A polite name for it would have been racial blackmail except that its practitioners--establishment types all--would have been much too well-bred to call it that. To quote the attorney general of the United States at the time, The Hon. Nicholas Katzenbach, the country could expect racial riots in "30 or 40" American cities if Congress balked at passing President Lyndon Johnson's civil-rights program.
Times may have changed, but not that much. These days the advocates of rage as a substitute for policy would just eliminate the middle man and convene mobs in every good-sized American city from Cleveland and Baltimore to New York. Hapless civilians dare not call on the police for help lest the cops, not the rioters, face criminal charges. This isn't an ideological demand; it's violence for its own sake.
Just what is it these mobs are supposed to be protesting? That's not clear--police brutality, racial injustice in general, tough economic times? Any excuse will do to make a scene, demonstration or fire. But it should come as no shock to learn that these are not the worst but the best of economic times, no matter what Bernie Sanders and over-excited company may say as the presidential primaries approach like a runaway freight.
Speaking of the economy, these are the good old days as unemployment keeps going down, jobs go begging, and Happy Days Are Here Again. No wonder today's protesters and presidential campaigners have to gin up bad feelings.
If you're looking for real problems to complain about, there is no shortage of those. Education? It's not that educational standards aren't being met, but that the standards are so low, and so changeable from year to year, they might as well not exist.
And when it comes to foreign policy (The Hon. Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, chief architects), disaster awaits at every turn.
As for a policy on immigration, if the country has one, it should have been reformed years ago instead of being reduced to another political football to kick around in a presidential election year.
And yet Senator Sanders would have us gulls believe that the Top Percenters still control our economy and the country is generally going to Hell in a gilded hand basket. The senator makes good copy, but not much sense. America remains, despite all her shortcomings, America--the golden land.
Editorial on 02/06/2016