After reading Zinn’s chapter, “Unreported Resistance” and listening to the Ezra Klein Show Podcast, I am increasingly interested in the clear divide of our country. I learned a lot of new information, specifically about just how often a large number of citizens and groups have been unhappy with our government over the years. History really does seem to repeat itself. The repetition of leaders of our country going against the majority opinion and taking drastic measures in situations has become increasingly concerning. For example, the national movement against nuclear weapons development was a time when people were very obviously against the cold war and production and development of nuclear weapons and the government really didn’t listen or respond to the protests and demonstrations.
The chapter also extensively talks about the Bush and Reagan presidencies. It is believed that both candidates won their respected elections with flying colors, however this is not the case. In both of these elections, many people didn’t even bother to vote as well as the popular vote was much closer than what was broadcasted on the electoral map. Nonetheless, both of these men were elected and served as presidents and faced a lot of resistance from the people of America. The resistance surprised me, but also made me happy that people at this time were sticking up for themselves and what they believe in. I hope today we can learn from our countries previous mistakes and become more of a democracy. America needs to learn how to make decisions that will truly benefit the people.
I think our country made some progress this past election in listening to the people’s concerns. Whether or not our country will be better from that, only time will tell. Coming from an objective view, I can tell this election more people were passionate about social reform and protecting the health of the people from COVID. Biden used his platform to combat those concerns. This was a transactional form of leadership,; the people gave Biden their vote with the expected return of him fulfilling his promises to make America more focused on the well-being of all classes, not just the wealthy.
I too was surprised by the level of resistance to some of Bush’s policies discussed in this chapter. I think that Bush’s response to 9/11 did have a positive effect on his appearance as president for citizens, but I was really shocked to read about the different levels of resistance to the war. For example, I had no clue about the 150,000 people marching through Washington right after the war started. It reminds me to go back to the theme of this class, that history is often told with bias, so it is very important to hear and learn about a different side of history
The idea that leaders have historically gone against the public opinion is concerning and lends itself to possible reform. Because many view the US as not actually being a true democracy where their concerns are listened to, it seems as though there needs to be changes in the president’s authority or increases checks on the president. I don’t think this will happen anytime soon because of the increased polarization and conservative ideology of keeping the Constitution as it, but I think this is definitely something to think about.