*Labor Omnia Vincet - That Good Place
A big factor resulting in the Republican base being dominated in 2016 by angry
middle class working people is their dissatisfaction with a system which they
feel has shortchanged them. These are
the folks who are turning to Donald Trump for a solution. On the Democratic
side, the unexpectedly large number of supporters Bernie Sanders has amassed
manifests the same thing. So this is not
a Republican or a Democratic response.
It is an American response.
Primarily, this dissatisfaction arises from what has happened to the
job market in this country. Wages, when
considered along with the rest of the economy, have actually gone down over the
years. Jobs which used to be plentiful
have disappeared and have been replaced to an extent by new kinds of employment,
with most job creation occurring at the lower and upper levels and few in “the
middle” and which seems to be constantly evolving and changing, making
retraining difficult. The computer programming a displaced coal miner or textile worker learned
last year may be obsolete today.
Finally, the idea of a job lasting for an employee’s entire career has
disappeared. Frequent employment
changes, once a sign of personal instability for most people, are now the rule, with companies
themselves even losing the permanence they once had.
All of this has enormous implications for such things as health care,
home purchasing, paying for education and retirement planning as well as public
attitudes toward immigration.
This dissatisfaction comes down to the question
of who is looking out for the welfare of the working class. I'll repeat that. This dissatisfaction comes down to the question of who is looking out for the welfare of the working class. Individual workers cannot do it by themselves
nor can politicians, regardless of what they may say. Faith in Trump or Cruz to right such inequities is misplaced. If there are solutions to be found, they must
found by a cooperative, joint effort. From the late nineteenth until the middle of the twentieth
centuries, labor unions filled this need. Now, the unions, except in the area of
government employees, are weak if not non-existent.
Samuel Gomphers, labor leader in the late nineteenth century and founder of the A.F. of L. started by unionizing the cigar makers in Tampa.
Certainly, this cannot be blamed on the Democratic Party, which has
always had a strong pro-labor union position.
It is the Republicans who have fought the unions
with attacks on the National Labor Relations Board, promoting state right-to-work
laws and other union-busting activities.
It is the business community which has moved its manufacturing overseas
where inexpensive, overworked low cost labor is available to replace the good
and more expensive jobs which labor unions had brought to the American working
person. And generally, this business
community has supported the Republican Party which in exchange, has favored it
from trade and taxation standpoints.
jobs go overseas and wages drop here
So when dissatisfied, angry middle class
working people look for someone to blame for the difficult economic challenges
they face, the culprit stands before them. It is the Republican
Party. They have never been the
friend of working people. And that
includes former film union leader Ronald Reagan who, like the Pied Piper of
Hamelin, led America down the wrong fork in the road leading to mythological “trickle
down” economics. They have decimated the protector of
the working person, labor unions. Blame them, folks! Not Barack Obama! Rather than continue to
support the G.O.P., hoping that the dangerous and hollow oratory of their two leading candidates for the nomination will change things, dissatisfied
middle class working people would be better served by organizing and supporting
labor unions and their allies in the Democratic Party. That good place always was and should be the home of
the working person.
*My Latin isn’t particularly
good but “Labor Omnia Vincet” can be taken to mean that “hard work will solve
all problems” or that the Labor Union movement will ultimately triumph over all. Some unions have it in their seals and it
happens to be the State motto of Oklahoma, where obviously, it refers to “hard
work” and not to Unions.
Jack Lippman
There has always been a problem in achieving a balance between liberty
and security. Back in feudal times,
serfs sacrificed their freedom in exchange for the protection of the nobles who
guaranteed their safety by providing them with security from attacks by any
marauders from the manor down the road.
In times of war, personal liberties are often temporarily sacrificed in
exchange for the ability to more effectively fight an enemy, with the national
good as the overriding objective.
But if it will protect our nation’s security, is this too great a
sacrifice to make? After all, most
people have nothing to hide. In making this decision, the key is how severe and menacing
are the dangers at which such measures are directed. Certainly, acts of terrorism which can
take many lives fall into this category.
Brussels terrorists
![](https://timedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/brussels-attack-suspects.jpg?quality=75&strip=color&w=1680)
Once some privacy is given up, lessening liberty in exchange for more
security, it is vital that it not be made the norm, and provision made to
restore liberties which were given up, once the crisis calling for such
measures is resolved. And any government
which acts in this manner should do so reluctantly, only with the acquiescence
of the people, and with no intention of giving permanence to any authoritarian
steps it may temporarily take to achieve its aims.
JL
"It Can't Happen Here" Department: More Dirt about a Founding Father (The Alien and Sedition Laws)
And while on the subject of “liberty and security,” think back to the
Alien and Sedition Laws of 1798. I am
sure you vaguely remember them from your high school days.
Briefly, (1) they gave our government the power to imprison or deport
non-citizens deems to be dangerous in wartime and even in peacetime, (2) they mandated a very long period of
residency in this country, fourteen years, before an immigrant could apply for
citizenship (and be able to vote), and (3) they gave the government the power to fine and imprison
anyone who speaks out against it! In
this country, the United States of America, no less!
Well, back in 1798 our second President, John
Adams, fought hard to get these laws passed, and in doing so, permanently gave
the Federalists a bad name among voters.
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_u0dMZIZ4H5c6bDTU3gbOLTmDCwdBwnSbZm4rRJj6Mz-2oljqQZuoyfp6v9hvNfpvRsil-b3cg1ULGOG3SA5RzpQ21OTSRLbeDfLB_2L7rSG9Psyc4d8k8YXhaTPZwKK-C7kIFSKFsYadaX=s0-d)
John Adams, Our Second President
Certainly, a lot of liberty was lost when the Alien and Sedition Laws were passed,
but supposedly, they were “necessary” security measures because of the threat
posed to our country by the French Revolution and the presence of so many “questionable”
immigrants here, but was they really necessary?
Even though there had been some naval issues with France, they really
did not amount to very much. The Laws
appeared to have been more of political tools to be used against the
Federalists’ opponents. That’s why we
must be very, very careful when we are asked by our government to give up
liberty in exchange for security.
But John Adams had his reasons.
The bloody guillotine-armed French Revolution was still going on in
Europe and its virus threatened to spread to this country, and therefore, Adams
wanted to keep immigrants out. Sound
familiar? (They were chopping off heads in Paris then just as ISIS is doing today in the Middle East.) Adams may have actually believed this to be a danger, but whether it
was a real threat or not is questionable. And this extended to his wanting to
be rid of those non-citizens already here whom the government deemed to be
dangerous, whether or not this was the case. This same fear-driven idea is out
there today. Just turn your TV on.
And finally, his aim was to significantly postpone when aliens already
here might apply for citizenship and the right to vote. It really was an attempt to restrict voting masquerading as a national security
matter. The same sort of thing goes on today
when voting is made more difficult because of supposed “voter fraud.”
Suppression of voting rights was an issue in 1789 as it is today
Suppression of voting rights was an issue in 1789 as it is today
Adams didn’t
want immigrants to become voting citizens because he feared many of them supported the supposedly
pro-French “Democratic-Republicans” (Thomas Jefferson’s Party) which he saw as
a threat to his “Federalist” Party.”
Adams saw the survival of the Federalists as synonymous with the
survival of the country. He suspected
many non-citizens of feeling otherwise and did not even want them in the
country, let alone casting ballots. This was pure politics.
Most significantly, he did not want critical articles appearing which
would oppose the Federalist-controlled Government, painting it in a negative
light, threatening its survival. Many journalists and even legislators were
jailed and fined for this. This was
illegal and violated the First Amendment but unfortunately, it happened five
years before the Supreme Court took it upon itself to determine if laws were
Constitutional or not. Marbury vs.
Madison later established such “judicial review” by SCOTUS in 1803.
In 1800, Thomas Jefferson defeated John Adams and became President. (That
election is an unbelievable story in itself, leading in part to the subsequent
death of Alexander Hamilton in a duel.) He quickly released those still in jail
due to these laws and refunded any fines they had paid. The laws automatically
expired except for the one which enabled the government to imprison or deport
enemy aliens in wartime, which still is in effect. It was last used by Franklin Roosevelt and
Harry Truman.
This bit of history points up that we should not be too hasty in giving
up some of our freedoms in exchange for enhanced national security. We should be very, very certain there
actually is a real danger to our country, and not merely politicians creating
the illusion of danger for purely partisan reasons as might have been the case
in 1798 when these laws were passed.
John Adams was a great patriot, philosopher and player in the
establishment of our country. As a
President, however, his record is undistinguished.
JL
A Brooks Column and Your Changing Priorities
In the course of a polemic (go look that one up)
involving an Email exchange with a neighbor, I recently made the following
comment:
My concerns, which overlap, more
or less prioritize themselves as follows:
25% - maintaining good health,
25% - maintaining good family and
personal relationships with others,
15% - being creative in a variety of
ways,
15% - enjoying the good things in life
including entertainment, museums, restaurants, etc.,
10% - worrying about the future of
American democracy, and
10% - everything else, which
includes how our community is run.
This came to mind when I read a recent column by the New York Times’
David Brooks which touches on the changes in priorities which take can place at
different ages. It’s good reading
regardless of how young or old you are. Just click your cursor right here to Check it out
and consider what are your present priorities.
JL
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