Letters from an American - July 12, 2024

Episode Date: July 14, 2024

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July 12, 2024. Representative Glenn Groffman, a Republican of Wisconsin, said yesterday that if Trump wins re-election, the U.S. should work its way back to 1960, before the angry feminist movement took the purpose out of the man's life. Groffman said that President Lyndon Baines Johnson's war on poverty was actually a war on marriage in a communist attempt to hand control of children over to the government. Groffman was waxing nostalgic for a fantasy past when laws in society discriminated against women who could not get credit cards in their own name until 1974, meaning that, among other things, they could not build

credit scores to borrow money on their own, and who were forced into dependence on men. The 1960 date Groffman chose was notable in another way, too. It was before the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, with which Congress tried to make the racial equality promised in the 1868 14th Amendment and the voting rights promised in the 1870 15th Amendment become real. At stake in Groffman's erasure of the last 60 years is the equality of women and minorities to the white men who previously exercised virtually complete control of American society. Since the 1870s, during the reconstruction of the American government after the Civil War, white reactionaries insisted that opening the vote to anyone but white men would result in socialism. Their argument was

that poor voters, by which they meant black men, would elect leaders who would promise them roads and schools and hospitals and so on. Those public benefits could be paid for only with tax levies, and since white men held most of the property in the country in those days, they insisted such benefits amounted to a redistribution of wealth from hardworking white men to undeserving black Americans, even though poor white people would benefit from those public works as much as or more than black people did. This argument resurfaced after World War II as an argument against black and brown voting and in the 1970s against the electoral power of women's libbers, that is, women who called for the federal government to protect the rights of women equally to those of men.

Reagan called for rolling back the government regulations and social safety net that underpins society, a gap appeared in voting behavior. Women, especially black women, tended to back the Democrats while men moved toward the Republican candidates. Increasingly, Republican leaders used racist and sexist tropes to undermine the active government whose business regulations they hated. For the radical extremists who have taken over the Republican Party, getting rid of the modern government that regulates business, provides a basic social safety net, promotes infrastructure, and protects civil rights is now gospel as they try to replace it with Christian nationalism. But that active government remains popular. That popularity was reflected today as Republicans continued to take credit for laws passed by

Democrats to maintain or expand an active government. In Tennessee, Republican Governor Bill Lee boasted that the state had secured historic funding to modernize Memphis infrastructure with the single largest transportation investment in state history. All the Republicans in the Tennessee delegation opposed the measure, leaving Democratic Representative Steve Cohen to provide the state's only yes vote. Indeed, Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn posted on social media that Americans do not want Biden's socialist build back broke plan. In Alabama, Senator Tommy Tuberville boasted about a bridge project funded by a $550 million Department of Transportation grant, writing, since I took office, I have been working to secure funding for the Mobile Bridge and get

this project underway. But, as Representative Terry Sewell, an Alabama Democrat, pointed out, Tuberville voted against the bill that provided the money. Like Governor Lee and Senator Blackburn, Tuberville knows such government policies are enormously popular and so takes credit for them, even while voting against them. Union workers also historically have supported a government that regulates business and provides a social safety net and infrastructure investment.

But those workers turned to Reagan in 1980 and have tended to make their home in the Republican Party ever since. Now they appear to be shifting back. Today, the president of the 600,000-member International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers urged Biden to stay in the race, writing, For the first time in decades, we have an administration that has leveled the playing field for workers trying to organize. The IAM is one of the fastest growing unions in the labor movement because we have a president who goes toe-to-toe with corporations on behalf of working people. Union President Brian Bryant noted that Biden saved hundreds of thousands of our members'

jobs and thanked him for strengthening the Buy America regulations that have helped to create millions of jobs, including nearly 800,000 in manufacturing. Bryant also credited Biden with helping to save 83 pension plans that covered more than a million workers and retirees. Bryant noted that, in the IAM, we value seniority. United Auto Workers President Sean Fain told Netroots Nation today that humanity is at stake in the 2024 election. This has everything to do with our shot at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our wages, having health care, our retirement security,

and our time. These are the four core issues that unite the entire working class people in a fight against the billionaire class, as we saw in our contract campaign last fall, when 75% of Americans supported us in that fight for those reasons. The dream and the scheme of a man like Donald Trump is that the vast majority of working class people who literally make our country run will remain divided. That's how they win. They want us to not unite in a common cause to take on the billionaire class. They divide us by race. They divide us by gender, by who we love. They divide us by what language we speak or where we were born. Today, in Detroit, in a barn burner of a speech, President Joe Biden pitched his plan for the first hundred days of a second term with

a Democratic Congress. He promised to restore Roe v. Wade, eliminate medical debt, raise the minimum wage, protect workers' right to organize, ban assault weapons, and to keep leading the world on clean energy and addressing climate change. He also vowed to sign into law the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would end voter suppression, and the Freedom to Vote Act, which would protect voter rights and election systems, as well as end partisan gerrymandering. Biden forcefully contrasted his own record with Trump's. He reminded the audience that he was the first president to walk a picket line because when labor does well, everybody does well. When Trump comes here to tell you how great he is for the auto industry, remember this. When Trump was president, we lost 86,000 jobs in unions.

I created 275,000 auto jobs in America. In fact, what's been true in the auto industry is true all over America. Since I became president, we created nearly 16 million new jobs nationwide, 390,000 of those jobs right here in Michigan. We've created 800,000 manufacturing jobs nationwide, including 24,000 in Michigan. Biden hammered Trump saying no more free passes. He reminded the audience that Trump is a convicted criminal and that a judge had found him liable Biden hammered Trump, saying no more free passes. He reminded the audience that Trump is a convicted criminal and that a judge had found him liable for sexual abuse. Biden quoted the judge. Mr. Trump raped her.

Biden reminded the audience that Trump lost his license to do business in New York state and is still facing criminal charges for retaining classified documents and trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, as well as charges in Georgia for election interference. Biden said, it's time for us to stop treating politics like entertainment and reality TV. Today, the European Union charged Trump donor Elon Musk's social media company, X, formerly Twitter, for failing to curb disinformation and illegal hate speech. Also today, a judge ruled that Trump ally Rudy Giuliani is not entitled to bankruptcy protection. The judge cited Giuliani's lack of financial transparency and noted that Giuliani has engaged in self-dealing. This decision means that election workers Ruby Freeman and Shea Moss, as well as other creditors, are free to collect what they can of the $150 million he owes them. A lawyer for the two said, we're pleased the court saw through Mr. Giuliani's games and put a stop to his abuse of the bankruptcy proceeding. We will move forward as quickly as possible to begin enforcing our

judgment against him. Meanwhile, Trump appeared to be trying to recapture attention by teasing an unveiling of his vice presidential nominee at next week's Republican National Convention. presidential nominee at next week's Republican National Convention. He compared the selection process to a highly sophisticated version of The Apprentice, the reality TV show in which he appeared before he became president and which centered around firing people. Letters from an American was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dedham, Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss. Letters from an American was produced at Soundscape Productions,

Dedham, Massachusetts.