Republicans were outraged, outraged that Harry Reid suggested they might be trying to obstruct progress in the health care debate- and that there was gambling in Reid's casino as well. Absurdly suggesting that Reid was "race baiting" when he compared their obstructionism on this issue to obstructionism on a variety of historic issues in the past, including civil rights, they were weeping and moaning and gnashing their teeth about how mean Reid was to them.
The only thing I was impressed by in their argument was that they were able to make it with a straight face.
I wrote a book- The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be- about the historic fight between conservatives and progressives in American politics, so I feel like I know about this argument pretty well, and I can tell you this: in every major change in American political history, every single time, conservatives have used the same obstructionists tactics and employed the same arguments- over and over and over again. Sometimes it is hard to tell the quotes apart.
On tactics, they have always employed the filibuster as their number one weapon to stop change. They most famously filibustered the civil rights bills that finally ended Jim Crow, but they tried to use it or threatened it on every other major piece of legislation as well. On voting rights for the working class, on slavery, on anti-trust laws and food safety laws, on women's voting rights and civil rights, on ending child labor and passing minimum wage and the right to organize unions- on all of things, conservatives used every form of obstruction and delay known to man. (Sorry for the sexist language, but these conservatives were almost always men.)
And the arguments have always been the same too. The complaints about the role of government being "so vast, so powerful", about "business and industry...already operating under very heavy burdens" that it would cause more unemployment, are virtually identical today to what they were in the debate over Social Security.
It is sad that the Republican party has become such a lockstep party of no to any progress whatsoever. Some of the great progressives of American history- Lincoln, Charles Sumner, Teddy Roosevelt, George Norris- were Republicans. They understood how difficult it was to make big changes, how hard it was to fight the forces of retrenchment and obstruction. They persevered and won momentous struggles for progress. These Republicans would be appalled at the Republican party of today, at the fact that it has joined wholesale the forces against progress today.
Republicans, stop your whining about comparisons to past conservatives blocking big change: your tactics and arguments are identical to those forces in the past, and you know it.
Have the Republicans lost all sense of reality? In the midst of a crushing recession, our country is hemorrhaging jobs. According to Think Progress, the Labor Department reported we lost 598,000 jobs in January, and 1.8 million in the last three months. The livelihoods of millions of Americans and our entire economy are at stake, and yet GOP obstructionists are stonewalling President Obama's economic stimulus plan and the nomination of Hilda Solis for Labor Secretary.
The Senate Labor committee postponed Solis' nomination yesterday because of a recent USA Today report about her husband's outstanding California tax liens. (NOTE: it was her husband's auto repair business, not anything to do with Solis herself.) Though the tax liens have since been repaid, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) and his Republican cohorts are still delaying the confirmation vote, claiming they need to investigate Solis' involvement with American Rights at Work (ARAW), a pro-labor non-profit. But this really boils down to the GOP's inherent fears over the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill Solis co-sponsored in the House that would enable workers to unionize more easily and negotiate for equitable wages and benefits and safer working conditions.
As David Dayen wrote over at Calitics, "The American Rights at Work thing is a complete red herring. She was a representative figure for those who supported Employee Free Choice in Congress. She is not a lobbyist. She supported a bill. And so denying her free-speech rights seems ridiculous to the extreme."
Solis might understand the needs of workers better than anyone in Congress. There's no question she could help ensure President Obama's plan to create 3.6 million jobs by next year actually happens. We must fight like hell to get her approved. Join this Facebook page and help confirm Hilda Solis now. Then, sign American Rights at Work's petition to support the Employee Free Choice, where you snag their Employee Free Choice widget for your own personal blog.
Arnold's executive order laying off 10,000 state employees - and slashing another 200,000 paychecks to the federal minimum wage - is not just insulting because he's punishing people for the actions of others. It's that the budget crisis we're in is largely his fault, and the Governor refuses to take responsibility. Starting with Schwarzenegger's first day in office when he repealed the Vehicle License Fee, Arnold has played one game of fiscal gymnastics after another - leaving us with today's budget deficit of $17 billion. With right-wing Republicans in the state legislature still playing their usual game of obstructionism, Arnold has shown no leadership of reining them in - and now says that state workers have to suffer. When Newt Gingrich did this to federal employees in 1995, he paid a heavy political price for it. Will the press let Arnold off the hook again?
