By Mike Appleton, Guest Blogger
“We pledge ourselves to use all lawful means to bring about a reversal of this decision which is contrary to the Constitution and to prevent the use of force in its implementation.
-The Southern Manifesto, Cong. Rec., 84th Cong. 2d Session, Vol. 102, part 4 (March 12, 1956)
‘This was an activist court that you saw today. Anytime the Supreme Court renders something constitutional that is clearly unconstitutional, that undermines the credibility of the Supreme Court. I do believe the court’s credibility was undermined severely today.”
-Michele Bachmann (R. Minn.), June 26 2012
Most people are familiar with the opinion in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, et al., 349 U.S. 483 (1954), in which a unanimous Supreme Court summarily outlawed public school segregation by tersely declaring, “Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” 349 U.S. at 495. But many people do not know that Brown involved a consolidation of cases from four states. The “et al.” in the style refers to decisions on similar facts in Delaware, South Carolina and Virginia. And the response of Virginia to the ruling in Brown provides an interesting comparison with the actions leading to the current government shutdown.
In 1951 the population of Prince Edward County, Virginia was approximately 15,000, more than half of whom were African-American. The county maintained two high schools to accommodate 386 black students and 346 white students. Robert R. Moton High School lacked adequate science facilities and offered a more restricted curriculum than the high school reserved for white students. It had no gym, showers or dressing rooms, no cafeteria and no restrooms for teachers. Students at Moton High were even required to ride in older school buses.
Suit was filed in federal district court challenging the Virginia constitutional and statutory provisions mandating segregated public schools. Although the trial court agreed that the school board had failed to provide a substantially equal education for African-American students, it declined to invalidate the Virginia laws, concluding that segregation was not based “upon prejudice, on caprice, nor upon any other measureless foundation,” but reflected “ways of life in Virginia” which “has for generations been a part of the mores of the people.” Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, 103 F. Supp. 337, 339 (E.D. Va. 1952). Instead, the court ordered the school board to proceed with the completion of existing plans to upgrade the curriculum, physical plant and buses at Moton High School. When the plaintiffs took an appeal from the decision, the Democratic machine that had for many years controlled Virginia politics under the firm hand of Sen. Harry Byrd had little reason to believe that “ways of life” that had prevailed since the end of the Reconstruction era would soon be declared illegal.
When the Brown decision was announced, the reaction in Virginia was shock, disbelief and anger. Reflecting the prevailing attitudes, the Richmond News Leader railed against “the encroachment of the Federal government, through judicial legislation, upon the reserved powers of the States.” The Virginia legislature adopted a resolution of “interposition” asserting its right to “interpose” between unconstitutional federal mandates and local authorities under principles of state sovereignty. And Sen. Byrd organized a campaign of opposition that came to be known as “Massive Resistance.”
In August of 1954 a commission was appointed to formulate a plan to preserve segregated schools. Late in 1955, it presented its recommendations, including eliminating mandatory school attendance, empowering local school boards to assign students to schools and creating special tuition grants to enable white students to attend private schools. Enabling legislation was quickly adopted and “segregation academies” began forming around the state. Subsequent legislation went even further by prohibiting state funding of schools that chose to integrate.
In March of 1956, 19 senators and 77 house members from 11 southern states signed what is popularly known as “The Southern Manifesto,” in which they declared, “Even though we constitute a minority in the present Congress, we have full faith that a majority of the American people believe in the dual system of government which has enabled us to achieve our greatness and will in time demand that the reserved rights of the States and of the people be made secure against judicial usurpation.”
Throughout this period the Prince Edward County schools remained segregated, but when various court rulings invalidated Virginia’s various attempts to avoid integration, the school board took its final stand. It refused to authorize funds to operate any schools in the district, and all public schools in the county were simply closed, and remained closed from 1959 to 1964.
There are striking similarities between Sen. Byrd’s failed plan of Massive Resistance and Republican efforts to prevent implementation of the Affordable Care Act. There was widespread confidence among conservatives that the Supreme Court would declare the Act unconstitutional. When that did not occur, legislators such as Michele Bachmann, quoted above, attempted to deny the legitimacy of the Court’s ruling. Brent Bozell went further, denouncing Chief Justice Roberts as “a traitor to his own philosophy,” hearkening back to the days when southern roadsides were replete with billboards demanding the impeachment of Chief Justice Earl Warren.
The House of Representatives has taken over 40 votes to repeal the ACA, quixotic efforts pursued for reasons known only to John Boehner and his colleagues. And in accordance with the Virginia legislative model, the House has attempted to starve the ACA by eliminating it from funding bills. Following the failure of these efforts, Republicans have elected to pursue the path ultimately taken by the school board of Prince Edward County and have shut down the government.
Even the strategy followed by Republicans is largely a southern effort. Approximately 60% of the Tea Party Caucus is from the South. Nineteen of the 32 Republican members of the House who have been instrumental in orchestrating the shutdown are from southern states. It is hardly surprising therefore, that the current impasse is characterized by the time-honored southern belief in nullification theory as a proper antidote to disfavored decisions by a congressional majority.
In reflecting upon the experience of Virginia many years later, former Gov. Linwood Holton noted, “Massive resistance … served mostly to exacerbate emotions arrayed in a lost cause.” Republicans would do well to ponder the wisdom in that observation.
Nick, E …. “never had to pay SS”. Interesting choice of words, kind’a has a dimension to it. Subtle.
SS is not in worse shape now. It fine to fund retirees at the current levels for 17 more years, that’s what the adjustments in the 80’s were all about.
March 2013 report:
“The Financing Challenges Facing the Social Security Disability Insurance Program
Testimony by Stephen C. Goss, Chief Actuary, Social Security Administration
House Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Social Security
March 14, 2013”
http://www.ssa.gov/oact/testimony/HouseWM_20130314.pdf
The initial summary of the various programs that the system is sound, there are graphs and visual aids, and the DI problems? They’re fixable and pretty easily fixable. What people forget is the pig in the snake will die, and many of us will be dead in the next 17-27 years and the new demographic needing SS will be smaller and more in line with the worker base funding the system. What people in their 30’s ought to do if they want a stable and secure, (hell a vibrant) SS system is to start agitating for the jobs base and middle class to be rebuilt.
OS,
I think Mike Appleton said in a response to Jill upthread that he wasn’t entirely sure that what the Publicans in congress did was legal.
Tony,
It’s a “complete defeat” until February, when we can go through the whole all over again.
Bron, It would be cool if every worker could afford 15% of their wages into a ‘real’ investment. It would be cool if all jobs paid enough to make 15% more than a pittance if people could afford it. It would be cool if mutual funds and investment houses weren’t rewarded for playing so fast and loose with investor money and markets that bubbles didn’t arise and burst regularity taking retirement investments with them. It would be cool if people working a couple of jobs had the time and knowledge to read investment prospectus’ and make good investments. If only. If, if if.
Social Security is what most citizens have, all they have and it works, it’s solid, and it’s the best saving account for ‘old age’ a majority of citizens will ever have.
Bron
1, October 18, 2013 at 7:37 pm
Elaine M:
Social Security is a joke and people ought to wake up and understand that if they put 15% of their income into a real investment they would have more than $1,000 per month when they went to retire.
And medicare is a system which is broken too.
*****
Average monthly Social Security benefit for a retired worker
http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/13/
The average monthly Social Security benefit for a retired worker was about $1,230 at the beginning of 2012.
*****
Maximum retirement benefit
http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/5/related/1/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xMzgyMTQyODkwL3NpZC9peERIazhEbA%3D%3D
The maximum benefit depends on the age you retire. For example, if you retire at your full retirement age in 2013, your maximum benefit would be $2,533. But if you retire at age 62 in 2013, your maximum benefit would be $1,923. If you retire at age 70 in 2013, your maximum benefit would be $3,350.
Bron, I believe Elaine never had to pay SS. Kids get it, God bless them. My son, who isn’t into delayed gratification, has a Roth. My daughter has a Roth and a SEP.
Bron, As I’ve said, the Rep. were stupid to try and delay this train wreck. The computer system is an abomination. Can you imaging a private biz having unlimited resources and 5 years to have a roll out and have this happen. “Good enough for govt. work.”
Elaine M:
Social Security is a joke and people ought to wake up and understand that if they put 15% of their income into a real investment they would have more than $1,000 per month when they went to retire.
And medicare is a system which is broken too.
Young kids, 30’s and younger know there won’t be any SS for them. The Dems won’t make any changes. Both parties got together in the 80’s and made some needed changes, but the system is in much worse shape now. And, when you see the boilerplate, talking point, scare tactics here you understand why our kids are socking away money in Roths, SEPS, and 401’s. Americans do value SS. Dem pols don’t, it’s a boogie man they’ve been using for 30 years now. Shameful.
OS:
my understanding is that republicans funded those things, it is also my understanding that only agencies dealing with Obamacare were defunded. The Pres. shut down the National Parks.
As I said above, some people think Obamacare is immoral.
davidm2575
1, October 18, 2013 at 6:54 pm
Yup, the fed gov should keep hands off medicare, medicaid, social security, and obamacare. It is all a mess.
*****
Those folks that I spoke of like Medicare. Most Americans also value Social Security. You may not…but I think you are in the minority.
David: “No other President during a federal shutdown took the steps this President did, to close the WWII memorial and withhold death benefits from families of deceased soldiers,”
David, neither did this President. The Comptroller of the Pentagon briefed Congress and the press on 27 September saying that the death compensation would not be paid. Congress did not add that payment to the ‘Pay Our Troops Act’ which was passed 2 days later by Congress. Look to the Congress that somehow managed to keep their gym open and their trainers working as ‘essential’.
Make no mistake, the Republican House was driving the bus on what to fund, they even passed a special rule that made it impossible for anyone but Eric Cantor from bringing forward any clean CR bills. If anyone could have raised a clean CR as a privileged motion the shutdown would have been over on October 2nd when enough Republicans had said they would vote for it to get it passed.
Crying that it’s the President’s fault because he didn’t bother to throw himself in front of the bullet the Republicans were shooting themselves in the foot with is not going to fly.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3036697/ns/msnbc-hardball_with_chris_matthews/vp/53239768#53239768
“House Resolution 368 trumped the standing rules. Where any member of the House previously could have brought the clean resolution to the floor under House Rule 22, House Resolution 368 — passed on the eve of the shutdown — gave that right exclusively to the House majority leader, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/13/house-republicans-rules-change_n_4095129.html
And what Tony C said kind of. Who knows how much of it was just theater. Who knows how much of any politics is just theater. I have said often enough that there is only one party. It is hard to believe that either party would allow themselves too look as bad and disorganized as the Republicans have looked as a ruse. They sure did get down to business when big business started making unhappy sounds.
Bron,
The example David mentioned above about death benefits for soldiers killed in combat. Having to take up collections so grieving widows and parents could fly to Dover AFB to meet the bodies of loved ones coming home instead of mercy flights by the Air Force. Meals on Wheels being halted, resulting in an untold number of elderly and disabled people going hungry. Want me to go on? It is really a long list.
David,
Secretary Hagel was not allowed to pay the benefits. Fisher House agreed to take up the slack until funding resumed. It literally took an Act of Congress to carve out an exception to the hold so the DoD could resume paying benefits.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-11/obama-signs-military-death-benefits-bill-passed-by-congress.html
OS wrote: “Secretary Hagel was not allowed to pay the benefits. Fisher House agreed to take up the slack until funding resumed.”
This is a lie. President Obama can pay for whatever he wants through executive order. They have the funds. I suspect the Defense Department has the funds also that can be appropriated by Hagel, but I don’t have direct knowledge of that. When they say they can’t legally pay, they mean they can’t legally pay through the normal channel. The government has the money, they just wanted to create the appearance that Republicans shut down the federal government and was hurting these people. The truth is that the Republicans voted for bills to fund these things, but the President and Democrats rejected it because they wanted to use as leverage the possibility of keeping the federal government open in order to force a vote to fund Obamacare. If the President and Democrats had voted with the Republicans not to have a government shutdown, they would have lost their leverage and been at a disadvantage in negotiating on Obamacare.
As for Fisher House, it was Senator Manchin who called them, not Hagel. Contrary to reports by the left wing media, the Defense Department never had a contract with Fisher House, they only talked about it. The left wing websites have spun this story. Watch Fox News and hear it directly from Ken Fisher’s own mouth. Hagel then called to tell Fisher House to thank you but no thank you… please butt out. They didn’t need them. Fisher House is still going to give $25,000 to each family anyway, because the government is slow and still has not paid the families anything.
“President Obama can pay for whatever he wants through executive order.”
Clever DavidM,
But intellectually dishonest. You know very well that the minute he did so via executive order, you and your tea friends would be lambasting him. A tad hypocritical don’t you think?
Mike Spindell wrote: “You know very well that the minute he did so via executive order, you and your tea friends would be lambasting him.?”
No they would not. You don’t understand Republicans at all. Why would they vote to pay all the military at the start of this federal shutdown? Why did they vote to extend these death benefits? Because they support it. If Hagel went to Obama and explained the death benefit problem, and Obama extended payments to them, he would be COMMENDED by the Republicans. During this whole federal shutdown, the Republicans tried time and again to find what departments Obama would agree to fund. They were successful with the military, but not much else. President Obama wanted the federal government shutdown, so he could play victim and accuse the Republicans.
OS:
so what exactly was immoral in what he did?
Some people think Obamacare is immoral.
Riddle me this. What has changed in this nation? We still have massive, illegal spying. We have an economy in collapse. We have multiple wars. We have environmental disasters everywhere. We have unparalleled poverty. The financial industries are going strong, gambling us all to hell. We have weird religious beliefs like Cruz and the Pres. who reads his daily devotional while ordering drone kills and torture–or perhaps that is the kind of religion that many here find normal. We have amazing torture going on in Gitmo. We have an industry health insurance bill that has premiums so high, the govt. is afraid people will get sticker shock. What has changed? None of what really matters.
What has changed is the govt. has regained control of the narrative. We are back to the run up of the election with people seeing the world as evil Republicans and good Democrats. We aren’t talking about the things actual liberals should care about. It’s all evil Teapublicans, all the time. No one even notices how they aren’t talking about anything that matters, just how evil the teaparty is.
I think most people here can agree that most everything the teaparty stands for is a disaster for our nation, except some of their stands on war and spying. Why is it then, that we aren’t talking about what we do want for our nation. Here’s what I want.
Jobs for anyone who wants them at a living wage. A living wage for everyone who can’t work. A clean environment with an immediate move to renewable energy and conservation. I want universal, single payer healthcare. I want the financial industry broken up, where crimes have been committed I want jail time and I want the public reimbursed for every penny stolen, plus interest. I want Gitmo closed and detainees given compensation for torture. I want the US to stop its wars, stop arming the world, stop giving money to contractors. I want the NSA/OGA and their contractors shut down. I want social justice. I don’t see that happening if all I can do is think about the teaparty. It will only happen if I and others insist it must happen, not just from the teaparty, but by the complicit Republicans, Democrats and president as well as the judges who have ceased caring about our Constitution and the rule of law.
Elaine,
With respect to Ted Cruz’ use of the misinformation tactic, perhaps he has been taking a tutorial from his new colleague, Senator Rand Paul, MD. Dr. Paul the Younger spoke to a group of medical students recently. As reported in The National Journal, Paul made some remarks that revealed more of his true character than perhaps he intended:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/the-truthiness-of-rand-paul-20131017
Not typing too well right now. Let me try again.
Hagel should be fired for allowing the withholding of soldier death benefits during the federal government shutdown.
Otteray,
You expect birthers and people who listen to the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Donald Trump to make sense? Remember a few years ago when some older folks were saying that they wanted the government to kept its hands off their Medicare? You can’t make this stuff up.
Yup, the fed gov should keep hands off medicare, medicaid, social security, and obamacare. It is all a mess.
Elaine,
Puzzle me this. Cruz was born in Calgary. His father is from Cuba and his mother was born in Delaware. Cruz has enthusiastic supporters for a Presidential bid.
Now…..here is my problem. Some of the same people who are so excited about Cruz running for President are the same people who are so vocal in denouncing the “Kenyan impostor.” You remember him, the guy who was actually born on US soil to a father from Kenya and mother from Kansas. My poor brain is tired from trying to figure it out.
Ted Cruz-The Reincarnation Of Joe McCarthy?
By Rick Ungar
2/18/13
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2013/02/18/ted-cruz-the-reincarnation-of-joe-mccarthy/2/
Excerpt:
While watching the Senate confirmation hearings for Chuck Hagel last week, my attention was grabbed when I heard Senator Cruz note that he had witnessed something “truly extraordinary, which is the government of Iran formally and publicly praising the nomination of a defense secretary. I would suggest to you that to my knowledge, that is unprecedented to see a foreign nation like Iran publicly celebrating a nomination.”
While I found this bit of information to be shocking (I had not heard this reported from any other news source) and more than a little difficult to believe, I had to agree with Senator Cruz that such a statement of support would not only be unprecedented but more than a little disturbing —if the Iranian government had, indeed, offered up such warm words of praise in support of Senator Hagel’s nomination.
Yet, the Iranians never issued any such statement or, for that matter, even came close.
It turns out that during a press conference, a spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry was asked by a reporter what he thought about Chuck Hagel’s views on Israel. In response, the spokesperson said, “We hope there will be practical changes in American foreign policy and that Washington becomes respectful of the rights of nations.”
Clearly, there was no rational basis for Senator Cruz to conclude that such a remark was an expression of public praise for the nomination of Chuck Hagel. So why would Cruz suggest such a thing?
The only possible explanation for Cruz’s remarks would have to be that he either misheard or misunderstood the statement of the Iranian spokesperson or, in homage to Joe McCarthy, he purposely twisted the remark to cast an undeserved dark shadow on Senator Hagel.
To date, Senator Cruz has never come forward to say that, upon further review, he may have been mistaken about his interpretation of the Iranian spokesperson’s remarks. Thus, the only remaining option is that is was a purposeful smear.
The alarm bells set off by Cruz’s statement only grew louder when Chris Matthews and Aliyah Frumin of MSNBC , reminded us of the time Joe McCarthy attempted to similarly create a moment of “guilt by association and commendation” when The Communist Daily Worker newspaper favorably reviewed the episode of Edward R. Murrow’s TV show where the great newsman performed his famous take-down of McCarthy. In an effort to paint Murrow as a Communist sympathizer as the means of discrediting his efforts, McCarthy noted that the Daily Worker “lists Mr. Murrow’s program as one of tonight’s best bets on TV.”
Sadly, Senator Cruz had only just begun his smear campaign against Chuck Hagel.
During a gathering of the Senate Armed Services Committee, where the Hagel nomination was under discussion prior to a vote, Cruz referenced a reported payment to Hagel of $200,000, over a two-year period, from Corsair Capital. The money was compensation to Hagel for his work as a member of the firm’s advisory board. Not surprisingly, when asked about this payment, Hagel had no idea as to the initial source of the money just as I could not possibly tell you the origins of the actual dollars I am paid by my own employer.
As Corsair does have some contracts overseas, Cruz saw the opportunity to take what was a very ordinary payment to a board member and turn into something potentially sinister.
“We do not know, for example, if he received compensation for giving paid speeches at extreme or radical groups,” Cruz insisted. “It is at a minimum relevant to know if that $200,000 that he deposited in his bank account came directly from Saudi Arabia, came directly from North Korea. I have no evidence that it is or isn’t.”
How is this not the same as the logical fallacy that is created when one asks the question, “Tell me, Senator, why do you continue to beat your wife?” and how is this not far below the dignity of what we expect of a United States Senator?
Never mind that Hagel had already complied with his requirement to file a statement listing transactions with foreign governments for the preceding 10 years—a statement that revealed no such payments from Saudi Arabia or North Korea. Never mind that Cruz could have easily requested the additional information he sought without planting the suggestion that Hagel could—or would—have accepted payments from an enemy of the United States.
But Cruz was neither interested in truth nor information—only the smear.
Hagel should be fired for not allowing soldier death benefits to be withheld during the federal government shutdown.