US politics

Political correctness gone mad

Unions, US politics
Published on

The first three panels of the history of labour in Maine created by Judy Taylor

Maine state governor Paul LePage has ordered the removal of a mural depicting Maine’s laboru history from the lobby of the Department of Labor:

Acting labor chief Laura Boyett emailed staff Tuesday about the mural’s pending removal, as well as another administration directive to rename several department conference rooms that carry the names of pro-labor icons such as Cesar Chavez.

According to LePage spokesman Dan Demeritt, the administration felt the mural and the conference room monikers showed “one-sided decor” not in keeping with the department’s pro-business goals.

“The message from state agencies needs to be balanced,” said Demeritt, adding that the mural had sparked complaints from “some business owners” who complained it was hostile to business.

Sailliant detail: one of the conference rooms to be renamed was named after Frances Perkins, U.S. labor secretary under Franklin D. Roosevelt, who came involved in labour reform after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, whose 100th anniversary is this Friday….

Joke Line

US politics, Wingnuts
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On the Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band: Live 1975-1985 box set, which I got for my birthday in 1986 on cassette (!) and which was my first encounter with Springsteen live, there’s a cover of Woodie Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land”. In the introduction to this song Bruce mentions that “there’s a book out there by a fellow named Joe Klein” about Woodie Guthrie and it’s “real good” and that’s what always goes through my head when I read posts like this. There was once a time that Joe Klein wasn’t a know nothing asshole proud to lick the boots of every two bit wingnut coming down the spike and you wonder if it’s sadder if he knows how deep he has sunk in the twentyfive years since that snippet was recorded or if he doesn’t know.

Endless compromise is not a strategy

Democratic (in)action, Pointlesss centrism, US politics
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Matt Y. is right:

The basic dynamic here should be familiar. When Democrats decided about ten years ago to stop pushing for gun control legislation, that didn’t take the issue off the table it led to a wave of envelop-pushing pro-gun bills. When the GOP temporarily stopped opposing Social Security in the wake of World War II, it led to 30 years of steady increases in Social Security benefits and eligibility. Every conservative retreat from anti-gay bigotry inspires people to push deeper for equality. As long as a large minority of the public thinks people should be thrown in jail for having an abortion, we’ll either see continual fighting on this point or else continued slippage as the debate loses an anchor on the pro-choice side.

You can only win politicial fights by, erm, actually fighting rather than pre-emptively capitulating. It’s a lesson many liberal and soft left parties find hard to learn. In some cases, as with e.g. the way in which the Liberal Democrats surrendered so many of their own policies in order to form a coalition with the Tories, this is caused by a disconnect between electorial rhetoric and the party leadership’s true values. In other, as with the trouble the Dutch green party GroenLinks found itself in regarding a new Dutch mission in Afghanistan, it stems from being too eager to be seen as a serious party in a media climate more hostile towards leftwing than rightwing values.