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In our issue of the day mentality–except for Iraq–most of us have by now forgotten the initiatives that were on a lot of state ballots. Some of us may remember the various permutations of the gay marriage issue and perhaps stem cell research. But how many of you remember that a major initiative in many states was to raise the minimum wage?
Raising the minimum wage was on the ballot in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and Ohio. None of these states could be regarded as bastions of liberal or even Democratic voters. Yet in ALL these states the measure to raise the minimum wage not only passed but passed by a comfortable margin and in some cases by a landslide! Seventy-six percent of Missouri voters, 73% of Montana voters and 69% of Nevada voters emphatically showed their support for the measure. The closest margin was in Colorado where it passed 53-47%.
So what are we to make of this? First, the margins of victory in almost all these states suggest that voters have had enough of the Republican Counterrevolution’s philosophy that inequality is what moves society ahead. Instead each of those votes to raise the minimum wage is a vote for Liberal America’s core belief that government exists to keep the playing field level and one of the cornerstones of that core belief is economic and social justice. In Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and Ohio the voters shouted a resounding “No!” to the idea that those who live on the margins of poverty do not deserve a living wage.
A second important lesson is that the unions are back. After being relegated to the back of the Democratic Party bus they showed that they could turn out their voters and make the difference in crucial races across the country. For my brothers and sisters in the labor movement, the minimum wage has become a call to action. Says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney on The Hill Blog:
For 10 years, Congress has refused to vote on a minimum wage increase. But in that time, prices have skyrocketed. The costs of gas, food, housing, education and health care have increased, but wages have not. In fact wages have gone down. The real value of the minimum wage, adjusted for inflation, is at its lowest point since 1955. In terms of wages, we’ve gone back half a century.
New Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi all but acknowledged the crucial role the unions played in the election by announcing that raising the minimum wage would be priority number one for the new Congress.
For union voters the minimum wage initiatives played a similar role as the so-called social initiatives played in mobilizing fundamentalist Christians in 2004. Any Democratic Party strategist with half a brain should be able to see that if the Party can get on the ballot measures like the minimum wage that appeal to a broad spectrum of Americans they can become a powerful magnet to bring back to the party those who had all but deserted it.
The best example of this was in Ohio where it might be argued that having a minimum wage initiative on the ballot may have proved the difference in tipping the scale to the Democrats. The systemic impact of the value of economic justice which helped to propel the grassroots organizing of Ohio unions provides a blueprint for how the Democrats can win back the White House in 2008. The answer, as Sweeney all but indicated is to return to the core value of Liberal America.
One blogger who did get the values angle was Barbara Ehrenreich. In a post titled “‘Values’ Voter Raise Minimum Wages” she wrote:
If the U.S. electorate was as heavily skewed toward the upper middle class this time as it has been in recent years, many of the people who voted to raise their states’ minimum wages were not in a position to benefit directly. In fact, some of them may end up paying a little more for their landscapers and restaurant meals. In other words, these voters saw the minimum wage as a moral or “values” issue. They decided that restaurant meals don’t taste all that good when they’re served by people who have trouble feeding themselves.
As I write this post, Americans across the country are eagerly awaiting the report of the Iraq study group. Tomorrow’s blog postings will probably expend more words on that study than have been expended on any study for a long time. This post will be buried under this torrent, but for those who do chance to wander to that area that Crooks and Liars refers to as “off the beaten path” I will make a prediction: the minimum wage will have a lot more impact on who occupies the White House after George W. Bush slinks out the back door than whatever the Iraq study group happens to say.
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