Obama Alert: Reagan’s “Dismal Legacy on Civil Rights”
By NoQuarter on January 18, 2008 at 2:27 PM in Civil Rights, Clinton, Economy, Obama, Ronald Reagan
Subtitle: It’s Not the “Kumbayah” That Gets Things Done, Mr. Obama. It’s Hard-Fought Legislation Enacted Over the Protests of “Movement Conservatives,” Especially the Legislative Achievements of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and the 1990s.
Mr. Obama, get over your iconic view of Ronald Reagan’s message: Reagan was a racially divisive and socially regressive president. From the New York Times editorial page on March 21, 1988:
Ronald Reagan appears determined to go down in history as a President who sought actively to set back the cause of civil rights. How else can one read his veto of the four-year, bipartisan effort to restore the reach of antidiscrimination laws narrowed by a Supreme Court ruling? Congress appears to have the votes to override the veto. Decency argues for doing so, without delay. [...]
The Administration has consistently pursued a disruptive policy on civil rights, from its attempt to give tax exemptions to racially discriminatory Bob Jones University to its efforts to weaken the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. …
Yes, President Ronald Reagan fought the IRS denial of tax exemption to the racist Bob Jones University. President Reagan also:
- introduced an amendment to the Voting Rights Act would require evidence of intent to discriminate and thus weaken the act;
- expressed concern over the cost of honoring Martin Luther King with a national holiday (but signed the law because Congress seemed “bent” on it);
- launched his 1980 election campaign with endorsements of “states rights” in Philadelphia, Mississippi, a city famous for the murder of three civil rights workers; and
- joined Barry Goldwater in opposing the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
And what about President Bill Clinton, whose two terms in 1990s you disparage and discount?
What did William Jefferson Clinton do for blacks and Latinos?
Really, Mr. Obama? The Republicans have been the party of ideas for the past ten to fifteen years? Including the last seven years of Bill Clinton’s administration? Really, Mr. Obama?
Since the economy is the hot topic these days, let’s just look at what President Clinton did for minorities in terms of economic gains — even though Obama dismisses those achievements. From a U.S. government Web site in April 1999:
Unemployment Rate for African Americans and Hispanics Remains Historically Low. Under President Clinton and Vice President Gore, the Hispanic unemployment rate has dropped from 11.3 percent in January 1993 to a record low of 5.8 percent in March 1999. The unemployment rate for African Americans has fallen from 14.1 percent in January 1993 to 8.1 percent in March 1999–one of the lowest levels on record for African Americans.
Here are additional economic accomplishments of the Clinton/Gore administration — as of 1999 (during the administration’s second term) — that also had a direct positive effect for minorities:
- 18.2 Million New Jobs. …
- Unemployment at 4.2 Percent in March …
- Highest Share of New Jobs in Private Sector in 50 Years. Since the President and Vice President took office, the private sector has added 16.7 million new jobs–with 2.4 million jobs added in the past year. Since 1993, 92 percent of the 18.2 million new jobs have been in the private sector–the highest percentage in 50 years.
- Fastest and Longest Real Wage Growth in Two Decades. Last month, average hourly earnings increased 0.2 percent. Under the Clinton-Gore Administration, real wages have risen 6.1 percent–compared to declining 4.3 percent during the Reagan and Bush Administrations. After adjusting for inflation, wages have increased almost 2.7 percent in 1998–the fastest real wage growth in more than two decades and the third year in a row–the longest sustained growth since the early 1970s.
- Construction Jobs Are Coming Back. …
- Manufacturing Jobs Have Increased. After losing 2.1 million manufacturing jobs between 1981 and 1992, the economy has created 350,000 new manufacturing jobs since 1993. After losing 46,000 jobs in the auto industry during the Bush Administration, the United States has 147,000 new auto industry jobs under the Clinton-Gore Administration.
- Inflation Rate Is the Lowest Since the 1950s. …
President Clinton signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, “which passed Congress without a single Republican vote.”
It raised taxes on the wealthiest 1.2% of taxpayers,[35] while cutting taxes for 15 million low-income families and making tax cuts available to 90% of small businesses.[36] Additionally, it mandated that the budget be balanced over a number of years, through the implementation of spending restraints.
Listen, Mr. Obama. If you think that President Clinton and Vice President Gore accomplished those amazing turnarounds for the economy and for minorities by singing “Kumbayah” with Republicans, you’ve just shown how naive you are.
And you’ve exposed how uninformed you are about the brutal history of U.S. politics where every progressive step is spattered with the blood, sweat and tears of all who fought so hard for those gains.
Barry’s political strategy appears to be back stab “liberal” democratic values, and democrats, to win the broader white vote, race bait to win the black vote, and paint yourself as a hip young tolerant progressive to win the youth.
Ah, the politics of unity, reconciliation, and hope.
Maybe he DOES admire Ronald Reagan…
Ahhh, adding intent beyond reasonable doubt, to limit the number of prosecutions and convictions for said item.
That worked magnificently for Scooter Libby, kept him from facing treason charges.
Obama did this for anti discrimination enforcement?
I didn’t mean to do that, but who could have ever imagined? Is that the new ‘get out of jail free’ move for violence, motivated by dislike of civil rights?
Apologies, that was the efforts of one Ronald Reagan, whom Obama praised, albeit not entirely in naivety.
Susan,
Would you be so kind as to amend your post to make it clear that the “Philadelphia” to which you refer is the one in MISSISSIPPI, and not the one in Pennsylvania, please. I’m a South Jersey boy, and Philly is my city; I wouldn’t want it to be confused with the Philadelphia in MS, site of the murder of three civil rights workers. See the entry in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia%2C_Mississippi
Simon,
I think you’ve got it figured out. Maybe this is how they do politics in Chicago; but if so, it undermines all of Obama’s blather about rising above partisanship. This is one stone progressive who might find another candidate to vote for in the general election if this Reagan Lovin’ poser gets the nomination.
I surely will, Simon. That is very important — and in my mad typing I didn’t include Mississippi.
Clinton did even more for than you list. He expanded the earned income tax credit and increased access to child care for low income people. Because of measures like this during his tenure there was a record number of people who moved out of poverty into the middle class.
As for Reagan’s legacy, many of the huge problems we face today are a direct result of his half-baked policies.
After the oil crisis in the 70’s Jimmy Carter got laws passed that put us well on our way to energy independence, requiring fuel efficiency in cars, funding R&D, giving incentives for energy saving things like increasing insulation in homes, etc. Our per capita use of energy dropped substantially. Then Reagan came in with his pie-in-the sky- “there is no energy shortage” blather, and reversed Carter’s policies, setting us back on our old gas guzzling path. We are trapped in the middle east in large part as a result.
Reagan also pushed libertarian free market policies, deregulating when he could, making sure there were not enough people to enforce regulations that he could not get reversed. Presto! We had the multi-billion Savings and Loan collapse which we taxpayers got the privilege of paying for.
He bought into a fringe economic idea called supply side economics and pushed through tax cuts, claiming they would pay for themselves. They didn’t and our debt ballooned.
He bought into the neocon’s (yes those guys were around then, they just weren’t called neocons) loopy missile defense program which mainstream rocket scientists said would never work. We are still paying for that and it still does not work. Because it was the idea of Saint Reagan, politicians don’t dare get point out that it is a boondoggle. The media would eat them alive.
Reagan implemented policies weakening environmental protections.
Bill Clinton undid a lot of the damage that Reagan caused, but Bush, a devotee of Ronnie has successfully implemented Reagan type policies and we are paying the price. Hostage to oil, ballooning deficits, a crisis of confidence in our markets because of lack of oversight and the resulting fraud, environmental degradation, etc.
Obama is either incredibly uninformed or extremely calculating and arrogant.
Susan you did it again! Great info. Reagan made it fashionable and acceptable to be greedy.
The media and Edwards…interesting info
not just a perception a reality
http://www.johnedwards.com/whereisjohn/
Sorry, dunno why the last post is blank. I posted an image, a very telling graph: the only surplus shown is in the Clinton years. The deficit was worst under both Bush’s. From the biggest deficit (till then) to the biggest surplus, then back to a worse deficit under Bush Jr.
If the image still doesn’t come up, it’s at
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2254/1713743698_2e51b3b1c6_o.gif
In 1993 I was living in Southern California and one evening I struck up a conversation with a local Italian restaurant owner. He was bitching and moaning about the Clinton administration and predicting that he would lose all the economic gains he had enjoyed during the Bush years. He might even be forced to sell one of his Cadillacs if things got as bad as he expected. Clinton would raise taxes, give the revenues to lazy no good lay about’s, increase the bureaucracy and so on. My wife and I moved to Southern Utah a few months later and I never had the chance to check up on this guy and ask how he managed to survive Clinton economic policy. I don’t think he lost money. And I’m sure he was able to trade in his luxury cars when ever the ash trays filled up.
Thank you Susan for a great posting. I couldn’t have said it better myself. I wouldn’t join hands with the likes of Karl Rove (even with rubber gloves) and sing kumbaya for all the gold supposed to be in Fort Knox. Bush is just Reagan without the so-called communication skills, and a room temperaure IQ. At least Reagan was smart enough to get our troops out of Lebanon without being accused of cutting and running.
The GOP has not been the party of ideas. Obama is wrong. But Reagan was able to project Republican ideas in a way that many people bought into. That ability is what Obama is referring to. That doesn’t mean Obama’s agreeing with Reagan’s ideas.
I believe Obama means that Reagan did for the Right what Obama would like to do for the Left: Be a vehicle for change, for progressive change in Obama’s case.
Public notification of offenders will never protect any child. The list of offenders that the police have will never protect any children. The ONLY thing it can do is produce an instant list of suspects AFTER the child is already abducted. Does a person living 1 foot outside the restricted area make anyone any safer? Do you think they wont go somewhere else? There are no laws anyway that say an offender cant enter a school. How does residentcy laws prevent anyone from doing anything? Will someone inside the area who lived there before the law started make any decision to offend or not just because of where their house is located. Anyone who urinated outside because of stupid judgement while intoxicated is subject to the same laws as a criminal who raped a 2 year old baby. These laws must end now. Laws must be enacted to seriously punish repeat and violent offenders, not people who have mooned a bus, dove in a lake nude, or streaked across a sports field.