Cesar Chavez and Lilly Ledbetter versus The Triumph of the Right
As noted in The American Yawps The Triumph of the Right, for decades America had been torn between two polarizing forces. On one hand, there was an increasing drive to offer Americans comprehensive social programs (as manifested in The New Deal and Lyndon Johnsons Great Society) and to expand social enfranchisement to racial and economic minority groups. On the other hand, there were conservatives who resisted this, often in the name of anticommunism. Labor activists like Cesar Chavez in his Commonwealth Club Address, reminded America that poverty was still the reality of many living in America. Lilly Ledbetters testimony before Congress in 2008 about the discrimination faced by working women likewise highlights the need for swift, radical action to ensure equal work for equal pay.
Although the 1960s began as a time of positive changes, including the passing of historic civil rights legislation by the federal government, by the end of the 1970s, the mismanagement of the Vietnam War, social unrest and fear of militancy, and fears of the expansionist...
This resulted in the
election of arch-conservative Ronald Reagan. Although trends rightward or leftward in the middle-class political discourse are significant, Chavezs
speech is a reminder...
…fashion to Ledbetter underlines the subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle effects the rise of the right had in America. The ideology that women were best suited for domestic work resulted in womens labor being devalued in the
workplace, lesser pay, and ultimately less
economic power in America. Similarly, the gutting of many social programs made it more difficult for laborers to live, work, and advocate for their rights. The idea that government is the problem, as advocated by Ronald Reagan, concealed the fact that government can
play a vital role in preventing workers from being exploited by their employers, whether due to their
race, position in the company, or…
