{"id":1057,"date":"2024-04-26T01:32:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T01:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=1057"},"modified":"2024-03-09T10:11:34","modified_gmt":"2024-03-09T10:11:34","slug":"sovietizing-our-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=1057","title":{"rendered":"Sovietizing Our Youth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vetoes and Other Failed Legislation <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the government\u2019s responsibility when there\u2019s been failed parenting.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

As a Minnesota legislator I successfully passed legislation, but some unsuccessful efforts make for good stories.  Arne Carlson twice vetoed bills that both the House and the Senate thought would be good things to do \u2013 or at least innocuous enough not to vote against.<\/p>\n

My Tow Company Bill<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1994 a constituent asked me to intercede to try to get his nursing uniform out of the trunk of his car that had been towed.  The towing company was demanding he pay all the towing charges before they\u2019d let him on their lot to retrieve his possessions.  He understood not getting his car<\/span> back until after he settled up, but I thought he made a good argument that to get the money to pay them he had to work, and his employer wouldn\u2019t let him work sans uniform, so come on!  Keep the car but let him get his uniform!<\/p>\n

\u201cNo way,\u201d they said, pointing to a state law that allows the vehicle and all its contents<\/span> to be kept as a bailment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d I said back to them, \u201cwe\u2019ll see if that\u2019s going to stay the law or not,\u201d and proceeded to draft a bill that deleted the clause allowing them to retain the personal property, but the bill let them keep the car until paid.  Although my constituent borrowed some money, got his car back, and returned to work, I kept the bill moving through the legislative process thinking the next guy in a similar situation would be thankful.<\/p>\n

There was no opposition to the bill.  It cleared all committees with nary a word spoken against it.  Even made the \u201cConsent Calendar\u201d where we vote on non-controversial bills.  Passed both the House and the Senate and went to the Governor\u2019s desk for his signature.   Next morning I arrived at the Capitol at my usual hour and the entire <\/span>Capitol area was ringed 360 degrees in every direction the eye could see by tow trucks with all<\/span> their lights flashing.  This couldn\u2019t be about my non-controversial bill, could it?<\/p>\n

It was, and the Governor had already<\/span> vetoed it.  Just like that without even consulting me.  Just to get the damn tow trucks to go away.  So don\u2019t leave things in your car if you\u2019re going to be towed.  I\u2019ve often wondered if Arne was friends with that tow company guy and the tow companies had just laid in wait to show me who was boss, or whether they only became aware of the bill at the last minute.<\/p>\n

Sovietizing Our Youth<\/span><\/p>\n

In his book The Good Fight<\/i> former Vice-President and United States Senator Walter Mondale provides an insightful analysis of the change in our country\u2019s political dynamics between 1960 and 2000.  It\u2019s great reading and I recommend it for any up and coming political types.<\/p>\n

I came of political age during the late 60s and early 70s, a period Mondale refers to as \u201cthe high tide of liberalism.\u201d   It was a time when we as Americans believed in creating opportunity for all and the value of the whole community pulling together.   By the time I was passing legislation in the 80s and 90s that was no longer true; instead an anti-government dogma had set in; there was no longer \u201ca war on poverty\u201d or any dreams of a great society.  To get something passed you had to appeal to conservatives that any investment in people would pay-off handsomely in reduced government spending.<\/p>\n

\"IWW<\/a>

IWW Songbook – A Different (and better) Politics<\/p><\/div>\n

Mondale points to President Nixon\u2019s vetoing Mondale\u2019s \u201cComprehensive Child Development Act of 1971\u201d as the beginning of the \u201ccultural wars,\u201d whereby ultra-conservative right wingers were able to re-define left-wing liberalism as being against \u201cfamily values\u201d \u2013 the launching of the Jerry Falwell-Jimmy Swaggart-Pat Robertson religious right as a political movement.<\/p>\n

By 1971 already one of three mothers with toddlers was in the work place and Mondale\u2019s bill would have established a national network of locally managed pre-school child developmental centers, with nutritional services and medical care, for all working families, not just families in poverty.  The bill passed both the House and the Senate with large bi-partisan majorities and was sent to President Nixon to sign into law.  But Pat Buchanan was Nixon\u2019s speechwriter and saw an opportunity to rally cultural conservatives who still thought a woman\u2019s place was in the home. Nixon\u2019s veto message accused Mondale of trying to \u201cSovietize\u201d America\u2019s youth.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow:  Sovietizing Our Youth 2.0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vetoes and Other Failed Legislation \u201cIt\u2019s not the government\u2019s responsibility when there\u2019s been failed parenting.\u201d As a Minnesota legislator I successfully passed legislation, but some unsuccessful efforts make for good stories.  Arne Carlson twice vetoed bills that both the House … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1057"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1807,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions\/1807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}