, but sometimes reality demands that you choose sides. How sad.
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