This has not been a happy political week for me.
Two leaders lost -- one who was taken,
and one who left
us.
For you to understand what these two people meant for me, you should know that in 1992 I was a supporter of Jerry Brown for President. While I regret Jerry Brown's undisciplined, rhetorically diffuse, and ultimately unsuccessful campaign, I have no doubt that his was an authentic voice of populist reform, and I have never doubted his was the right campaign to support. One of his mottoes was "Speak truth to power." To me this defines the politician of courage. Note I say politician, not statesman, for one of my dreams for this country is that one day politician will no longer be a dirty word. Jerry Brown spoke truth to power by advocating a radical agenda of political reform, including a limit of $100 for all political contributions, free TV time for all qualified candidates, elections to be held on weekends or holidays to enfranchise those who work hard and frequently cannot make it to the polls, abolition of the Electoral College, elimination of all PAC contributions, etc. etc. By advocating this agenda he plucked the beard of those in the political system, and particularly in his own Democratic party, who owed their success and influence to the corrupt and decadent electoral process under which we suffer today.
Well, the two people to whom I dedicate today's column also spoke truth to power each in his own or her own way. Barbara Jordan's bearding of power began in the sixties with her stint as a Texas legislator, when, as a black woman, she had to deal with colleagues who patronized and ignored her. Then, in one of those serendipitous moments of history when need and answer meet, she bearded the autocratic, overweening power of a sullen, solitary, and paranoid Richard Nixon, in a ringing call to constitutional government and the rule of law, the noble echoes of which still ring in our ears. Hers was the eloquent keynote voice of the Democrats in 1976, when, in scarce 30 minutes, she actually threatened with the sizzling power of her moral force to cancel the preordained nomination of Walter Mondale as Jimmy Carter's choice for Vice-President.
But for me, it is her moment in the sun just four short years ago, when once again she addressed her party's convention, that stands out as her greatest moment of speaking truth to power.
In that speech, eloquently, but predictably, she first called upon the Democratic party to reaffirm its traditional commitment to the poor, the elderly, the infirm. Eloquently, but predictably, she called upon the Democratic party to reaffirm its traditional commitment to economic and social equity for minorities, for women, for all who suffer oppression. But then she shifted her focus and spoke truth to power with strength as great as she had ever shown in her meteoric career.
She began that portion of her speech with a ringing call for unity and brotherhood, directly aimed at her own African-American community's increasing flirtation with isolationist self-sufficiency:
"We honor cultural identity. We always have. We always will. But, but separatism is not allowed. Separatism is not the American way. We must not allow ideas like political correctness to divide us and cause us to reverse hard-won achievements in human rights and civil rights. (applause). Xenophobia has no place in the Democratic Party. We seek to unite people not divide them. As we seek to unite people we reject both white racism and black racism. -- (applause) This party will not tolerate bigotry under any guise. Our strength -- our strength in this country is rooted in its diversity. Our history bears witness to that fact. E Pluribus Unum -- from many, one. It was a good idea when the country was founded and it's a good idea today. (applause) From the many, one."
And then, inevitably, magnificently, she focussed on her own Democratic party:
"We must frankly acknowledge our complicity in the creation of the unconscionable budget deficit -- acknowledge our complicity -- and recognize, painful though it may be, that in order to seriously address the budget deficit, we must address the question of entitlements also. -- (applause) That's not easy. That's not easy. But we have to do it. We have to do it because the idea of justice between generations, that idea mandates that the baby boomers, that's our ticket -- that the baby boomers -- (applause) -- the baby boomers and their progeny are entitled to a secure future." [You may read her entire address here.]
At a time when her party is led by someone who had to be coaxed and cajoled into presenting his first balanced budget three years into his term, by someone who is demagoging the opposition party's attempt to salvage Medicare from eventual collapse, her words bear witness to the dearth of courage and honesty in the ranks of her fellow leaders.
Of course for most of us it is no doubt her stint on the House's 1974 Watergate hearings that is most truly unforgettable. But there was another eloquent voice on that committe whom a lot of us remember. This was not a powerful, ringing, Shakespearean voice. This was a quiet, youthful voice, full of anguish and regret. As one of the Republicans on that committee who faced the daunting challenge of voting against his own party's leader, Bill Cohen showed the promise of one who would speak the truth as he saw it, wherever power lay. And throughout the years, he stayed true to that promise. Whether it was confronting the Reagan Administration on Iran-Contra, or voting to override President Bush's veto of the Family and Medical Leave Act, or sponsoring with Senator Carl Levin the lobby disclosure and gift ban bill which died in the hectic closing moments of 1994's 103rd Congress, the Senator from Maine has stayed true to his core, and unbowed by the reactionary forces trying to tear down his party. As with Barbara Jordan though, it is a relatively recent moment which for me showed this man most tellingly speaking truth to power.
On November 17 of last year, the compromise budget reconciliation bill, which left the Senate shaped by the relatively moderate Pete Domenici, was returned from the House mutilated beyond recognition by Newt's merry men, aided and abetted by Majority Leader Dole. But right-wing tax cuts favoring the rich was too much for the gentle man from Maine to stomach:
"I take no issue with the need for deep spending reductions, but I am skeptical that we can achieve our goal while cutting taxes simultaneously. It strikes me that this approach rivals driving with one foot on the gas pedal while the other is on the brake. The Federal Government currently expends far more money than it collects, so that a tax cut can be paid for only by borrowing additional money. Paying for tax cuts with borrowed money is contradictory and self-defeating... I cannot support this conference report because, like the budget plan considered by the Senate on October 27, it proposes to borrow $245 billion to pay for a tax cut that we cannot now afford."
An orotund, rich, and powerful African-American voice from Texas, and a soft, self-effacing, white poet from New England, -- two people scarcely more unlike, yet united in their strength of conviction and political courage. We may one day celebrate their having graced our political stage, but this is a week to mourn.
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