A reader writes in:

I am convinced that the New Deal only came about because the powers that be were afraid of an upheaval from either the right or the left. And the Great Society was only brought about by riots.

He may be right. The powerful don't usually give up their privileges without a struggle.

But I wonder (just to be difficult) if he isn't underestimating the power of individuals to make a difference.

Take Theodore Roosevelt, for example. He did so much to advance progressive policies both during his presidency and after. And he didn't have to. In fact, TR got a lot of resistance from his fellow Republicans at the time.

And ask yourself, would a second Hoover administration have enacted New Deal-type legislation? I doubt it.

What about LBJ and the Great Society? When the 37th president signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, he famously said to an aide, "We have lost the South for a generation." If only!

Lastly, take President Obama and the Affordable Care Act. (You knew I was going to work that in there somehow.) But, really, after the election of Scott Brown to the U. S. Senate from Massachusetts, Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, famously wanted to go forward with just a stripped-down bill. But the president decided otherwise and the ACA was passed.