I have some links to pass along today, progressives/liberals taking a slightly different approach to some of the issues in the news:
Part 1 on Ted Kennedy, in which Doug Henwood, editor of the Left Business Observer, takes on the Kennedy myth and reminds us that deregulation was a very bipartisan affair
Henwood, in his blog, stands as the scold in the room, taking on Kennedy from the left in a way that was all too absent during the week’s coverage of his death. Kennedy was an interesting character — personal flaws, old-fashioned liberalism, etc., and the occasional contradiction. Kennedy — “soul” of the Democrats, friend of the common man, Liberal Lion (and yes I know I trafficked in some of this last week) — was also a significant player in the late-1970s push for deregulation.
Often, we talk about the Reagan years when discussion deregulation but the reality is that Carter and the Democrats got the ball rolling.
Once upon a time, working for an airline or driving a truck was a pretty good way to make a living without an advanced degree: union jobs with high pay and decent benefits. A major reason for that is that both industries were federally regulated, with competition kept to a minimum. Starting in the early 1970s, an odd coalition of right-wingers, mainstream economists, liberals, and consumer advocates (including Ralph Nader) began agitating for the deregulation of these industries. All agreed that competition would bring down prices and improve service.
Among the leading agitators was Teddy Kennedy. The right has been noting this in their memorials for “The Lion,” but not the weepy left.
Why was Kennedy such a passionate deregulator? Greg Tarpinian, former director of the Labor Research Association who went on to work for Baby Jimmy Hoffa, once speculated to me that it was because merchant capital always wants to reduce transport costs—the merchant in question being Teddy’s father,
Bootlegger Joe. Maybe.In any case, Kennedy surrounded himself with aides who worked on drafting the deregulatory legislation. Many of them subsequently went on to work for Frank Lorenzo, the ghoulish executive who busted unions at Continental and Eastern airlines in the early 1980s. (Kennedy’s long-time ad agency also did PR work for Lorenzo.)
And what was the result of all this deregulation? Massive downward mobility for workers.
I’d forgotten this connection (not the Democrats’ role, just the Kennedy role) and I suspect — given Nader’s involvement — that the issues were actually the Teamsters, the antipathy that both the New Left and the Kennedy family had for Hoffa and his union, and the growing consumer advocacy movement.
The federal takeover of the Teamsters, I think, shows that they were right to be wary of the union’s power. But the focus on consumers to the exclusion of nearly all else was foolish, as history shows; the assumption that opening these industries to an unfettered market would lower prices and cause no pain was not based in reality. Someone ultimately had to pay the cost of those lowered prices — otherwise the lost revenue would have resulted in lost profit. And it was obvious that it wasn’t going to be the CEOs.
Hank Kalet 