In this reading, I saw a shift in people’s views on the role of government. On one side, we saw a rise in rights-consciousness. Liberals began to rely on the government as a provider of freedom, as evidenced by the rise in people on welfare. However, we also saw a rise in people distrusting their elected officials. Many were angry at the liberal establishment; ultimately, this fractured the Democratic party. I think a big change is that there didn’t seem to be many people that were moderate. There seemed to be a huge polarization, with only people with extreme views gaining media attention. Kurlansky offers a more hopeful take. He uses evidence of protests as showing that the nation was powerful because people believed they could make a change.
No comments:
Post a Comment