Why the Left Crys even When We Win (Re: Gingrich falls

[Brad De Long]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Dennis R Redmond <dredmond at OREGON.UOREGON.EDU>
>To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>Date: Saturday, November 07, 1998 8:43 PM
>Subject: Re: Why the Left Crys even When We Win (Re: Gingrich falls
>
>
>>Where is your head, dude? You're not in Germany. This is *America*
>>The Dumbocrats say all those things, and when they're in power, they (1)
>failed >to pass a ban on scabs while pushing overtime for the biggest
>piece of scab
>>legislation in history, namely NAFTA,
>>It works the other way, too: the Republicans under Newt voted *for* a
>>minimum wage increase. By your logic, we labor activists should be
>>mourning Newt's, ah, decomposition.
>
>It is precisely because we are not in Germany that this kind of analysis
>is simplistic and ignores the party differences.  In the two cases above,
>the answer is known as the Senate filibuster- maybe you've heard of it?
>
>When the Dems had the majority from 93-94, the House passed the anti-scab
>bill.  And a majority of the Senate were willing to vote for it.  But a
>Republican filibuster prevented it from every coming to a vote.  If we had
>had six more "Dumbocrats" in the Senate, permanent replacement workers
>would now be illegal in the United States.

We actually had more than 6 Republican senators ready and willing to close
off debate on striker replacement. But we weren't able to hold the
Democrats--it wasn't a high enough priority for Clinton, and he wasn't
willing to horsetrade for votes...

Brad DeLong