I. 73rd U.S. Congress: Simple Democratic Majority During FDR’s first two years in office, Democrats held a majority of the seats in Congress, but not a supermajority. At the time, two-thirds of Senators had to vote for cloture (the number was decreased in the 1970s to 60). With just 59-63 Democratic Senators (the number varied over time), Dems did not have enough votes to push through progressive legislation. The exception? Banking reform. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 (and the bank runs that followed) was that era’s 9/11. To do nothing about the banking crisis would have been like folding our hands on 9/12/2001 and murmuring “It’s God’s will.” The 73rd U.S. Congress passed some important financial regulation, in particular Glass-Steagall which prohibited commercial banks from engaging in risky financial speculation. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ensured that Americans would not be deprived of their life’s savings through no fault of their own.
II. 74th U.S. Congress: 69 Senate DemocratsWhat a difference 69 votes made. The 74th U.S. Congress tackled a wide array of problems including
Labor . Up until FDR, union busting was a more less sanctioned activity in the U.S. And I mean
busting . Employers hired armed thugs to beat (and kill) union organizers. Some of these thugs were members of the police or the army. Union members were blacklisted. If you wanted to keep your job and keep food on the family table, you kept your mouth shut and replied “Yes, sir!” when spoken to.
http://wapedia.mobi/en/History_of_union_busting_in_the_United_StatesThe 74th Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act. It set up the National Labor Relations Board. It made blacklisting union members and interfering with union activities (including voting) illegal.
Social Security . Up until FDR, smart folks put aside a little bit of their earnings to save for retirement or illness---if they were lucky enough to have jobs that paid more than a subsistence wage and
if the Banksters did not fritter away their hard earned savings, in which case they were shit out of luck. Social Security changed that. Now, the federal government helped people save. If the worst happened----early death, disability---at least you would not starve on the street. There was also Aid to Families with Dependent Children.
The original Social Security Act was not perfect. Women and minorities were largely excluded. Over the decades, the act was modified several times. People who are dissatisfied with the first round of Health Care Reform (and if you read my journals, you know that I think it far from perfect) might want to remember that it is easier to correct problems with an existing program than to create that program in the first place. Often the most important first step is acknowledging that people have a right to health care---or food to eat or a bed in which to sleep.
Sometimes, a gesture means a lot. The 74th passed the Revenue Act of 1935, a novel bill that raised taxes on the nation’s wealthy. Imagine that! Expecting those folks who lead lifestyles of the rich and famous to help out their less fortunate brothers!
The 74th decided that the federal government had a right---and obligation---to help with projects such as flood control and electricity for rural areas.
The 74th decided that people hired by federal government contractors had a right to a minimum wage and overtime. If Big Business wanted a share of corporate welfare, it would have to let more than the shit trickle down.
If a 69 vote Democratic majority could do all that, imagine what an even larger majority---a supermajority---could accomplish.
III. 75th U.S. Congress: 76 Senate Democrats The 75th Congress protected consumers by outlawing deceptive trade practices. The 75th created the FDA and gave the federal government the power---and obligation---to keep our food supply and our medications safe. If not for the FDA, our milk would probably be as melamine laced as China’s. Our mascara might still cause blindness. Your antibiotics might (still) contain diethylene glycol---anything to keep manufacturers costs down and profits high!
The FDA is not perfect. We have seen how private industry can infiltrate the agency, compromising public health. But at least we have criminal penalties for businessmen who repeatedly, knowingly try to kill us. That was a lot more than our great great grandparents had.
Most important of all, the 75th Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act. Again, this was a bill that was not perfect at its inception. Over the years it has been modified numerous times---to prohibit age discrimination, to prohibit sex discrimination. However, this bill was an important first start. In the past, it was up to industry to pay whatever it felt like paying---even if its employees starved or worked under brutal conditions that killed them.
The 75th Congress decided that the American worker was more than just a cog in some corporate machine to be used and discarded. It declared that workers were important and had rights, too.
The 75th Congress decided that the nation’s children were more than just miniature cogs in some corporate machine to be used and discarded to supplement Mom and Dad’s pitiful salaries. It set the minimum age for most jobs at 16 and for hazardous work at 18---this seems so basic that it is hard to believe that tiny children once slaved away in factories.
The number of children under the age of 15 who worked in industrial jobs for wages climbed from 1.5 million in 1890 to 2 million in 1910. Businesses liked to hire children because they worked in unskilled jobs for lower wages than adults, and their small hands made them more adept at handling small parts and tools. Children were seen as part of the family economy. Immigrants and rural migrants often sent their children to work, or worked alongside them. However, child laborers barely experienced their youth. Going to school to prepare for a better future was an opportunity these underage workers rarely enjoyed. As children worked in industrial settings, they began to develop serious health problems. Many child laborers were underweight. Some suffered from stunted growth and curvature of the spine. They developed diseases related to their work environment, such as tuberculosis and bronchitis for those who worked in coal mines or cotton mills. They faced high accident rates due to physical and mental fatigue caused by hard work and long hours.
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/hine-photos/For decades the nation had tried to regulate child labor, but it took 76 Democratic Senators---a supermajority---to do it.
The 75th was not perfect. A popular bill to outlaw lynching was shot down by Southern Democrats. Luckily, that was not the last Democratic Supermajority of the 20th Century.
IV. The 88th Congress: 66 Senate Democrats In case you think that only something as catastrophic as the Great Depression could light a fire under Congress, I present the 88th and 89th Congresses and their achievements under LBJ.
LBJ was a protégé of FDR. He cut his teeth on New Deal politics. He knew that it was possible to change this country. So, when he stepped in to fill Kennedy’s shoes, he decided to spearhead some truly impressive reforms.
The 88th Congress brought us:
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 Once the Act was implemented, its effects were far-reaching and had tremendous long-term impacts on the whole country. It prohibited discrimination in public facilities, in government, and in employment, invalidating the Jim Crow laws in the southern U.S. It became illegal to compel segregation of the races in schools, housing, or hiring.
Powers given to enforce the act were initially weak, but were supplemented during later years. Congress asserted its authority to legislate under several different parts of the United States Constitution, principally its power to regulate interstate commerce under Article One (section 8), its duty to guarantee all citizens equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment and its duty to protect voting rights under the Fifteenth Amendment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964Southern Dems
hated this one. They fought long and hard ( two month filibuster). But it passed.
Just this would be enough to make Americans remember the 88th Congress fondly. But they did not stop there. We also got The Clean Air Act, Food Stamps (yes, we all have a right to eat) and Head Start.
V. The 89th Congress: 67 Senate Democrats By the time 1965 rolled around, Congress was on a roll. The 89th Congress brought us:
Medicare and Medicaid. You think the (ongoing) fight for universal health reform has been hard? Back in the 1960s, plenty of people predicted the end of life as we know it in this country if the nation’s elderly, disabled and poor were not allowed to die in the streets the way that God intended them.
Extra federal funding for poor schools. Integration was not enough. Some southern states simply stopped funding public schools and sent their whites to private “academies.” If everyone was going to get a chance at a decent education, the federal government had to follow up with cash.
The Voting Rights Act . We bitch and moan about election fraud committed by corporate America and the GOP. How many of us remember that you could get
killed for attempting to vote while Black prior to 1965? Poll Taxes, Literacy Tests---these were facts of life all across the South. The Constitution guaranteed equal rights for all regardless of race, but the Feds had not attempted to enforce that law in years---until LBJ and the 89th Congress.
HUD was created, based upon the (novel for the time) principle that everyone deserved a home. Federal motor vehicle emissions standards were set in an effort to clean up our air. Car were made safer, too, so that less of us would die in car crashes. We got a Freedom of Information Act, we got warning labels on our cigarettes (the Southern Blue Dogs must have hated that), we got cleaner/safer highways and more funding for colleges.
VI. In case you are still convinced that a Democratic supermajority is no different from a Republican majority...Consider the crowning achievement of the GOP controlled 83rd Congress (under Eisenhower) which banned the Communist Party (?!) a law that no one even tries to enforce, probably for fear that it would be struck down like a tree in a lightening storm. And then there was the 108th Congress, again with a Republican majority under a Republican president, George W. Bush. The 108th’s claims to fame include tax cuts for the rich and Medicare Part D (the drug company giveaway act).
No wonder the corporate media wants you to believe that “60 Votes Don’t matter”. They are scared to death of what might happen if the Dems get 65 or 70 Senate seats. What new wrongs might be righted? What corporate profits might be slashed? How many Americans might be persuaded that voting is not a waste of time? The Employee Free Choice Act. A national single payer option. Don't dismiss these as pipe dreams.
We do not see faith, hope, and charity as unattainable ideals, but we use them as stout supports of a nation fighting the fight for freedom in a modern civilization.
FDR
Have always been and will always be a Democrat. :dem:
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