The
first lesson liberals need to learn from the election of 2012 is that the
battles are never over. The re-election of President Obama, the retention of
the United States Senate and the increased Democratic presence in the House of
Representatives does not mean that the Tea Party, the Libertarians and the
Republican Party are in decline. In 1964
with the incredible landslide re-election of President Johnson progressives
prognosticated the demise of the Republican Party. Four years later the Republicans took the
White House and twelve years after that the Reagan Revolution began the war on
the New Deal. In 1936 the Republicans
suffered their worst defeat since the Civil War - they didn’t go away.
Today
the battles for gender equality, racial equality, women’s rights, voting
rights, and governmental commitment to raising the standard of living of the
poor and the elderly are still going on with strenuous efforts by a coalition
of conservatives, Luddites and No-Nothings to repeal the twentieth century and
return our country to the days of the Robber Barons immediately following the
Civil War.
Women
are being lulled to sleep with the deserved dream and hope that in 2016 the
first woman will be elected President.
And, if Hillary Clinton runs that will most likely be the case. But if she does not run what will women have
done in 2013, 2014 and 2015 to increase the number of women in elected public
office and the potential candidates for the nation's highest office in future
Presidential elections.
This
requires activity and commitment at every level. In my communities, where I lead the local
Democratic committee, we are running nine municipal and school board candidates
and seven are women. In the county I
live in, Delaware County, Pennsylvania the most activity at the county level
can be found in the Women’s Democratic Club and among the women elected
officials.
While
too many women wait for 2016 the yahoos in the states like North Dakota pass
laws that will effectively negate Roe v.
Wade and eliminate a woman’s right to determine all aspects of her
reproductive health.
While
the nation focuses on the Supreme Court and the march toward marriage equality,
(which when won will be another battle that will not end) Republican controlled
states are passing laws for the express purpose of suppressing the
constitutional equal protection of voters and reversing two hundred years of
franchise expansion by substituting restrictions to make it more difficult and
a more onerous task to vote. These
plots didn’t work in 2012 - but repeated every year they may stop resulting in
backlash and result in apathetic compliance.
Democracy
by its very nature means change can happen.
It also means that change can be undone and that generations that do not
remember the reasons for change (for example the Great Depression leading to
the New Deal programs to ameliorate the economic consequences of that
catastrophe) may in fact support in the name of change undoing the earlier
change (for example privatizing Social Security because today's generation
doesn’t remember a time when the older folks had no income after retirement
(didn’t have much retirement either.)
The
battle for equal rights for African Americans was won in the 1960's but it is now
being fought again. It was first won in
the 1860's and then lost in the 1880's.
It could be lost again.
The
battle for equal rights for women was won in the 1970's with major court
decisions. Equal rights chipped away at
become unequal treatment. And that could
happen now.
In 1796 the Federalists revised the
immigration laws to increase the number of years needed to become naturalized
citizen form four to fourteen because the Europeans coming over in that decade
were voting for the Jeffersonians. Now
there is a solid effort of the national Republican Party to prevent a path to
citizenship for the twelve million undocumented residents in our country
because that party believes that these persons wouldn’t vote for them. (Personally I think they would have a better
chance getting Latino votes if they treated them like first class citizens and
passed comprehensive immigration reform)
Marriage
Equality looks to be the great social reform of this decade and those of our
citizens who find personal fulfillment in the love and commitment of someone of
the same sex will have equal treatment with all others. But it will become the next battle and will
last as long as Democracy lasts. Those
opposed to marriage equality will continue to battle. And if they see the equal rights won in the
60's, 70's and 80's undone they will be encouraged to fight to undo LGBT
rights.
If
anyone personified the political battles, often around social issues, of the
decades between 1960 and 2010 it was the Senator from Massachusetts Edward M.
Kennedy. As he ended his quest for the
Presidency in 1980, at a national Democratic convention I attended, he rallied
the liberals of the party by reminding them that the cause endures and the
dream never dies. He also sounded the
warning trumpet when he said “the work goes on”.
2
April 2013
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