Buy this book.
I’m just 20 pages into Joe Conason’s new book Big Lies and I already love it. Among my favorite passages so far is this from the introduction :
- If Americans have a common fault, however, it’s our tendency to suffer from historical amnesia. Too many of us have forgotten, or never learned, what kind of country America was under the conservative rule that preceded the century of liberal reform. And too many of us have no idea whose ideas and energy brought about the reforms we now take for granted.
If your workplace is safe; if your children go to school rather than being forced into labor; if you are being paid a living wage, including overtime; if you enjoy a forty-hour week and you are allowed to join a union to protect your rights – you can thank liberals. If your food is not poisoned and your water is drinkable – you can thank liberals. If your parents are eligible for Medicare and Social Security, so they can grow old in dignity without bankrupting your family – you can thank liberals. If our rivers are getting cleaner and our air isn’t black with pollution; if our wilderness is protected and our countryside is still green – you can thank liberals. If people of all races can share the same public facilities; if everyone has the right to vote; if couples fall in love and marry regardless of race; if we have finally begun to transcend a segregated society – you can thank liberals. Progressive innovations like those and so many others were achieved by long, difficult struggles against entrenched power. What defined conservatism, and conservatives, was they opposition to every one of those advances. The country we know and love today was built by those victories for liberalism – with the support of the American people.
Whether they now describe themselves as liberal or not, most Americans remain strongly progressive in their views about taxation, heath care, education spending, Social Security, environmental protection, and corporate regulation. In fact, despite conservative political advances in recent decades, survey evidence gathered by pollsters of all persuasions suggests that Americans are still more liberal than conservative.
Now if only one of the senate candidates could articulate this the all those undecided voters.
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Progressives provide many benefits to the populace over time. Unfortunately, once these benefits have been in place for a while, they are taken for granted without any recall of what the progressives had to go through. What have you done for me lately? Organized labor is at a low point because its beneficiaries do not want to pay dues. What have you done for me lately? Progressives have brought about better health care and product safety over the years. But what have you done for me lately? If progressivism were undone, would the free market have brought about these same benefits? What has the free market done for you lately?
Comment by Shag from Brookline — August 8, 2003 @ 1:52 pm
Well, to be fair (and this is hard for me to say, considering that I’m a BIG union supporter), Unions are falling not only because conservatives have been winning a propaganda war, but because Union leadership lives just as posh a country club lifestyle as the bosses they are supposed to be defending workers from, and a lot of union workers kind of resent that. Non union workers look to that as proof that unions are just as corrupt as the repugs say they are.
And of course, as Greg points out, Dems aren’t doing Jack shit to make people realize just how much we owe to liberalism. The argument that liberalism is just BETTER than conservatism should be self evident, obvious on it’s face, yet the people who should be promoting that point of view are bending over backwards trying to curry favor with their enemies. Joe Lieberman is without a doubt the worst offender – he practically drools when the possibility of being a cold moral shrew presents itself, and he keeps defending Bush and attacking democrats almost as much as the WSJ does. But he isn’t the only one of course, just the most annoying one.
Still, you’re right about the :what have you done for me lately” thing. Now, if only Dems could find a way to reverse that and turn it on Capitalism. And hell, what if they could somehow present their views in the same air of moral certainty that Repugs do. It would be nice to see a liberal act almost arrogantly indignant, ala Tom Delay.
Oh well.
Comment by Ross Angeles — August 8, 2003 @ 2:15 pm
That’s inspired writing. Unfortunately many Americans take all this stuff for granted.
Comment by Matt — August 8, 2003 @ 3:14 pm
Matt,
To which post are you referring? And what is taken for granted? And how would you fix it (Or try to, anyway)?
Seriously, I’m curious.
Word,
ROss
Comment by Ross Angeles — August 8, 2003 @ 4:12 pm
I feel the worst of these forgotten advances is that of feminism.
It was only about thirty five years ago that women could not get credit cards, except through their husbands.
Now I hear many women, even in magazines that I read and like, say that feminism is bullshit, and that they have it just as good as men. First of all, these declared non-feminists aren’t paying attention if they really believe that–women are still brutalized by men in the home, and given short shrift in the workplace. And secondly, why can’t they see that it was only the hard work of their mothers’ generation (standing on the shoulders of other women’s movements in the last two centuries) that put them this close to equality?
Comment by Dan — August 8, 2003 @ 9:05 pm
Ross
(been away for a spell)
Americans take for granted many of the progressive policies that Liberals helped make into law. Like Conason writes: child labor, health care in work place, living wage, OT (and many things unions fought for through the years), cleaner air and water, civil rights, the list goes on.
It’s far from perfect (what is?) but American’s have a collective amnesia over the benefits of the workplace. The advances have been signed into law by both Dems and Reps but Liberals helped get the legislation for many progressive programs on the table in the first place. Programs that Corporate American would love to leave behind. And in fact Corporate America has left many behind by setting up shop in other countries where they don’t have to follow the laws in the US.
Comment by Matt — August 11, 2003 @ 3:52 pm