Progressive Ponderings: On the Ground in Madison, Part 2
by Joe Mayer, Feb. 22, 2011
A few years ago I was invited back to the school at which I had taught for nearly 27 years to explain why I was a Democrat to a class of senior students. A State Representative was invited to explain why he was a Republican. I graciously suggested that he go first. He proceeded to explain that Republicans believe in individual responsibility and that people succeeded or failed based on their own initiative and hard work, and government had no place in helping them.
He failed to mention that he had graduated from a state college, that he arrived at the school on state roads, that he enjoyed police and fire protection provided by the city, that the court system enforced “law and order,” that his wife and children enjoyed the public library and public parks. He didn’t mention that the company he worked for thrived because of thousands of patents and copyrights granted by the government. He finished his self-made pontification by asking, “How will you like it when you start working and the government takes your money and gives it to someone else?”
Then it was my turn. I told these students that when I began teaching at their school there were no athletics for girls. They looked incredulous. They had never lived in a period of time in which females had zero opportunity to participate in sports. I explained that a civil rights law known as Title IX, initiated and passed by Democrats, mandated that schools provide equal opportunity in extra curricular activities. I then mentioned other Democratic initiatives, passed by Democrats, that made life more equitable and enjoyable. Nearly all the students’ questions were directed to me.
Just as these students had never experienced such discrimination in their lives and took girls athletics as normal, so too do the majority of our citizens take for granted their many employee benefits. Unions and Democrats are responsible for nearly all of these benefits – the forty hour work week, time and one-half for extra hours, child labor laws, paid holidays and vacations, safety rules in the workplace, arbitration for workplace differences, employer-paid or partially-paid benefits such as pensions, life insurance, and health insurance.
Unions and the State Government of Wisconsin were the first to provide two state benefits paid for by employers – workman’s compensation and unemployment insurance. Now is a great time for unions and Democrats to remind Wisconsinites and our nation that ALL workers, not just union workers, enjoy the benefits listed above.
School principals and superintendents, nursing superintendents, law enforcement superiors, and many workplace bosses who came up through the ranks all reap higher salaries because union workers set the base.
Conservatives have a hissy fit when citizens are educated about the struggles that laborers have endured to improve the workplace. Most came through negotiation – negotiation from a position of “strength in numbers” provided by union representation, but other advancements came with putting their lives on the line – and they sometimes lost.
Employers organize through the Chamber of Commerce and trade associations. They use their “strength in numbers” to deny employees THEIR “strength in numbers.” Conservative Corporate/Statists do everything possible to divide citizen/employees, causing them to fight among themselves. Citizen/employees, public and private, union and non-union, need to remember “WE ALL DO BETTER WHEN WE ALL DO BETTER.”
(Part 1 is here.)
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1 Comments:
Joe, may I suggest three other areas that offer different views of the purpose of government that students may appreciate ?
Consumer Safety. For example, IMO link - the Food Safety legislation that was approved last year was extremely weak, however, now that it is the law, the House Republicans are thwarting it. Last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill, called HR 1, which, if agreed to by the Senate, would result in massive budget cuts to a variety of government programs … such as, it would return the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service to 2008 levels, when it employed 235 fewer inspectors. Cutting inspectors may save Budget dollars, but at what price ? Under federal law, slaughterhouses cannot process or package meat without USDA approval -- slaughterhouses may have to reduce production or shut down, putting non-government employees out of work and raising meat prices for consumers.
Health. While every student knows someone with health problems, do they know that about 19,000 young people are diagnosed with diabetes annually ? Earlier this month, the National Institute of Health (NIH) published Helping the Student with Diabetes Succeed guide which targets schools and school services (bus drivers, etc.) Diabetes may not seem to be a young person’s disease but as obesity rates have increased among youth, the prevalence of type 2 diabetes among children and adolescents also is rising, especially for children in ethnic and racial minorities.
Under HR 1, the NIH budget will be cut by $1 billion while the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) budget will be reduced by 25 percent.
Heck, the Food and Drug Administration will be cut by $241 million … now, we can debate whether FDA is always making the right calls, but do we want drug makers to just sell products without any oversight ?
Lastly, how about Electricity ? In 1935, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the Rural Electrification Act (REA), only 10 percent of rural Americans had electricity … today the issue is broadband. I don’t know where the students lived that you spoke to, but there are plenty of students that if it hadn’t been for REA, they would rely on generators to produce electricity. Today’s students are limited by broadband … I wrote a commentary after the Minnesota Ultra-High Speed Task Force released its report that indicated the difference in broadband availability … the metro area is 57% while rural broadband is at 39.4%.
The Federal Government is taking a role here … and not only will students benefit, but so will business … especially those in rural areas.
One thing that primarily Republicans like to talk about today is Mandates. IMO, there are very few government mandates …particularly impacting students are conscription (including registering for Selective Service) and school attendance (in Minnesota is it ages 7 to 16?). Would your Republican friend defend these ?
BTW, IMO the so-called “healthcare mandate is no different than other government rules that if you violate you are subject to a fine … wanna smoke in a public place, your subject to a fine … don’t want to purchase medical insurance, your subject to a fine … there is no mandate … there is only a financial penalty. The law expressly states that failure to pay the penalties will not result in criminal prosecution or even in property liens. Heck, there is an exemption for religious reasons. The fine is pretty small … you will be assessed a tax penalty that is the greater of a flat sum or a percent of income: $95 or 1 percent of income in 2014, $325 or 2 percent of income in 2015, and then the penalty’s full level in 2016, $695 or 2.5 percent of income. After 2016, the flat dollar amount increases by a cost-of-living adjustment.
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