Joe from Scranton must honor his fellow Pennsylvanian, union boss Richard Trumka, by putting his name on a $15 federal minimum wage bill and passing it now.
Thank you for highlighting the life of Richard Trumka! And, Yes, Democrats are the real party of the working Class. Support for Trump among urban, rural and suburban working class is rooted in two places: conservative/fundamentalist religion and misogyny. Schlafly's campaign was fully grounded in fundamentalist Catholic theology that essentializes all women with the "God-given" roles of child bearers and subordinate helpmates to men. Trump's biker brigades and other non-religious working-class groups are predominately sexist males. The working-class contingent is a mere distraction from the religious fundie elites and both are part of the same set. The religious fundie elites drive the movement and a religious fundie cred is now a requirement for becoming an elected Republican anywhere. The elephant in the room is always Religion. Why do so many avoid this reality? It is very perplexing. Agri-business and restaurants continue to be heavily reliant on undocumented slave labor and that does have an affect on the minimum wage. Unions were successful in the past only because workers' leverage was based on companies not having any other choice but to negotiate. With tech and mobility that backstop is gone. We are now having to completely reinvent unionizing. Not sure that it can be done. Trebor Scholz's platform coops are a start and better than doing nothing, but we really need something more comprehensive.
Nice essay as usual! But I would challenge this interpretation: "Her campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment was grounded in a middle-class ideology." Much more so than the opposition, they had a (admittedly perverse) working-class message. Mansbridge is excellent on this, and Mrs. America really got it wrong. (My only real complaint.) They never would have got as far as they did if their arguments aimed at working class women weren't so diabolical. This is how I wrote about it in Reaganland:
Antifeminists also had powerful secular arguments. One was that the feminism, by stripping social sanctions against extramarital sex, turned women into disposable toys, freeing men to cast them economically adrift. Another involved social class. According to one study of the pro-choice movement, 94 percent of its activists worked, almost 40 percent had gone to graduate school, and one in four had an MD, a PhD, or a law degree. Feminist leaders tended to be lawyers, professors, and foundation executives. No wonder they viewed working outside the home as fulfilling. The same survey found that most antifeminist activists who worked were unmarried, had menial, deadening jobs, and 90 percent had no college degree. In the world as these women experienced it, marriage was what rescued you from work. Feminists wanted to force you back.
Anti-ERA rhetoric crackled with vaguely Marxist descriptions of the alienating realities of capitalist America. “I call the Equal Rights Amendment the liftin’ and totin’ bill,” explained the anti-ERA executive secretary of Negro Women of America. “If the Amendment becomes law, we will be the ones liftin’ and totin’.” A mimeographed anti-ERA plaint sent to legislatures observed, “These women lawyers, women legislators, and women executives promoting ERA have plenty of education and talent to get what they want in the business, political, and academic world. . . .We, the wives and working women, need you, dear Senators and Representatives, to protect us.”
The idea that the Democratic Party is the party of the workers is utter twaddle, nonsense, and demonstrably false. It is the party of neoliberal elites who differ from conservative elites only in their ability to 'feel our pain', right Bill? America has no major party representing the will and needs of the working class, a class defined by their actual need to work for a living as opposed to the coupon clipping, portfolio managing class. I would like it to be otherwise but it isn't. We desperately need a peoples party strong enough to contest the oligarchs currently running this country but the two major parties erect barriers at every turn and neither gives a damn about laborers.
Thank you for highlighting the life of Richard Trumka! And, Yes, Democrats are the real party of the working Class. Support for Trump among urban, rural and suburban working class is rooted in two places: conservative/fundamentalist religion and misogyny. Schlafly's campaign was fully grounded in fundamentalist Catholic theology that essentializes all women with the "God-given" roles of child bearers and subordinate helpmates to men. Trump's biker brigades and other non-religious working-class groups are predominately sexist males. The working-class contingent is a mere distraction from the religious fundie elites and both are part of the same set. The religious fundie elites drive the movement and a religious fundie cred is now a requirement for becoming an elected Republican anywhere. The elephant in the room is always Religion. Why do so many avoid this reality? It is very perplexing. Agri-business and restaurants continue to be heavily reliant on undocumented slave labor and that does have an affect on the minimum wage. Unions were successful in the past only because workers' leverage was based on companies not having any other choice but to negotiate. With tech and mobility that backstop is gone. We are now having to completely reinvent unionizing. Not sure that it can be done. Trebor Scholz's platform coops are a start and better than doing nothing, but we really need something more comprehensive.
Nice essay as usual! But I would challenge this interpretation: "Her campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment was grounded in a middle-class ideology." Much more so than the opposition, they had a (admittedly perverse) working-class message. Mansbridge is excellent on this, and Mrs. America really got it wrong. (My only real complaint.) They never would have got as far as they did if their arguments aimed at working class women weren't so diabolical. This is how I wrote about it in Reaganland:
Antifeminists also had powerful secular arguments. One was that the feminism, by stripping social sanctions against extramarital sex, turned women into disposable toys, freeing men to cast them economically adrift. Another involved social class. According to one study of the pro-choice movement, 94 percent of its activists worked, almost 40 percent had gone to graduate school, and one in four had an MD, a PhD, or a law degree. Feminist leaders tended to be lawyers, professors, and foundation executives. No wonder they viewed working outside the home as fulfilling. The same survey found that most antifeminist activists who worked were unmarried, had menial, deadening jobs, and 90 percent had no college degree. In the world as these women experienced it, marriage was what rescued you from work. Feminists wanted to force you back.
Anti-ERA rhetoric crackled with vaguely Marxist descriptions of the alienating realities of capitalist America. “I call the Equal Rights Amendment the liftin’ and totin’ bill,” explained the anti-ERA executive secretary of Negro Women of America. “If the Amendment becomes law, we will be the ones liftin’ and totin’.” A mimeographed anti-ERA plaint sent to legislatures observed, “These women lawyers, women legislators, and women executives promoting ERA have plenty of education and talent to get what they want in the business, political, and academic world. . . .We, the wives and working women, need you, dear Senators and Representatives, to protect us.”
The idea that the Democratic Party is the party of the workers is utter twaddle, nonsense, and demonstrably false. It is the party of neoliberal elites who differ from conservative elites only in their ability to 'feel our pain', right Bill? America has no major party representing the will and needs of the working class, a class defined by their actual need to work for a living as opposed to the coupon clipping, portfolio managing class. I would like it to be otherwise but it isn't. We desperately need a peoples party strong enough to contest the oligarchs currently running this country but the two major parties erect barriers at every turn and neither gives a damn about laborers.