There have been huge changes in my lifetime all brought about by grassroots movements supporting politicians who support the change. In my youth, women worked as secretaries and teachers then they married and had babies. Mothers did not work. They stayed home and cooked and baked and cared for children and often drank heavily ans secretly. Working women were routinely accosted sexually. (It was the norm and I will be happy to substantiate that statement with my own experiences).
My first job with an employment agency allowed women to place women in jobs paying less that $10,000/year. If we got a listing or placed a candidtae in a $10,000+ position, we had to surrender it to a male counterpart BECAUSE "he had or would have a family to support".
Couples who "lived in sin" were shunned by family and friends. Interacial couples were either trailor park trash or pariahs. Interacial children were not tolerated in white society. Gays hid in closets. In fact, they married to provide themselves a "cover". Gay children and teens were bullied, beaten, forced into "appropriate" gender roles and shunned if they could not comply. Unwed mothers had their babies "away" and never saw them again.
There was a draft but you could "opt out" by staying in college or belonging to a union whose workers were critical to the war effort - an outright lie but it kept my brothers safe.
Now tell me - what corporations, millionaires, politicians forced these changes? They didn't. The power of the VOTE did. And the power of people working, dying, going to jail for a cause they believed in.
Did some or many jump on the bandwagon to take advantage of the newly found power or just plain cover their butts and save their jobs? Yes they did. So powerful men buy their support with money; powerful groups buy their support with votes.
Occupy Wall Street had little or no power because they do not have a clearly stated message. If and when they get their act together, state their purpose clearly, form their goals clearly and practically, have credible leaders stating those goals - then they will have the power to produce some real change. It will be interesting to (it has been interesting) to watch.
And while I am rambling - I wonder if the last few years of hardship hitting the middle and lower middle class, forcing them from their jobs and homes, will result in a clear and urgent attempt to repatriate the homeless. Now that they are no longer the drunks and druggies who plague our streets but actually Joe and Marge and their three children - what positive things could come of this?
Sorry for the ramble. A homeless man from Machias froze to death this week. I keep thinking about his mother.
SINS