Politico’s Ben Smith, a national political reporter, has a new article up today about the left’s disappointment with Obama and their continued insistence that their issues aren’t dead. (Specifically, the Employee Free Choice Act and comprehensive immigration reform.) This is hardly breaking news. Anyone who has observed the 111th Congress could tell you that most substantive liberal legislation is nearly impossible to pass. And anyone who knows the slightest bit about lobbying understands that interest groups won’t stop fighting for their issues despite that objective political reality. Lobbyists are paid to lobby after all. That’s kind of what they do.
(Also, as I’ve written elsewhere, labor law reform has died in much friendlier political climes than this; and immigration reform was never going to be tackled the same year as health care reform.)
But there are still a couple interesting nuggets to be gleaned from the article for those interested in labor’s place on Capitol Hill.
Namely:
The Obama White House has, through administrative action, done much to satisfy groups of supporters. The president has made record-breaking numbers of senior Hispanic appointments, for instance, and reinvigorated the agency that regulates workplace safety, a labor priority.
True. Unfortunately, such actions are the most interest groups can expect from a friendly White House. Of course they should and do expect more, but considering the extreme bias against change inherent in our political system, specifically the legislative branch, administrative appointments and rulings are what they get.
For example, consider organized labor’s fortunes under President Bill Clinton. In the 1990s, labor’s two signature issues, healthcare reform and labor law reform, both utterly bombed. But the Clinton years weren’t a complete disaster. Robert Reich, Clinton’s Secretary of Labor, provided steadfast support, defending unions against Gingrich Revolution attacks from the House, and appointing a slate of progressive candidates to the Department of Labor, who crusaded against sweatshop labor. Clinton’s appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) were strong as well, and during their tenure the Board’s use of injunctions against unlawful employers rose dramatically, temporarily slowing the rise of illegal firings as a tactic against union activity.
Obama’s attempts to make labor friendly appointments have been partially successful, but his efforts to staff both the NLRB and the Department of Labor have been stymied by virulently anti-labor opposition in the Senate. Which proves again how broken our political system is: not only can the president supporters not expect ambitious, sweeping reform, they can’t expect too many minor changes either.
Enough of what Obama will or won’t do… Let’s talk about WHAT WE’RE GOING TO DO! Missing from the Stranger’s commentary is the radical notion that WE can put pressure on these politicians and push them to do something… ANYTHING. Tea Baggers aren’t the only ones who can make signs and protest and get their way.
But we don’t want to act like the tea baggers. They discredit themselves with their actions and rhetoric. This is a group of rural, racist, whites that are going through the death throes of a culture that shouldn’t be held onto forever.
tea baggers aren’t getting their way. they’re getting lip service.
It’s not so much the Pres as it is Sen. Harry Reid.
That guy needs to go.
NOW.
Why does everyone keep saying “rural” and “racist” in the same sentence? I’ve met more racists, and probably a higher percentage, in the city then I ever did back home….
Max @3 is right. The Teabaggers are getting a lot of press, but the real Republicans will happily throw them under the bus the minute it’s convenient. And that goes double for Sarah Palin.
As long as you can convince middle-class americans to vote against their own interests the GOP will always have a strangle-hold on these issues.
Listen up, Liberals! I know it is confusing, but no matter how hysterically the Right screams that Obama is Left of Communist, he continues to be a Moderate.
What is madness is that, even though this country has about 10% labor union density (down from over 40%), Republican obstructionist assholes still have the nerve to talk about “Big Labor” as if it were some kind of bugbear.