What Our Country Has Done for Us: The high hopes of JFK’s day have mostly been dashed

[marmar]

from In These Times:


What Our Country Has Done for Us
The high hopes of JFK’s day have mostly been dashed.

BY Susan J. Douglas


We are sure to be awash with remembrances of John F. Kennedy as we pass the 50th anniversary of his assassination. There will be much hagiography, some of it deserved, some of it utterly blindered. But what is true is that back then, with Kennedy’s “New Frontier” rhetoric about “unfilled hopes … unconquered problems of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus,” there was a sense of moving forward, especially to address the persistent problems of poverty and inequality.

So as we look back, why not take this moment to compare where we were then to where we are now? How much better and how much worse off are most of us, 50 years later? Back then, on average, women were making 59 cents to a man’s dollar, consigned to a narrow range of jobs—schoolteacher, waitress, nurse—and virtually barred from a host of others—doctor, electrician, Newsweek reporter, you name it. The median income for African-American and other racial minority families was 53 percent that of white families. And blacks were subjected to poll taxes, literacy tests and other restrictions on their right to vote. Connecticut prohibited the use of contraceptives. Gay people had to remain closeted in the face of deep and widespread bigotry.

We can of course see progress today: In 2013, we have our first mixed-race President, women make roughly 77 cents to a white man’s dollar (though the gap is larger for African-American and Latina women), and gay people can legally marry in 13 states. But there has been a sea change for the worse in the “common sense” of the nation, thanks to a long-term war of position by conservatives.

Established during the New Deal and cemented during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations was the notion that the government had a responsibility to protect people from the vagaries of capitalism and, with the rise of the civil rights movement, to try to promote and ensure equality. Let’s remember, for instance, that in the summer of 1963, Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law, which abolished wage discrimination based on gender. Today, even after the financial crisis, Republicans continue to insist on a neoliberal market fundamentalism that strips the government of any responsibility for people’s well-being or security. And new polling data shows that among Republicans and independents, support for government solutions to public policy problems actually decreased after 2008. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.com/article/15747/what_our_country_has_done_for_us/

[gopiscrap]

1. yeah I know

so much for "Ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country"

[marmar]

2. Yep.