Heidi Li's Potpourri

Hillary Rodham Clinton: a progressive and somebody who certainly saw the current fiscal crisis coming

In the postcript to an earlier entry, I wrote that if Senator Clinton does join Senator Obama's cabinet (she has not been officially offered nor officially accepted the position of Secretary of State as I write now), she will be the most progressive member of an Obama cabinet.

The reason I consider Senator Clinton an exemplar of genuine progressivism is that she has consistently believed in government's ability and responsibility maintain equality of economic opportunity - a constant shared baseline chance for all to achieve economic gains during their lifetimes. Thus, it made sense that as soon as Senator Clinton noticed the subprime mortgage problem brewing, she started expecting the government to get involved to protect individuals from a systemic disaster.

To review this aspect of Senator Clinton's economic progressivism from March 2007 until now, go here for her views on subprime mortgage lending.  See here for Senator Clinton's call on President Bush, which she issued in March 2008, to name a foreclosure working group to focus on the housing crisis. Or here, for her discussion, in Nevada in January 2008 of the stimulus package she was talking about implementing, were she elected President.

The reason I would like to see her as Senate Majority Leader is because I believe she could marshall votes to pass progressive proposals focused on maintaining the baseline equaliy of economic opportunity President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal originally envisioned: a New Deal for laborers was Roosevelt's promise in 1932. It is not clear to me that equality of opportunity for the working or middle class is a priority for the new executive administration or the current Democratic Party leadership. This is a signature issue for Senator Clinton and having her available to take the lead on it in the Senate might restore, at least to some measure, Americans' deeply diminished confidence in the U.S. Congress.

At this point, it would take nothing less than Senator Harry Reid renouncing his the Majority Leadership specifically in favor of her becoming Senate Majority Leader for her to assume the role I think she could play in reviving a Congress that Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid have led to record lows in approval rating. I do not anticipate this happening. But I take this opportunity to open the door to a discussion of what makes an American politician progressive (as opposed to right or left; Democrat or Republican): that fundamental commitment to government's ability and responsibility to maintain equality of economic opportunity for all of the governed.

True American progressives include, off the top of my head, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Robert La Follete, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Mario Cuomo, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

These days Barack Obama seems increasingly like Lyndon Johnson

Before Lyndon Baines Johnson became President he was a critic of the northeastern establishment, a son of Texas, and a devotee of bipartisanship.  Barack Obama has been in political life for a much briefer time than Lyndon Johnson was before Johnson was elected to the presidency (after he first ascended to the office upon John F. Kennedy's death). Yet the parallels to LBJ are there. Prior to winning against John McCain on November 4, President-elect Obama critiqued the Washington establishment (including Democrats who had spent more time in office there than he ever has); both during and after the general election, he has operated from Chicago, thereby emphasizing his adopted mid-western mantle; during the primaries and the general election he campaigned as critic of partisanship.  Now President-elect Obama is joining hands across the aisle in an unprecedented manner, reappointing a sitting Cabinet member of the other Party's outgoing President. Not just any member of the Bush 2 team, either. Mr. Obama has selected  Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense and Gates has agreed to the appointment.

Seems a hawkish move. Very in keeping with the Lyndon Johnson style.  LBJ represented the right wing of the Democratic Party when it came to foreign policy. During the mid-1960s, Johnson escalated the Vietnam War, a believer in the need to contain Communism by force. Ultimately, Johnson's hawkishness lost him the support of rank and file Democrats, leading him to decide against seeking the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 1968.

I am not suggesting that President-elect Obama will not attempt to get U.S. troops out of Iraq. Historical parallels aside, the Gates appointment makes clear that Senator Obama meant what he said during the general election: he does not oppose U.S. troop presence overseas or using military force to fight terrorism; nor does he oppose Republican foreign policy in a blanket way. What Senator Obama wants to do is redeploy U.S. troops, not bring them home. That is, he plans to shift troops from Iraq to Afghanistan, to beef up  Operation Enduring Freedom, George W. Bush's other post post-9/11 war. (Sweeping redeployment, removing virtually all troops from Iran, seems destined to take at least another two to three years.) Whether the U.S. has learned enough about post-conventional warfare for it to make sense to use more troops in Afghanistan remains to be seen.

Do not get me wrong. Lyndon Johnson did some admirable and amazing things as President - including making sure that the Civil Rights Act of 1965 got passed and signed into law. So being like Lyndon Johnson is not necessarily a bad thing, at least from an overall liberal point of view.  Let us note, however, that President-elect Obama has not made any bold Great Society-like moves yet. He has created a new presidential Economic Recovery Advisory Board, but this is not a New Deal or Great Society descendant. It is modeled on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, created by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. No President's Commission on Women  seems forthcoming; although, actually, now I have my sights set on a President's Advisory Board on the Status of Women in America. Really, I do.

POSTSCRIPT

Hillary Rodham Clinton is the most genuinely liberal or progressive person President-elect Obama has reportedly asked to join his Cabinet. Senator Clinton: supporter of the view that womens rights are human rights; proponent of genuinely universal healthcare, early advocate of direct relief to mortgage holders. Whether Senator Obama's offer is made official or is accepted remains to be seen.  Wherever Senator Clinton ends up come January she will be to the left of those around her. I  hope she influences whoever she can to move her way.

Given my druthers, I, along with hundreds of others I know of, would prefer to see Senator Clinton become Senate Majority Leader. So would Marie C. Wilson, head of The White House Project. But whatever Senator Clinton decides to do, given her options, I have confidence she will indeed move those around her to progressivism and liberalism.

Giving thanks, giving gifts, building momentum

Looking for a way to live a political life without breaking the bank? Want to spend your hard-earned money in ways that benefit multiple recipients at once? Want to begin to Salt March?

Support the White House Project - Send a Woman to the White House
Help the National Women's History Museum Build a Home in the Nation's Capital

As the winter holidays arrive, we will be giving thanks and giving gifts. The gift-giving will be, for many, curtailed due to financial circumstances. But there is a way that even those on a tight budget can give gifts that will be received with great thanks by two organizations, one focused on American women's accomplishments here and now, the other dedicated to educating and celebrating American women's achievements in the past. I think of this pair of institutions as the yin and yang of making sure that women count. Both organizations accept donations and one can join either as a member. With a bit of creativity, you can give as little as five dollars to either organization, print out the receipt (cross out the amount of money donated if you like) and decorate it or wrap it up and give it to a friend (maybe somebody with whom you are forming an SWWH group). This year, give the people you love a donation in honor of that love and in support of two groups who are helping to stamp out misogyny and sexism in favor celebration and empowerment of women.

For children, you can give the book Call Me Madame President from The White House Project shop. Or do your all your holiday shopping through the iGive portal and designate the National Women's History Museum as the beneficiary (the charitable cause you designate gets a percentage contribution based on your total purchases from cooperating merchants).

When millions of people combine financial forces, change happens. For an interesting read on the general topic, with specific reference to cause organizations mutually supporting one another, see this article, "Money Talks", by Eric L. Smith.

"Don't agonize. Organize." - Send a Woman to the White House

'Don’t agonize. Organize.'
- Florynce Kennedy

Right now, many people believe that they will not see a woman elected president of this country in their lifetimes. The estimable Marie Cocco sums the situation up once again. One of my favorite blog writers, Ani, gives us her take.

One can hardly blame people for feeling this way. But, I think it is too early to conclude that we will not see a woman elected president in the next 24 years. So, if you think you have another quarter century in you, not only might you see a woman elected president, you can help make it happen. It won't happen because it will be easy to accomplish. And it It won't happen because of hope. It will happen because of hard work in the face of long odds.

It will happen because we challenge ourselves to make it happen' to make it a national priority. We must recognize that electing a woman to the Presidency of the United States of America is a way of affirming the 51 per cent of the American population consisting of women, a way of affirming that Americans can understand human rights well enough to appreciate that women's rights are human rights, a way of affirming the great American heritage in promoting the rights of all persons based on ever more inclusive ideas of who counts as a rights-bearing person.

Before you stop reading because you decide this is just going to be a bit of cockeyed optimism or mere exhortation, I will name two concrete ways Americans can challenge themselves to make a woman President within the next 25 years.

I. First, learn about The White House Project. Don't be put off by the bit on the home page congratulating Obama-Biden. There will be some ideas and aspects of the site you will like more than others, but spend some time at The White House Project, and you will  see that this group understands that to put a woman in the White House we, as a nation, are going to have to face down the pervasive misogyny and sexism rampant in the culture and never more in evidence than right now. (In May, Marie Cocco wrote about the phenomenon; now with the talk of Senator Clinton becoming Secretary of State, the public face of misogyny has surged to the forefront again.) Some great pages from the website are here (this page shows that The White House Project understands exactly what we are up against), as does this one. Want to think about leading a political life?  Look here. After you investigate, sign up to participate in the group - costs nothing but keeps you involved. Then, use the group's form to get some friends to sign up.

II. Second, set up your own support/action group, dedicated to challenging yourself and other people to put a woman in the Oval Office by 2034. I think of such a group as a "Send a Woman to the White House" [SWWH] club or partnership. It might start with you and just one other person. But as with exercise, it is easier to stay motivated toward a goal if you do so with some friends and companions. Here are some things SWWH clubs can do:

• meet once a week for at least an hour; use the hour to focus on political actions you are taking or want to take; then use the next hour to see how progress is going.
• create an investment fund - decide with other members what you can raise per month, and how you can raise it, and pick an organization that is dedicated to women's rights and particularly their representation as President of the United States of America.
• think of fun and social ways to educate yourself (book group on women's history or building presidential campaigns); walk-a-thons to raise money to donate to women's rights/interest groups.
• let other people know you have set up an SWWH group - and stay in communication with other groups.
• take small but direct actions: if you see misogynistic or sexist advertising, boycott the product or service and write the company in question; if your local bookstore or library does not have an extensive collection of nonfiction about women in politics or women's history, speak to the manager and ask for a better selection; when somebody uses misogynistic or sexist language, tell him or her that you object.
• invite a woman you would like to know better or whose work you would to know more about to come meet with your SWWH; she does not have to be famous and the event does not have to be fancy; it can be a coffee for three or an open house for 30.

Yesterday was the anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. This sorry date did not cause me to dwell on the horror and sadness of life cut too short. Instead, it put me in mind of one of the most admirable things President Kennedy did for this country. He challenged Americans to meet a seemingly impossible challenge: they did. In 1961, President Kennedy addressed the United States Congress urging long-term and continuous funding and commitment to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. President Kennedy did not live to see that goal met in 1969, but the goal would not have been met if he had not issued the Congress and, in another famous address well worth reading and hearing, the American people to invest resources and energy in hitting the mark. So we know that we as a country can attain goals that, when first presented, seem outrageously unreachable.

We may not have a President who will challenge us to put a woman in the Oval Office by 2034, but as American citizens we can issue the challenge to ourselves and to one another. If enough of us start now, we Americans can put a woman in the Oval Office by 2034, just as 40 years ago Americans put a man on the moon.

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”

-John F. Kennedy, Rice University, 1963

My own ambition and commitment: to start an SWWH group and to help anybody else who would like to start one. You can reach me through this blog for ideas about books to read, groups that might be worth supporting, specific projects you might want to try.

John F. Kennedy really should be a lesson for President-elect Obama

The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated.

-John F. Kennedy, 1963 Civil Rights Address

John F. Kennedy really should be a lesson for President-elect Obama.

Kennedy did not arrive in office with a track record of support for black Americans' social and civic equality. In fact, he voted against the first Civil Rights Act introduced in modern times, the Civil Rights Act of 1957, introduced by President Eisenhower, a bill that was a predecessor to the more sweeping Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965. But in 1963, after events made it clear that the nation faced serious social unrest and the federal government serious opposition to its Constitutional authority, Kennedy delivered his famous address on Civil Rights, breaking with his "prior and lukewarm position on civil rights." It is impossible to know whether JFK would have evolved into a wholehearted supporter of black civil rights or whether he would have been driven less by a moral imperative and more by political considerations. But it does not matter. A President should receive credit for her or his good acts, regardless of her or his intentions. Whether driven by political pragmatism or a moral change of heart, President Kennedy eventually showed leadership on the question of black civil rights.

People I respect consider President-elect Obama to be both extremely savvy and intelligent. President-elect Obama makes much of his interest in learning from the history of past presidential administrations.

President-elect Obama ought to seize a historic opportunity he really does have. Rather than be seen as grudgingly coming around to a recognition of the need to address the interests of women in our society, he could be seen as the president who tackled this issue head on, in front of the curve. I don't care whether he does this out of political savvy or a pure commitment to gender equity or both.

Appointing Senator Clinton Secretary of State (should that come to pass) has relatively little to do with what I am talking about. Bill Clinton broke the gender barrier with regard to that position when he appointed Madeline Albright to it in 1997. FDR broke the gender barrier with regard to women heading Cabinent departments back in 1933 with the appointment of Frances Perkins as Secretary of Labor.

Now, a Cabinet whose members reflected the proportion of women in the country (so that just over half the Cabinet heads would be women) would go beyond measures like these. But I do not see President-elect Obama moving toward that goal. But that doesn't mean there is a shortage of measures Mr. Obama could take if he wanted to be ahead of the curve on gender equity. A non-exhaustive list:

• appoint a gold-ribbon Presidential Commission on Women, charged specifically with recommending legislation the President could send to Congress that would work the same sort of dramatic changes for women that the Civil Rights Acts of the twentieth centure worked for black Americans

• seriously consider sending for passage by Congress the Equal Rights Amendment, which would serve to guarantee to women the same Constitutional protection against gender discrimination that the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments have - admittedly over a long time - come to protect black Americans from racial discrimination

• use his office as a bully pulpit to acknowledge and condemn specific acts of misogyny and sexism, and to consistently and continually object to the attitudes reflected by these acts

• get behind the National Women's History Museum, making sure it gets a permanent and prominent home in Washington, D.C.

• commit to making every reasonable effort to transform the Supreme Court so that its composition reflects the proportion of women to men in this country

I could continue this list. But note that almost none of the items on it commit President-elect Obama to additional spending or would cut against measures aimed at addressing other problems we all agree need work - worldwide terrorism, economic crisis, etc.

Just as Lyndon Johnson, a white president, picked up the banner of black civil rights even as he contended with the Vietnam War, Barack Obama, could be a male president who picks up the banner of women's rights.

Women's rights are human rights. Practically speaking, probably nobody will fight as hard for them as women themselves. But there's no reason in the world that men, particularly one of the most powerful men in the world, the incoming President of the United States of America should not put human rights, and therefore women's rights, at the very top of his agenda.

Seven to one: not so promising

 So far the Obama administration has announced eight high level appointments to the executive branch (John Podesta, serving as co-chair of the transition team says he will not hold a position in the new administration). Of these seven are men and one is a woman. President-elect Obama has held a meeting with John McCain, and the two announced a hope "to work together to together in the days and months ahead on critical challenges like solving our financial crisis, creating a new energy economy, and protecting our nation's security."

I certainly agree that these issues are pressing. But a disturbing pattern is emerging. Neither by virtue of his appointments nor his statements is President-elect Obama indicating that he is taking heed of the concerns of millions of people that this election cycle exposed just how much misogyny and sexism pervades this country. And putting that issue on the back burner is not warranted just because there are other important issues facing the country.

Other presidents, including at least one President-elect Obama has taken as a role model, have neglected to attend to the civil rights of certain groups claiming that other issues take priority. John F. Kennedy, for example, largely ignored the issue of black civil rights for the first two years of his administration, preferring to focus on the problems of the Cold War. What finally forced President Kennedy's hand was the increasing intensity of the nonviolent but direct actions led Martin Luther King Jr. and his compatriots. Although black Americans had been demanding full civil and social equality since at least the end of World War II and King's movement had begun in the 1950s, it was not until 1963, after outbreaks of serious violence by officials against nonviolent protestors, that President Kennedy gave an address on the issue of black civil rights and introduced legislation that was enacted after his death, the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (source)

JImagine if President-elect Obama were to learn from President Kennedy's strategy of delay by showing right now an immediate responsiveness to an issue that may not have figured much in his campaign promises but figures large in the social consciousness. Imagine if his first eight appointments had been seven women and one man. What a powerful message that would have sent.

I have discussed the important of the petition drive being sponsored by WomenCount, seeking the appointment of a Presidential Commission on Women.

From WomenCount:

SOMETIMES THERE IS A WATERSHED MOMENT IN HISTORY WHEN IT BECOMES CLEAR THAT THINGS MUST CHANGE AND LEADERS MUST ACT. THAT MOMENT IS NOW FOR THE WOMEN OF THIS COUNTRY.

THE LESSONS OF THIS CAMPAIGN WERE ABUNDANT:

• As the economy became the single most critical issue in the election, the role that women play in our economic structure has never been clearer. Women are the backbone of the nation’s workforce and control 70 percent of its buying power.

• The candidacies of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, while inspiring women and girls around the country to imagine what can be, exposed extreme gender bias in the media and throughout our culture.

• Women, who make up 56 percent of the voting population, were targeted as never before as the critical bloc that would determine the outcome of the election.

Interestingly, the Commission sought by WomenCount is modeled after one created by President Kennedy in 1961. Below is a partial outline of the proposed Commission; the full version appears here.

• The 2008 election has been historic.  Women’s roles in the election, as candidates for president and vice president and as voters, have never been greater. In our 232-year history, Hillary Clinton is the first woman to have ever won statewide in a presidential primary and has won more votes in a presidential primary than any other candidate.  Sarah Palin is only the second woman ever nominated as a vice presidential candidate.
• This election has exposed extreme gender bias in the media, in politics, and throughout our culture.  This has demonstrated that although women in the United States have come a long way since the last Presidential Commission on the Status of Women in 1961, we still have far to go.
•  The current economic crisis highlights the increasing impact on single parents (one income households – mostly women), working couples (almost a necessity in lower, middle and upper middle income households), and minimum wage workers (mostly women).
• Women have been at the forefront of this campaign and our political discourse. WomenCount is committed to making sure that once this election is over, women stay there.
• We believe that now is the time for our country to have a national conversation to address the issues and discriminatory attitudes that women face, and to ensure a better future with respect and full human rights extended to all women.

[...]

•  There are hundreds, if not thousands, of studies published, books written, and organizations established that are directed at issues and barriers that women face in their lives, with numerous recommendations to improve the lives of women in our nation.
•  We need a vehicle to discuss and implement all of these thoughts, ideas and recommendations at the national level. (emphasis added)
•  We need to bring together the efforts of the many organizations devoted to women’s issues and causes, and create a common movement to benefit the future of all women.
•  We believe that it is time for a Presidential Commission on Women to serve as that vehicle.
•   A new generation can be positively influenced by the actions of such a Commission.
  

[...]

•     The commission will be composed of a bipartisan, diverse group of experts, policymakers, opinion leaders, members of the media, corporate leaders, and women of all walks of life who represent mainstream issues.
•     The commission members will address the overall attitudes about women in this country, as well as specific issues.
•     The commission will develop the substance and scope of its work.
•     The commission will hold hearings and issue a list of recommendations, and will also ensure that its recommendations are carried out.

My own view is that passage of the Equal Rights Amendment would be the most effective step to ensuring gender equality in this country. I might be wrong but the entire point of a Presidential Commission on Women would be to assess this issue, among others, and make recommendations to the President.

Thousands of women are willing to participate in nonviolent protest to draw attention to women's issues. As the black American civil rights movement taught us, however, even nonviolent protest can provoke brutality and backlash. Making women's wellbeing and equality an immediate cornerstone of the new administration could save resources, bloodshed, and even lives. Surely doing that is of signal importance to our country. Sign the petition.

I mean it: we need another Hubert Humphrey

Nobody achieves all of his or her goals; nobody is perfect. But read below the excerpts from the U.S. Senate biography, and you will understand why I think our party needs a present-day Hubert Humphrey. I have no idea if there is anybody currently in office who can step up to the task - but, look, Humphrey got his start as a mayor - so you never know where we will find the next politician who combines the right mix of conscience, political savvy, and contrarianism to be the force that Humphrey was.

As Democrats and former Democrats struggle to find a way forward, Humphrey offers an example of a leader whose long career spanned troubled and less troubled periods for the country; a leader who did not attain his all of his highest ambitions but accomplished a great deal of his admirable agenda; a leader who stood up for justice and ended up seeing our government catch up to his stands. If I could I would send every Democrat now scrambling for a position in the new administration a copy of Humphrey's biography, because while he was indeed a deeply ambitious politician he was first a deeply devoted public servant, demonstrating that one can be both.

Hubert H. Humphrey, 38th Vice President (1965-1969) (emphases added)

I did not become vice president with Lyndon Johnson to cause him trouble.
—Hubert H. Humphrey, 1965

As vice president during 1968—arguably the United States' most politically turbulent post-World War II year—Hubert Humphrey faced an excruciating test of statesmanship. During a time of war in Southeast Asia when the stakes for this nation were great, Humphrey confronted an agonizing choice: whether to remain loyal to his president or to the dictates of his conscience. His failure to reconcile these powerful claims cost him the presidency. Yet few men, placed in his position, could have walked so agonizing a tightrope over so polarized a nation.

Near the end of his long career, an Associated Press poll of one thousand congressional administrative assistants cited Hubert Humphrey as the most effective senator of the preceding fifty years. A biographer pronounced him "the premier lawmaker of his generation." Widely recognized during his career as the leading progressive in American public life, the Minnesota senator was often ahead of public opinion—which eventually caught up with him. When it did, he was able to become one of Congress' most constructive legislators and a "trail blazer for civil rights and social justice." His story is one of rich accomplishment and shattering frustration.

...

A Prairie Progressive

The origins of the Minnesotan's "zealous righteousness" can be found in his home state's tradition of agrarian reformism that tenaciously promoted "the disinherited" underdogs at the expense of "the interests." Humphrey personally was a warm, sincere, even "corny" populist, an old-time prairie progressive politically descended from the likes of William Jennings Bryan, George Norris, and Robert La Follette, Sr.

Born in South Dakota in 1911, Humphrey learned his ideology first hand in the persistent agricultural depression of the Midwest during the 1920s and 1930s. He and his family were victims, like so many others, of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression that had evicted them from their home and business. Humphrey's poor, rural upbringing stirred both him and his pharmacist father to become politically conscious, ardent New Dealers. Thus Humphrey was "permanently marked by the Depression," which in turn stimulated him to study and teach college political science in the employ of the New Deal's Works Progress Administration. After Humphrey became an administrator in that agency, the Minnesota Democratic party recognized his oratorical talents and, in their search for "new blood," tapped him as candidate for mayor of Minneapolis. Although he lost his first race in 1943, he succeeded in 1945. This post would prove to be Humphrey's sole executive experience until the time of his vice-presidency. He made the most of it, successfully impressing his reformist principles on organized crime by stretching his mayoral powers to their limit on the strength of his personality and his ability to control the city's various factions.

Hubert Humphrey's mayoral success and visibility propelled him directly into the Senate for a career that would encompass five terms. He was first elected in 1948 after gaining national attention at the Democratic National Convention with his historic plea for civil rights legislation. Although no strong constituency existed for this issue in Minnesota, the position was in line with Humphrey's championing of others among his state's underdogs, including farmers, labor, and small business. In hammering his civil rights plank into the platform, Humphrey helped to bring the breakaway progressive supporters of Henry Wallace back into the Democratic fold, while simultaneously prompting the Dixiecrats to walk out of the convention hall and the party.

In the Senate

Humphrey's headline-grabbing civil rights speech appealed to Minneapolis' liberal community, and his stand in favor of the Marshall Plan and against the Taft-Hartley labor-management relations law attracted the support of farmers and labor. As a result, Minnesota elected a Democrat to the Senate for the first time since 1901. In his first feisty days in the Senate, Humphrey immediately moved to the cutting edge of liberalism by introducing dozens of bills in support of programs to increase aid to schools, expand the Labor Department, rescind corporate tax loopholes, and establish a health insurance program that was eventually enacted a decade and a half later as Medicare. In addition, Humphrey spoke as a freshman senator on hundreds of topics with the ardor of a moralizing reformer. Accustomed to discussing candidly and openly policy matters that disturbed him, the junior senator quickly ran afoul of the Senate's conservative establishment. He found that many senators snubbed him for his support of the Democratic party's 1948 civil rights plank ....

Yet Humphrey, under the guidance of Democratic leader Lyndon Johnson, soon moderated his ways, if not his goals. As New York Times congressional correspondent William S. White observed in his classic study of the early 1950s Senate, Humphrey's

slow ascent to grace was [due to] the clear, but far from simple, fact that he had in him so many latently Senatorial qualities. Not long had he been around before it became evident that, notwithstanding his regrettable past, he had a tactile sense of the moods and the habits and the mind of the place.

By the mid-1950s, Humphrey had moved into the ranks of the Senate's "Inner Club."

....

Out of defeat, the irrepressible Minnesotan snatched senatorial victory by becoming the choice of departing Majority Leader and Vice President-elect Lyndon Johnson for Senate majority whip. Humphrey used his new post to become a driving force in the Senate. Johnson had promoted Humphrey for this leadership position as a reward for his cooperation in the Senate and to solidify a relationship for the benefit of the Kennedy administration. Newly elected Majority Leader Mike Mansfield noted Humphrey's "vibrant personality and phenomenal energy." These traits, coupled with a new-found pragmatism, gained him appointment to the Appropriations Committee and a solid record of legislative accomplishment. Humphrey went on to become a major congressional supporter of a number of New Frontier programs, many of which had been originally outlined in his own bills in the 1950s. Chief among these were the Job Corps, the Peace Corps, an extension of the Food for Peace program, and "a score of progressive measures" pertaining to health, education, and welfare.

Humphrey's role in pressing for the landmark 1963 Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet Union ranks as one of his greatest triumphs. A supporter of disarmament since the 1950s, he helped persuade President Eisenhower to follow the Soviets into a voluntary testing moratorium. Humphrey was a follower of George Kennan's geo-strategic analysis, which counselled a moderate course designed selectively and nonprovocatively to contain Soviet probes into areas vital to the United States. This middle way between provocation and disarmament also encouraged pragmatic negotiations, and Humphrey continued to prod President John F. Kennedy into the more permanent test ban treaty and the establishment of a U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. At the treaty-signing ceremony, President Kennedy recognized Humphrey's years of often lonely efforts, commenting, "Hubert, this is your treaty—and it had better work."

The principal items on Humphrey's longstanding domestic legislative agenda failed to advance significantly until the so-called "Great Society" period that followed Kennedy's death. The first, and perhaps biggest, breakthrough came with passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which he managed in a Senate obstructed by southern filibusterers. In working for that legislation, Humphrey skilfully combined his talent as a soft-spoken, behind-the-scenes negotiator with a rhetorical hard sell focused on the media. Humphrey's subsequent record of legislative achievement was remarkable. With his support, federal aid to farmers and rural areas increased, as did the new food stamp program and foreign-aid food exports that benefited the farms. Congress authorized scholarships, scientific research grants, aid to schools, rehabilitation of dropouts, and vocational guidance. Legislation promoted public power projects, mass transportation, public housing, and greater unemployment benefits.

While the Minnesota senator could claim credit for helping to create millions of jobs, he also reaped the scorn of critics fearful of deficit spending. Humphrey replied that "a balanced budget is a futile dream," which could not be attained anyway until "the world is in balance." Dismissing those "Scrooges" who harbored a "bookkeeper's mentality," Humphrey, a self-proclaimed "jolly Santa," reiterated his priority, people's "needs and desires."

...

Perhaps the key to Humphrey's indefatigable essence was that he placed personal political ambition below his support of a larger agenda. The innumerable bills that he introduced and shepherded through Congress demonstrate that, with Humphrey, the people and their issues came first.

Who will be the current Democratic Party's Hubert Humphrey?

Hubert H. Humphrey

1948 Democratic National Convention Address

In 1948 Hubert Humphrey stopped the tradition in the Democratic Party whereby the Democrats ignored Jim Crow in order to keep in coalition with the Southern States and thereby win elections. Humphrey's speech on behalf fractured the Democratic Party - it had nothing to do with unity and everything to do with justice.

Today's Democratic Party is giddy on the heels of winning the Presidency. But what the Democratic Party needs is a modern-day Hubert Humphrey: somebody who will risk losing political power in the name of justice. We need a modern-day Hubert Humphrey who will use his or her existing political stature to hold the Democratic Party accountable for recognizing women's rights and GBLT rights.

The current President-Elect, Barack Obama, is consistently described as risk-averse and cautious by his supporters.

So now we need a politician who is not risk-averse and cautious, who is brave enough to stand up to his or her own Party and tell it that it can and must do better than it has, and it must start improving immediately. Just as Humphrey voiced controversial ideas to the very successful Democratic Party of FDR, we need a Democrat who will voice controversial ideas to the new Democratic administration.
Humphrey's address appears below (emphases added). You can listen to the speech here.

Mr. Chairman, fellow Democrats, fellow Americans:

I realize that in speaking in behalf of the minority report on civil rights as presented by Congressman DeMiller of Wisconsin that I'm dealing with a charged issue -- with an issue which has been confused by emotionalism on all sides of the fence. I realize that there are here today friends and colleagues of mine, many of them, who feel just as deeply and keenly as I do about this issue and who are yet in complete disagreement with me.

My respect and admiration for these men and their views was great when I came to this convention. It is now far greater because of the sincerity, the courtesy, and the forthrightness with which many of them have argued in our prolonged discussions in the platform committee.

Because of this very great respect -- and because of my profound belief that we have a challenging task to do here -- because good conscience, decent morality, demands it -- I feel I must rise at this time to support a report -- the minority report -- a report that spells out our democracy, a report that the people of this country can and will understand, and a report that they will enthusiastically acclaim on the great issue of civil rights.

Now let me say this at the outset that this proposal is made for no single region. Our proposal is made for no single class, for no single racial or religious group in mind. All of the regions of this country, all of the states have shared in our precious heritage of American freedom. All the states and all the regions have seen at least some of the infringements of that freedom -- all people -- get this -- all people, white and black, all groups, all racial groups have been the victims at time[s] in this nation of -- let me say -- vicious discrimination.

The masterly statement of our keynote speaker, the distinguished United States Senator from Kentucky, Alben Barkley, made that point with great force. Speaking of the founder of our Party, Thomas Jefferson, he said this, and I quote from Alben Barkley:

He did not proclaim that all the white, or the black, or the red, or the yellow men are equal; that all Christian or Jewish men are equal; that all Protestant and Catholic men are equal; that all rich and poor men are equal; that all good and bad men are equal. What he declared was that all men are equal; and the equality which he proclaimed was the equality in the right to enjoy the blessings of free government in which they may participate and to which they have given their support.

Now these words of Senator Barkley’s are appropriate to this convention -- appropriate to this convention of the oldest, the most truly progressive political party in America. From the time of Thomas Jefferson, the time when that immortal American doctrine of individual rights, under just and fairly administered laws, the Democratic Party has tried hard to secure expanding freedoms for all citizens. Oh, yes, I know, other political parties may have talked more about civil rights, but the Democratic party has surely done more about civil rights.

We have made progress -- we've made great progress in every part of this country. We’ve made great progress in the South; we’ve made it in the West, in the North, and in the East. But we must now focus the direction of that progress towards the -- towards the realization of a full program of civil rights to all. This convention must set out more specifically the direction in which our Party efforts are to go.

We can be proud that we can be guided by the courageous trail blazing of two great Democratic Presidents. We can be proud of the fact that our great and beloved immortal leader Franklin Roosevelt gave us guidance. And we be proud of the fact -- we can be proud of the fact that Harry Truman has had the courage to give to the people of America the new emancipation proclamation.

It seems to me -- It seems to me that the Democratic Party needs to to make definite pledges of the kinds suggested in the minority report, to maintain the trust and the confidence placed in it by the people of all races and all sections of this country. Sure, we’re here as Democrats. But my good friends, we’re here as Americans; we’re here as the believers in the principal and the ideology of democracy, and I firmly believe that as men concerned with our country’s future, we must specify in our platform the guarantees which we have mentioned in the minority report.

Yes, this is far more than a Party matter. Every citizen in this country has a stake in the emergence of the United States as a leader in the free world. That world is being challenged by the world of slavery. For us to play our part effectively, we must be in a morally sound position.

We can’t use a double standard -- There’s no room for double standards in American politics -- for measuring our own and other people’s policies. Our demands for democratic practices in other lands will be no more effective than the guarantee of those practices in our own country.

Friends, delegates, I do not believe that there can be any compromise on the guarantees of the civil rights which we have mentioned in the minority report. In spite of my desire for unanimous agreement on the entire platform, in spite of my desire to see everybody here in honest and unanimous agreement, there are some matters which I think must be stated clearly and without qualification. There can be no hedging -- the newspaper headlines are wrong. There will be no hedging, and there will be no watering down -- if you please -- of the instruments and the principals of the civil-rights program.

My friends, to those who say that we are rushing this issue of civil rights, I say to them we are 172 years late. To those who say that this civil-rights program is an infringement on states’ rights, I say this: The time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states' rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights. People -- human beings -- this is the issue of the 20th century. People of all kinds -- all sorts of people -- and these people are looking to America for leadership, and they’re looking to America for precept and example.

My good friends, my fellow Democrats, I ask you for a calm consideration of our historic opportunity. Let us do forget the evil passions and the blindness of the past. In these times of world economic, political, and spiritual -- above all spiritual crisis, we cannot and we must not turn from the path so plainly before us. That path has already lead us through many valleys of the shadow of death. And now is the time to recall those who were left on that path of American freedom.

For all of us here, for the millions who have sent us, for the whole two billion members of the human family, our land is now, more than ever before, the last best hope on earth. And I know that we can, and I know that we shall began [sic] here the fuller and richer realization of that hope, that promise of a land where all men are truly free and equal, and each man uses his freedom and equality wisely well.

My good friends, I ask my Party, I ask the Democratic Party, to march down the high road of progressive democracy. I ask this convention to say in unmistakable terms that we proudly hail, and we courageously support, our President and leader Harry Truman in his great fight for civil rights in America!

The midnight hour - November 5, 2008

(source for image)

Senator Obama: Congratulations on your victory.  May you live up to the highest and best hopes of your most fervent supporters. May you make this country the better place you have said you want it to be.

Kay Hagan, Jeanne Shaheen: heartiest congratulations upon your respective elections to the United States Senate.

A number of Democratic women with terrific policy positions who were running for House seats have, unfortunately, lost their bids. It appears that Alice Kryzan (NY), Victoria Wulsin (OH), and Lisa Stender (NJ) are among these losers. At the time of this writing, it is less clear how women running in the western states will do.

Even if all women running for the Senate yesterday were to prevail, only one additional woman in the Senate, will be added at best (source). Best case scenario for the house, 5 additional women (source). Governors, no matter what, one fewer woman holding that position (source).

This is not good news for those still hoping to see a woman President any time soon.

Nevertheless, human rights advocates of both genders will now be working to win the fight for full political and economic recognition of women, both in the U.S. and abroad. 

President-Elect Obama: What will you be doing to increase representation by women in elected office? Will you support a woman who clearly supports such increased representation to head the DNC? Will you support Senator Clinton for Senate Majority Leader? Will you support a change to the Democratic Party rules that makes for winner-take-all primaries and eliminates caucuses? Will you and Senator Biden support women to fill your Senate seats? Will you create a Presidential Commission on Women?  

Will you announce that you will send Congress the Equal Rights Amendment for passage during your first hundred days? Will you be sending Congress a new version of the Lily Ledbetter law and other legislation aimed at eliminating the wage gap between men and women? Will you go on record as opposing the creeping restrictions on women's access to abortion that the Supreme Court's post-Roe jurisprudence allows?

Will you speak out against regimes around the world that deny women the right to the ballot, that force women as a matter of law to wear required garb?

Having won the Presidency, will you, Senator Obama, prove that you are going to join us in the greatest civil rights battle of our time, the fight for full political and economic recognition of women both in the U.S. and abroad?

The women of America, Mr. Obama, are waiting. The women of the world are watching.

Historical precedent for a new wave of empowerment for those left hungry for it by this election season

Often as I have written about next political steps after November 4 - regardless of what happens on November 4 - in terms of remedying the misogyny run rampant this election season. But I do not mean to suggest that it has been only women who were disregarded or disrespected this political season. On the Democratic side of things over 18 million people found themselves with a Party leadership that decided that regardless of how people voted an indeterminate result was for that leadership to decide the candidate. Millions of those 18 million were men, and not all were even Democrats - some were Independents or Republicans. (I cannot speak with any authority about the Republican side of things - a better source might be found here.) After the election and post-election frenzy subsides we will need to come together to find a way to make our political parties, the legislature, and the executive more responsive to more of the electorate. To prepare myself, I am studying a number of leaders and historical movements that achieved more democratic, more responsive government, without resorting to civil war. I have discussed the  black civil rights movement of the latter part of the twentieth century; the noncooperation movement led by M.K. Gandhi; Franklin Roosevelt's implementation of a New Deal between government and governed, business and labor; and have begun now to examine more closely the American suffragist movement. I will continue to gather and share information and ideas from a variety of democratic struggles.

Each of the photographs below comes from the Women of Protest collection in The Library of Congress. This collection is a treasure trove for those men and women considering precedents for organizing the expansion of political opportunity not just for women but for all those whose votes were ignored this political season and who will be seeking Democratic Party reform or, in the alternative, the formation of a new party (still in my opinion the harder route, but not one I would rule out). There are further photographs and background notes on the National Women's Party's lobbyists and national organizers, among other notable NWP members. Consider starting with the excellent online historical overview of the NWP, and downloading full essay on the topic. Then delve throughout the site - there's more there than I can highlight here.

Iris Calderhead, daughter of former Representative Calderhead and wife of John Brisben Walker, of Colorado. Miss Calderhead is a graduate of the university of Kansas, and Vermont. Gave up teaching literature in Wichita (Kansas) High School to organize for the National Woman's Party, and was one of the group arrested for picketing the White House with suffrage banners.

Ernestine Hara, New York City, young Romanian, arrested for picketing Sept., 1917, and sentenced to 30 days in Occoquan workhouse.

Nell Mercer of Norfolk, Virg., was a member of the Norfolk branch of the NWP. She was a business woman. In February 1919, she was arrested for participation in the final watchfire demonstration and sentenced to five days in the District Jail.

Elizabeth Stuyvesant, State Organizer, National Woman's Party, her great-grandfather died in the Revolution, her grandfather in the Civil War, and her brother is fighting in France. Five years of social work in New York City brought her to the determination to join the fight for woman's political liberty--Suffrage. Stuyvesant was a professional dancer. She was active in settlement work and in the campaign for birth control. On July 4, 1917, she was arrested while picketing the White House for suffrage and sentenced to three days in District Jail.

Helena Hill Weed, Norwalk, Conn. Serving 3 day sentence in D.C. prison for carrying banner, "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed."  Helena Hill Weed of Norwalk, Conn., was a graduate of Vassar College and Montana School of Mines. She was a geologist, a daughter of a member of Congress, and a vice-president of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). She was a prominent member of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage and the NWP. She was one of the first pickets arrested, July 4, 1917, and served three days in District Jail. In January 1918, she was arrested for applauding in court and sentenced to 24 hours, and in August 1918 she was arrested for participation in Lafayette Square meeting, and sentenced to 15 days.