Occupiers of Wall Street, --you re the grandchildren of the revolution we fought and won in the 1960s. I'd love for Tina Tuner to sing a song for you, modeled after the song she sang in "Mad Max". "You Don't Need Another Hero,"
You don't need our kind of leader.
The revolution we've already won.
Just someone to keep the Reaganites,
From making it come undone.
And let me tell you, President Lyndon Johnson did not lead our revolution, as Matt Damon, Michael Moore and other ultra liberals want President Obama to lead your revolution now. He's leader. He'll respond to what you feel and help you get to where you want to go.
In the 1960s we had the leaders we needed -Black Panthers, Students for a Democratic Society, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, Betty Friedan, Angela Davis, Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and internationally, Che Guevara, Jomo Kenyatta, even Chairman Mao. You don't have the likes of these and you don't need them.
Prior to our revolution President Johnson did not create a vision as President Obama did for yours. President Kennedy did and Johnson responded. Obama seems eager to respond. Johnson got the legislation passed to enable what we were feeling, which is what Obama said that Reagan did. The Reagan Revolution was a counter revolution.
"Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America . . . He put us on a fundamentally different path, because the country was ready for it ... he tapped into what people were already feeling,"
Johnson responded to the power of what we felt. We channeled our power into the Civil Rights, Anti-War, Women's, African Liberation, Peace and Freedom movements. We were angry, demanding, disruptive and sometimes violent. But you don't have to be. Keep doing your thing!
Back then they turned fire hoses and police dogs on us and we fought back. College students were massacred at Orangeburg, South Carolina and Kent State in Ohio. Medgar Evers, John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, George Lincoln Rockwell (leader of the American Nazi Party), Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert F. Kennedy were among those assassinated.
There were riots in cities across America, with hundreds killed, thousands injured, and property damage in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Block after block of Rochester, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Omaha, Newark, Detroit, Minneapolis, Chicago, Washington, and Cleveland were burned to the ground.
Before our revolution only four African nations were free of despotic colonial rule. During just ten years, 34 African nations gained freedom, some after violent and bloody warfare. Fueled by youthful idealism armed struggle broke out all across Latin America. The Independence won by Vietnam was, in part, a result of the battles we fought in the streets here.
We were forced to violence by violent, stubborn, centuries-old brutality and injustice. There was for us no political redress, and President Johnson reacted to guide the country not to be our leader.
With the stated goal of eliminating hunger and deprivation from American life, Johnson declared an "unconditional war on poverty." The war transformed America society. Resulting from it were the Job Corps, Upward Bound, and the Food Stamp Act.
Johnson started massive federal funding for education with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and made loans available to those seeking to go to college. The government assisted in the creation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Millions were spent to form endowments for arts and humanities. Federal money went for cultural exchanges with other nations and cultural institutions in this country.
The Social Security Act of 1965 authorized Medicare, thereby changing the lives of millions of older Americans. The following year welfare recipients of all ages received medical care through the Medicaid program.
Our revolution produced The Cigarette Labeling Act of 1965, the Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, Child Safety Act, the Radiation Safety Act, the Flammable Fabrics Act, the Wholesome Meat and Wholesome Poultry Products Act, the Truth-in-Lending Act, and the Land Sales Disclosure Act
The modern save-the-environment movement started during our revolution with clean air and water quality acts and laws to protect animals and land. Most dramatic of all, during the decade Americans living below the poverty line dropped from 22.2 percent to 12.6 percent. The percentage of African Americans below the poverty line dropped from 55 percent to 27 percent in 1968.
There were downsides to what we did, but the claim that this was a better country before the 1960s is ridiculous. Look at all we got the government to do. The Reagan Revolution attempted to take it all away; and every one of the foot soldiers of that revolution, running for President in 2012, do not want Obama to help you keep any of it.
Read the previous post in this series:
Should President Obama Have Gone the Way of LBJ?
The next post in this series, "Are These the Last Days of the Reaganites?", is coming in January.
George Davis is creator of the forthcoming series of world-sourced, interactive books, Barack Obama, America and the World.