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TechnoratiRemembering What Nixon Learned
A half-century ago, Richard Nixon spearheaded his party's national congressional campaign in the face of a recession like the one we face today. Then Dwight Eisenhower's vice president, he decided that as a way to defeat Democrats the GOP would champion anti-worker laws pioneered in the segregationist South. Specifically, he rolled out "right to work" ballot initiatives to weaken the labor movement. These measures ban contracts that compel employees who benefit from union representation to contribute union dues.
When the 1958 election came, Nixon's blame-workers-first initiatives bombed, and Republicans lost 48 congressional seats, handing the party "its worst year ever," as historian Rick Perlstein recounts in his brilliant new book, "Nixonland."
"Right-to-work wasn't popular with a general public that understood how a strong labor movement had rocketed millions of voters into the middle class," Perlstein writes.
Fifty years later, conservatives are ignoring history's teachings and resurrecting Nixon's failed strategy in a place that could decide a close presidential election. In Colorado, one of the most contested "swing" states, a group of zealots is hoping a "right to work" ballot initiative will drive up GOP turnout and help John McCain keep nine electoral votes in the Republican column.
The strategy is bold in its desperation. Right-wingers are betting that Colorado citizens will vote to cut their own pay. After all, according to the Economic Policy Institute, employees in right-to-work states make between 4 and 8 percent less per year than those in other states.
Already, a poll shows that 56 percent of Coloradans oppose "right to work" laws. Even one of Colorado's most influential business groups has said it has "no desire" for such irrational measures. But the right is not in a rational frame of mind.
Colorado conservatives are reeling after Republicans lost both the Legislature and governor's mansion for the first time in more than four decades. The state Republican Party is so unhinged that it hired a buffoon named Dick Wadhams to save it-the same Dick Wadhams who most recently made headlines running Sen. George "Macaca" Allen's 2006 re-election campaign into the ground, effectively ending the Virginia lawmaker's political career. Clearly, these are dire times for the right, and despair tends to deify the Nixons and the Wadhamses by embracing irrational extremism-whether YouTube-amplified racism or worker persecution inherent in right-to-work schemes.
Adding to conservatives' troubles is Colorado's emboldened labor movement. Rather than crouching in a defensive posture, unions are preparing two initiatives that could drive up turnout for Democrats and serve as a model for other states across the nation.
One forces the right to defend criminals-literally. The initiative would make a corporate executive personally liable under the law if he or she "engages in, authorizes, solicits, requests, commands or knowingly tolerates the business's criminal conduct."
According to union polling, 84 percent of Colorado citizens back the measure. Nonetheless, the Denver Chamber of Commerce is trying to keep the initiative off the ballot, claiming that punishing corporate criminals is "a direct assault on our business climate." Yes, conservatives say lawbreaking is not an "assault on our business climate"-prosecuting lawbreakers is. Next thing you know, these shills will argue that locking up violent criminals hurts the "business climate" because, when not killing people, murderers contribute to the local economy.
The other labor-backed initiative would require employers to have a "just cause" when laying off an employee. The unions' poll shows 70 percent of Colorado voters support the concept-not surprising, considering that many voters are probably shocked to discover that most states allow employers to terminate workers for any reason not already outlawed by existing anti-discrimination statutes. Your boss doesn't like that you root for a particular professional sports team? Unless the ballot initiative passes, you can be fired "at will" for that and more in Colorado-and the initiative's conservative opponents will be arguing that's A-OK by them.
Perlstein notes that after Nixon's anti-labor strategy backfired in 1958, he "hardly said an ill word about the labor movement in public again." He learned a lesson that today's conservatives have forgotten-namely, that the public punishes those who overtly denigrate workers. If these initiatives end up on the ballot in a state garnering so much election attention, voters will have the chance to teach the right that crucial lesson once again.
David Sirota is a bestselling author whose newest book, "The Uprising," will be released in June of 2008. He is a fellow at the Campaign for America's Future and a board member of the Progressive States Network-both nonpartisan organizations. His blog is at www.credoaction.com/sirota.
© 2008 Creators Syndicate Inc.
16 Comments so far
Show Allrtdrury,
"US labor shot itself in the heart by allowing its evil twin, the capitalist establishment, to disassemble US industry and move it around the globe to exploit cheap labor there."
I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion but it's not factual,and if you can give me proof, I'll eat humble pie. Here are a few examples.
During the sixties and seventies, the big steel companies invested in Japanese steel mills in order to produce cheaper steel to be exported back here. Then they went to South Korea in the seventies, where the wages at the time were much lower than in Japan and built the largest steel mill in the world with state of the art tecnology and exported Korean steel back here at a cheaper cost than American produced steel. The corporate executives, rather than modernizing our steel plants or building the newest mill in the world here,was primarily interested in getting rid of unionized workers. Researchers at the University of Missouri published a booklet on this in the early eighties, and I gave it away many years ago otherwise I'd give you the title, etc. The Steelworkers Union tried to fight this, and even though the so-called "friends of labor" which they aren't, the Democrats, were in control of the House and Senate and of course gave their paymasters carte blanche for getting rid of our steelworkers and moving the operations overseas. It has happened to just about every industry (and now even white-collar professionals ) in the US, especially if they are unionized with decent contracts and benefit packages.
The corporatist/capitalist wants a work force of serfs and/or indentured servants. Union officials lobby Congress to save jobs and are patronized by our "hard-working" bureaucrats who give us the finger as soon as our backs are turned. They know who butters their bread.
Same thing with the automobile industry. General Motors and Ford have more plants in foreign countries than they have in the US. Oh, and there is always the "crisis" whether it's health care costs, pension costs, etc. The executives have it down to an art-form. They all graduated from the same school.
Go to a good library, rtdrury, and read, 'Global Reach' by Richard Barnett and Ronald Muller, to scholars who did their homework. The book was published in 1974, and not dated in the least. These two gentlemen projected future events pertaining to David Sirota's article and were right on target.
"Didn't Thomas Jefferson say something like bust all the corporations, bust all the banks, bust all the political parties, bust all the standing armies? You think he was joking?"
Can you provide a link, rtdrury?
"The Denver Chamber of Commerce is trying to keep the initiative off the ballot, claiming that punishing corporate criminals is "a direct assault on our business climate.""
Hell yes - isn't that the entire point?
This article is high zoom myopia. In the bigger picture, US labor shot itself in the heart by allowing its evil twin, the capitalist establishment, to disassemble US industry and move it around the globe to exploit cheap labor there. Colorado suffers the same disease that all of the other 49 US states suffer - calculated submission to the capitalist establishment. Didn't Thomas Jefferson say something like bust all the corporations, bust all the banks, bust all the political parties, bust all the standing armies? You think he was joking?
Hey, "riverman101":
Piss Off, Spam Queen
riverman wouldn't know the difference between a democracy and a fiat currency system if it hit him in the head ....all fiat currency systems fail and the fiat currency system will be hitting him in the head but he won't know what is was as he lashes out at some innocent person around him as his ignorance turns to insanity.
BTW, riverman is a troll. Best ignored or treated with contempt.
Point out what Reagan taught, Unions can be defeated. E.g. Air Traffic Controlers. Should you claim that there is not much difference between a labour union and a Baseball Player's Union, and have the media echo that claim without criticism... Well, the worker is fucked, the corporation is happy and the gov't inches that much closer to fascism.
How many people really know how often someone is rendered unemployable because he/she merely mentioned the word 'union' in a positive light? A few years ago a McDonalds staff voted in favour of unionization, less than a week after the vote that McDonald's closed it's doors.
Nixon was a lightweight, when the going got tough he quit. Bush, Reagan and Cheney are out for empire; crushing unions is part of what they think they need in order to succeed as the new dictators of the former USA.
riverman,
Please offer an example of a past society that "fell because of democracy." What do you propose as an alternative?
And if you're really concerned about global warming then you should also be concerned about overpopulation, overconsumption and resource depletion. People who terminate unwanted pregnancies are at least not contributing to these serious issues facing all of humanity. What are you doing about it, other than ranting about a ficticious "war on babies" and hoping to force women to bear children they neither want nor (in most cases) can afford to raise?
The writer said 'that the public punishes those who overtly denigrate workers'. I don't think any current politician thinks that's a lesson learned. If fact the opposite lesson has been learned. And that is that you can shit on workers all over the world, even here in the United States of Everything. And do you really think Nixon stopped vocally fucking workers because he was afraid of the unions?
Hoa binh
I agree with the author that a "right to work" initiative on the ballot will not help Republicans this time.
More importantly, though, the labor people are quite correct in attempting to legislate by ballot initiative an end to the "doctrine" of "employment at will." The idea that corporations reserve for themselves a right to end other real peoples' jobs for "any reason or no reason" is about the most outrageous over-reach in employee handbook language against citizens that can be imagined. And we. the sheeple, have tolerated its rise since the days of Reagan. An initiative to outlaw this ridiculousness ought to be on every ballot in the country. P.S We could elect Obama while we're at it at the polls.
oh... "work against abortionists".
if 1.2 MILLION dead iraqis is pro-life, the terrorists have already won.
heckuvajob
hey riverman,
maybe it's you that's giving george w. bush too many chances.
and stop wearing bill o'reilly as a hat.
your head is starting to get a cone-shape to it.
Of course, the 'emboldened leader movement' is causing a few problems for the Dems too. This will be the first Dem convention in a long, long time (if ever) where the hotels and convention facilities use non-union labor. The Dems and the unions are still trying to work that one out.
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I love the one on corporate CEO's. Please, Please, Please let me see the Rethugs out here trying to defend why corporate CEO's shouldn't be allowed to just break the law with impunity.
Now all we need is for labor to wake up and realize that the Dems do nothing for them after they are elected by labor votes. Where's all the pro-labor reform legislation coming out of the Dem controlled congress?
… condoning illegal, unhealthy, financially foolish & reprehensible corporate and govt'l greed, and abandoning all moral principles is …
"a direct assault on our business climate."
and a direct assault upon every suffering American
Namaste
… … … … … Mahatma Gandhi … & … ML King … … Inspiration … … … … …
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world »
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed »
« We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself » — MLK
...punishing corporate criminals is "a direct assault on our business climate." What a wonderful line! Those idiots are forgetting that the majority of Americans are workers. Glad to hear Colorado is turning it's head around on that. Nothing like a recession to wake people up.
riverman, you're getting tiresome.
Thank you David, I really like your article, and some fresh air in this worrisome world.
kathyodat