There has been much euphoria over the Michigan primary win on Tuesday that sets up Palestinian American Rashida Tlaib to become the first Muslim woman to enter Congress if, as widely expected, she wins the general election in November.
In 1962, Michael Harrington wrote The Other America, which basically identified the causes of poverty and inequality in the United States as the result of unregulated free market capitalism. This book in turn had a significant impact on the thinking of John F. Kennedy and the role of government in promoting greater social justice. But it was the Johnson Administration and the War on Poverty programs (Medicaid, Medicare, Food Stamps, Expanded Social Security Benefits, etc.) that followed the Kennedy Administration’s lead.
