In the course of my research into politics and ideology, a thought occurred to me. People tend to associate certain states with “liberal” and “conservative” based on their contemporary makeup and reputations, yet I know that states are not usually permanently one way or the other. The most contemporary example I can think of is West Virginia, which thirty years ago voted Democrat and had no Republicans representing the state in the House or Senate. Today, the only Democrat who represents the state on the federal level is Senator Joe Manchin, who is without question the most right of them in the Senate. West Virginia is not a place Republicans need to worry about winning now despite having a history of electing people who supported the New Deal, Fair Deal, Great Society, etc. So, I thought that the best way to represent said change for people would be to average the MC-Index scores of legislators from the state in Congressional sessions from the start of the New Deal to the end of the century. This of course does assume that elected officials are ideologically similar to the people who vote them in, which I think is a good assumption. Let’s first look at New England:

Massachusetts

When I tell you that some states used to be conservative, I’m not pulling your leg. Above is a very clear example of a state that underwent a fundamental long-term shift. During the Roosevelt Administration, even some of the Democrats elected were kind of conservative in response to the New Deal, but this was a different Massachusetts, not “Taxachusetts” as some of the detractors of its current politics call it. The political power still lay with the Republican WASPs throughout the 1930s and 1940s with Irish Catholic Democrats having their enclaves primarily in Boston. However, as the 1950s proceed the power shifts from the WASPs to the Irish Catholics, their foremost representatives being the Kennedy family. Democrats were replacing Republicans and more liberal Republicans were replacing Republicans. For instance, Leverett Saltonstall, a moderate conservative Republican elected in 1944, was succeeded by the solidly liberal Republican Ed Brooke in 1967. The same even goes for Democrats, quite notably old machine pol Philip J. Philbin of the 3rd district losing renomination to the very liberal, anti-war, and pro-choice Father Robert Drinan, S.J.

MC-Index Average for Current Congress Thus Far: 4

Vermont

What you are seeing here is the state transforming from the land of Coolidge to the land of Bernie. Vermont as a state in particular fascinates me given not only its rustic charm but also its remarkable political transition, fueled by people moving from New York City and Boston. At one time, the state was the most reliable Republican state, and now its one of the most reliable Democratic states. I have covered Vermont quite a few times, so I won’t dive into this any further. Now to the South!

MC-Index Average for Current Congress Thus Far: 6

Texas

When people think of conservative states, Texas is one of the first that people think of, but there’s more nuance to the state than you might expect if that wasn’t clear to you in 2018. Texas starts out to the left during the New Deal as most of its politicians are strong supporters, but this wanes after FDR’s first term, and by World War II Texas can no longer be considered reliable for the New Deal agenda. However, the liberal element in the Texas Democratic Party still retains some power and it has some leading figures, including Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn and of course, LBJ. Note that Texas hovers around the 40s during Johnson’s presidency: a lot of Texas Democrats were willing to lend him a hand even if some of his policies may not have been quite to their taste. After the election of Richard Nixon in 1968, the state goes above 50 for good. Note that the state hovers in the 50s in the 1990s: this is due to the Democratic Party electing more liberal politicians while the Republican Party is gaining more seats, so they are kind of canceling each other out. The Democrats would in fact hold a majority of Texas’s House seats until Tom DeLay’s mid-census redistricting. Now let’s look at a more provocative state…Mississippi!

MC-Index Average for Current Congress Thus Far: 60

Mississippi

Wow! This state grew to conservatism quick, and reached its peak in the 1960s at least in part as a reaction to civil rights. The first two sessions of course reflected the support of the New Deal among its senators and representatives, but conservatism surged during World War II and although it had some periods of arrest such as the Eisenhower era, which was partly due to his free market agriculture policies rubbing them the wrong way. Also, one of their representatives, Frank Smith, was kind of liberal. Thus, when he gets redistricted out of office in 1962, the state’s conservatism shoots up again. The decline from that period can be attributed to the state’s Democrats mellowing their conservatism. The uptick in the 1990s is fueled by Republicans winning elected offices. Now for the most dramatic change…Alabama.

MC-Index Average for Current Congress Thus Far: 72

Alabama

Alabama is slower to shift to the right than Mississippi and the state party’s liberal wing is much stronger than that of Mississippi’s. Both its senators in the 1950s, Lister Hill and John Sparkman, were staunch supporters of Harry S. Truman’s Fair Deal and the latter was in sufficient harmony with the party to be nominated VP in 1952. However, in 1962, two events occurred that pushed the state’s politics solidly to the right. First, George Wallace was elected governor on a hard-line segregationist and anti-national Democrat platform. Second, Senator Lister Hill, an old New Dealer, almost loses reelection to Republican James Martin, who campaigns as an ultra-conservative. Alabama politicians read the writing on the wall and their voting behavior grows significantly more conservative, thus the 16-point increase between the 87th and 88th Congresses. In 1964, the Alabama House delegation went from 8-0 Democrat to 5-3 Republican, and all elected are staunch opponents of the Johnson Administration, hence the massive 36-point rise in conservatism. From then on, the state never goes below a 57 average and reaches a high of 80. On national politics, the state of Alabama no longer votes for Northern Democrats.

MC-Index Average for Current Congress Thus Far: 68

 

 

During Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, the man who was consistently senator from his state of Illinois was Lyman Trumbull, a rather unique figure in politics. Although he had started his career in state politics as a Jacksonian Democrat, he was a consistent opponent of slavery and Stephen Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Act turned Trumbull to the Republican Party. In 1855, he was elected to the Senate. Trumbull and Lincoln were at this time firm allies and the latter dismissed the notion of challenging the former for his Senate seat should he not prevail in the presidential election. During Lincoln’s presidency, his support of his policies was inconsistent. Although Trumbull voted for the Legal Tender Act which authorized as an emergency measure the printing of bank notes not connected to hard currency, he voted against the Banking Act, which provided a national currency, a longtime goal of the old Whig Party.

Trumbull’s independence seems to have stemmed from two factors. First, many Republicans had been Whigs while Trumbull had been a Democrat, thus Whiggish measures were more likely to meet his disapproval. Second, Illinois was, as it is now, a Democratic state. Although people think of the state as the “land of Lincoln”, at the time it was the land of Stephen Douglas, the man Lincoln tried to defeat in 1858. However, Trumbull’s mixed record on Lincoln’s policies didn’t stop him from embracing Radical Republicanism. He was critical in backing the confiscation of slaves, an important incremental part of abolition.

Trumbull was not tremendously enthusiastic about Lincoln getting a second term…he was more enthusiastic about denouncing Democrats than supporting him during the 1864 election. That year, he co-authored the Thirteenth Amendment and helped engineer its passage in the Senate. Trumbull would also back legislation to ensure that freedmen could get arms to defend themselves from His independence would continue and most notably irk Republicans in 1868 when he voted against impeaching President Andrew Johnson, as he thought the proceedings against him were conducted unfairly. Trumbull in some ways was quite forward-thinking: in 1871, he spoke in favor of creating a national park at Yellowstone.

Trumbull’s Departure from the GOP

He grew disenchanted with the Republican Party during Ulysses S. Grant’s presidency over corruption, his belief that Reconstruction should be ended, foreign policy that he regarded as imperialist, and the increasingly pro-business nature of the Republican Party. His views on civil rights had indeed shifted: while previously he had been a Radical Republican who voted for the 14^th and 15^th Amendments, he voted against the Ku Klux Klan Act in 1871 aimed at stopping violence against blacks and Republican activists in the South, opposed permitting blacks to serve on juries, and opposed voting rights enforcement. In 1872, he supported Horace Greeley’s campaign and retired from the Senate the following year.

Trumbull subsequently returned to the Democratic Party, serving as counsel for Samuel J. Tilden in the dispute over the 1876 presidential election. In 1880, he ran for governor, unsuccessfully. As the years passed, Trumbull’s views would grow more radical on economics and in 1894 in the midst of an economic depression and disillusion with Grover Cleveland, he switched parties again, becoming a member of the left-wing Populist Party. The following year, the 82-year old Trumbull along with the famed attorney Clarence Darrow, defended future Socialist Party presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs and other unionists over violating the presidential injunction over the Pullman railroad strike before the Supreme Court. He died the next year just as his old Republican Party was firmly embracing the conservatism of McKinley. Trumbull was at heart a progressive as it was understood in the older sense: he stood primarily for the white working class, which is what Democrats of the time stood for. Yet, Trumbull also played an important role in the abolition of slavery and the passage of the Reconstruction amendments.

 

Although today the state of Vermont is quite possibly the most liberal state in New England, there was a time in which it was without doubt the most reliable Republican state. I have covered Vermont’s change from Coolidge politics to Sanders politics, but today I will cover the first Democrat to crack the Republican reign of dominance in the state’s politics.

1958 was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad election year for Republicans: they lost 48 seats in the House and a whopping 12 seats in the Senate. This election truly signified the start of New England’s shift to the Democratic Party as Republicans lost big in the region they had previously dominated. Republican incumbent senators in Connecticut and Maine lost reelection, all the Republican representatives from Connecticut lost reelection, and Massachusetts and Maine had seats go Democrat. But the real shocker? Vermont’s only Congressional district being won by Democrat William H. Meyer.

Before this sole interruption in the state’s Republican status on the congressional level since 1857 had been the election of a member of the Greenback Party to the House for a single term in 1878. Meyer was a staunch progressive who supported recognition of Communist China, called for an end to nuclear testing, and stood for nuclear disarmament. He had won because Vermonters didn’t want staunchly conservative Harold J. Arthur but in 1960 Governor Robert Stafford, a moderate Republican, ran and defeated him by over 14 points. Meyer’s stances on the Cold War were just too much for the Eisenhower Republicans of 1960. Meyer never returned to Congress but he was one of the founders of the pacifist and socialist Liberty Union Party in 1970, which a young Bernie Sanders joined and ran for office several times on their ticket. Meyer died in 1983, but he did live to see Sanders elected as Burlington’s mayor in 1980. I’ll bet, however, that he never thought that in the future someone from his party would not only be one of Vermont’s senators but also a serious contender for the Democratic nomination for president.

Although Meyer was a one-hit wonder, he opened the door for Sanders and ultimately to the rise of the Democrats in Vermont.

 

Jim Jeffords, Whose Party Switch Changed Control of the Senate

Last year, there were two party switches in Congress: Republican Justin Amash switched to Independent because he came to support impeachment of Donald Trump, and Democrat Jeff Van Drew switched to Republican because he opposed impeachment. Party switching is more common historically than you might think: President Donald Trump has done so multiple times and even sought the nomination for the Reform Party in 2000. Currently serving Senators Richard Shelby of Alabama and John Kennedy of Louisiana at one time held elected office as Democrats. For the purposes of this list of major party switchers, I will not count switches that occurred before the person became politically active, nor will I be counting those who are politically active as this is a historical list. Thus, Hillary Clinton and Howard Dean will not be covered here.

Richard F. Pettigrew – I have covered Senator Pettigrew in a previous post, and as one of South Dakota’s first two senators he shifted from Republican to Silver Republican over the party’s embrace of the gold standard. After losing reelection in 1900, he switched to Democrat but by the Wilson Administration, he could be regarded as radical and sympathetic to communism.

Henry Teller – Senator Teller of Colorado was one of the state’s first two senators and he was noted for his independence. Most notably, in 1887 he opposed the Dawes Act, which was an ultimately disastrous effort to integrate American Indians into a capitalist society as it resulted in them losing two-thirds of their land, often due to fraud. However, what got Senator Teller to leave the Republican Party was its policy on silver, which had moved from bimetallism to fully embracing the gold standard in 1896. Unlike many of the Republicans who left for the Silver Republican Party, Teller moved to the Democratic Party in 1903.

George W. Norris – Senator George Norris of Nebraska had long been a prominent progressive voice in the Republican Party and in 1928, 1932, and 1936 he backed the Democrat for office. In that year, he switched to Independent because it was becoming increasingly clear that the Republicans wouldn’t win back a majority soon, and in exchange he got privileges normally afforded to Democrats. By 1942, the voters of Nebraska had lost their enthusiasm for progressive politics and he lost reelection.

Wayne Morse – Elected as a Republican in 1944, Morse was never a great ideological fit for the Republican Party and left in 1952 because of the selection of Richard Nixon as Vice President. For two years, he was an Independent, but ultimately in 1955 he settled on being a Democrat. Morse even made a run for the presidency in 1960 on a platform of liberalism, but John F. Kennedy’s campaign was able to overwhelm his candidacy. He later emerged as a critic of both foreign aid and the Vietnam War, being one of only two senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964. Morse’s opposition to the Vietnam War didn’t play well at home and he lost reelection in 1968. He sought a comeback in 1974, but his health didn’t hold out and he died during the campaign.

Strom Thurmond – Strom Thurmond as a young man probably never thought he would switch parties. In the 1930s, he was a New Deal Democrat and, indeed, the state of South Carolina was intensely Democratic until the 1950s. In 1954, Thurmond, who had been Governor of South Carolina, was elected to the Senate and right from the get-go he proved a conservative Democrat and he only got more conservative: while from 1955 to 1959, his voting record earned him a 78% score from Americans for Constitutional Action, his record in 1961-62 earned him a 100%. Even before Thurmond switched parties he was highly regarded by many conservatives. He finally did so in 1964, partly out of ideological agreements with Republican nominee Barry Goldwater but also because he anticipated that staying in the Democratic Party would likely bring his career to an end. Switching Republican gained him a new sort of power during the Nixon Administration but this proved the height of his prominence. Yet, he continued to serve in the Senate until his retirement…in 2003!

John Lindsay – When New York City’s John Lindsay was first elected to Congress in 1958, he was an Eisenhower Republican and voted that way until 1962, when he shifted left. By 1965, he was the most liberal Republican in the House and that year he successfully ran for Mayor of New York City. As Mayor, he pursued tax-and-spend policies which ultimately led the city into bankruptcy in 1975 and crime skyrocketed under his tenure, which is widely regarded as disastrous. In 1972, Lindsay switched to Democrat to run for the Democratic presidential nomination, which reminds me a lot of New York City’s Bill de Blasio: an unpopular mayor trying to fail upwards.

Phil Gramm – In 1978, Phil Gramm was elected to Congress from Texas as a Democrat. He had never been a liberal and the policies of Ronald Reagan appealed to him deeply, so in 1981 he wrote and co-sponsored the Reagan Administration’s first budget. This resulted in the Democrats stripping him of his position on the Budget Committee, which he responded to by resigning office in 1983 and running for the seat as a Republican. Gramm believed that his district supported him and not the Democratic Party, a belief that proved correct with his victory. In 1984, with the blessing of the Reagan Administration, he ran for and won election to the Senate and the following year he co-sponsored the Gramm-Hollings-Rudman Act, intended to balance the budget. Gramm attempted to run for president in 1996, but he lacked national support and he retired in 2002.

Jim Jeffords – Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords had for a long time been a prominent liberal Republican and the increasingly conservative nature of the party finally pushed him to switch to Independent in 2001. He proceeded to caucus with the Democrats, giving them a majority in the chamber. This was a move generally well-regarded by the state’s voters and he did not seek reelection after this switch.

Arlen Specter – In 1965, Democrat Arlen Specter wanted to run for Philadelphia District Attorney against his former boss, but his party wouldn’t back him. Republican Senator Hugh Scott saw an opportunity and approached him with a deal: switch parties and the Republican nomination was his. Specter agreed and won the election. In 1980, he succeeded Republican Senator Richard Schweiker and served as a moderate-to-liberal Republican, often to the consternation of conservative voters. In 2004, conservative Representative Pat Toomey challenged him in the primary but survived due to the endorsement of President Bush. In 2009, he switched parties as he was faring poorly in Republican primary polling against conservative Pat Toomey, who was giving it another go. Specter, however, couldn’t hold off his Democratic primary challenger in 2010, Congressman Joe Sestak. Toomey ultimately prevailed in the election.

Finally…

Ronald Reagan – Ronald Reagan was as a young man an idealistic New Dealer and even joined an organization that would vehemently oppose his presidency: Americans for Democratic Action. In 1948, he campaigned against the Republican Congress and for Truman, condemning the Republican program as inflationary and decrying the curbing of the power of labor unions. However, his experience with Communists in Hollywood combined with his time as GE’s spokesman transformed him ideologically, and by the time Reagan switched parties in 1962, the change was overdue. The thought of him as a candidate for office arose in his “Time for Choosing” speech a week before the 1964 election for Barry Goldwater, and the rest is history.

In politics, one of the big subjects of the discussion is the impact of millennials on culture as well as their underwhelming economic status, but I have a different subject that although fairly minor comes up regularly: the perennials!

Perennial candidates are one of the odder features of politics in free nations: candidates who run all the time but hardly ever or never win. Some of the notable ones include:

Randall S. “Front Porch” Harmon: It Was All About the Porch!

The 1958 midterm elections were excellent for the Democrats, and they produced some unexpected results. One of these was Randall S. Harmon’s squeaker of a victory over Republican Ralph Harvey of Indiana. Harmon had run for Congress seven times before winning on his eighth try. From 1944 to 1952 he had run as a Republican, but sought office as a Democrat after. In his one term in office became most known for declaring his front porch a Congressional office and placing his wife on Congressional payroll. Although Harmon in most ways voted party line on domestic issues, he cast some strange votes here and there: in 1960 he voted for the strengthening McCulloch-Celler Amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1960 but voted against the measure itself twice, being one of only three Democrats outside of the former Confederacy to do so. That year, he lost reelection to Ralph Harvey by over 14 points. Harmon ran nine more times to run for Congress, on no occasion winning the Democratic nomination. He lost his final bid for the Democratic nomination in May 1982 and died three months later at the age of 79. He had also run for Mayor of Muncie, Indiana, twice, in 1943 as a Republican and in 1979 as a Democrat. Harmon had run a total of 17 times for the House and only succeeded once.

David Duke: Wannabe Hitler

A white supremacist, former Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, and a convicted felon, David Duke was at one time a Republican State Representative in Louisiana and has run for president in both the Democratic (1988) and Republican (1992) primaries. Despite being repudiated by the Republican Party itself and President George Bush he finished second in the state’s “jungle primary” in 1991 and thus was the Republican nominee. Duke has also run for the Senate and the House.

Lyndon LaRouche: The British Royal Family’s Foremost Foe!

Lyndon LaRouche was a left-wing conspiracy theorist who had accused the Queen of England of being behind the international drug trade, cultivated a cult-like atmosphere around him and his views, and sometimes veered into fascist territory with his policies. He ran for president a grand total of eight times, the first as a candidate of the Labor Party and the last seven as a Democrat. Like David Duke, LaRouche was also a convicted felon.

James D. Martin: Republican Trailblazer

James Martin was a trailblazer in the state of Alabama, as he was the first major Republican candidate since Reconstruction. In 1962, he came very close to unseating Democratic Senator J. Lister Hill, who had served in federal office since 1923. This near-defeat prompted his retirement in 1969, but despite running for the Senate thrice, governor once, and state treasurer once, he only won a single term in the House of Representatives.

Glen H. Taylor: The Singing Cowboy

A far-left candidate known as “The Singing Cowboy” for his campaign style, Taylor ran for the Senate seven times but only won in 1944. He also was Henry Wallace’s nominee for Vice President under the Progressive Party ticket of 1948, making him a communist dupe as well.

George P. Mahoney: Why Spiro Agnew Became VP

George Mahoney was an increasingly odd man out in Democratic politics in Maryland: he ran for governor on a segregationist platform…in 1966. For context, none of the Democrats who served in Congress from Maryland at the time were segregationists. And his opponent? None other than future Vice President Spiro Agnew, who took a pro-civil rights stance and won 70% of the black vote as well as the election. Mahoney had previously run for governor in 1950, 1954, and 1962. He also ran for the Senate in 1952, 1956, 1958, 1968, and 1970. Although Mahoney had never won an election, he is one of the people Agnew had to thank for becoming Vice President.

Norman Thomas: Son of American Socialism

After the death of Eugene V. Debs, the man to take on the mantle of the Socialist Party was Norman Thomas. He ran for president six times between 1928 and 1948, once for Senate from New York, one for New York State Senate, once for Governor of New York, twice for Mayor of New York City.  Thomas was not entirely unsuccessful, as several of his ideas were adopted under the New Deal.

Eugene V. Debs: Father of American Socialism

Bernie Sanders considers Eugene V. Debs one of his heroes, and he ought to be: Debs was the nation’s foremost socialist in his day but also a perennial candidate. Debs ran for president a total of five times, the first in 1900 for the Social Democratic Party and the next four times as the Socialist Party candidate. In his final run in 1920, he ran from a prison cell as he was serving time for violating the Espionage Act for publicly opposing the draft. This was also the best run for a Socialist Party candidate as he won almost a million votes.

Ralph Nader: The Spoiler

At one time the nation’s leading consumer safety advocate and highly influential in the passage of consumer safety legislation, Nader began his presidential ambitions in 1972 as the nominee of the New Party and ran for president a total of six times, with the last five as the Green Party candidate. However, his most notorious effort would be in 2000, and his over 97,000 votes were consequently blamed for Al Gore’s loss in the Electoral College and thus the election. Despite Nader’s epic spoiler effect, there is one man who trumps all of the perennial candidates.

Harold Stassen: The King of Perennial Candidates

Harold Stassen met his greatest success rather early in his career: in 1938 he was elected Governor of Minnesota at the age of 31, serving four years and for two of these years he was Chair of the National Governors Association. In 1940, he gained notoriety for giving the keynote address for the Republican National Convention as well as being a voice favoring intervention in World War II. Stassen proved an immensely popular governor – by his final year as governor he had a 91% approval rating, something unheard of even among the most popular governors today. In 1942, he had run for reelection and promised if reelected he would resign to report for duty in the U.S. Navy, which he did. In 1944, Stassen for the first time ran for president. In 1946, he participated in the San Francisco Conference to establish the United Nations and he is one of the signatories of its charter. In 1948, he ran his strongest race for president and at one time was regarded as the front-runner. That year he notably debated New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey on whether the Communist Party of the United States should be outlawed. Dewey thought they should have to register with the government, while Stassen thought they should be banned, and Dewey came away easily with the victory both in the debate and in the Republican primary. Stassen was in fact a liberal Republican in his orientation, standing opposed to more conservative candidates. In 1952 he ran again, but refrained in 1956 given Eisenhower’s inevitable renomination. In 1964, Stassen tried again on a “Stop Goldwater” platform, but this would prove to be his last campaign of significance. He would try again in 1968, 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992. On his last bid, Stassen was 85 years old!

The presidency wasn’t the only post he had his eye on, he also ran for:

Governor of Minnesota in 1982, forty-four years after his first victory!

Senate from Minnesota, 1978 and 1994.

Governor of Pennsylvania, 1958 and 1966.

Mayor of Philadelphia, 1959.

U.S. Representative, 1986.

It is both remarkable and sad to think that when Stassen, who proved universally popular as governor, resigned to serve in the U.S. Navy on April 23, 1943 that he would never, despite trying time and time again, ever hold elected office again.

Although relations between Iran and the United States officially began in 1856, in truth it wasn’t significant until ambassadorial relations were established in 1944. Thus, the first leader the United States had significant dealings with was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, who had been placed in power at the young age of 22 when his father, Reza Shah, was deposed by a British-USSR invasion of Iran for leaning to the Axis. Since Iran bordered the USSR, it was considered a crucial country in the Cold War.

A Coup D’état

In 1951, Mohammad Mosaddegh was appointed prime minister. He was a socialist who was keen on nationalizing the petroleum industry controlled by the British Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, and parliament unanimously voted to nationalize it. This displeased the British greatly and they imposed an oil embargo on the country. By 1953 the CIA and the British SIS were planning a coup d’état as they feared that a communist takeover could happen in the future and that the Iran was on a course to ruin if Mosaddegh tried, as he wanted, to have an economy free of oil to be free of “imperialist” influences. The plan, Operation Ajax, was headed by Kermit Roosevelt Jr., Theodore Roosevelt’s grandson. The coup initially failed and the Shah fled to Rome, being afraid to follow through. Ultimately, the CIA recruited his much tougher twin sister, Princess Ashraf, to berate him into signing orders to dismiss Mosaddegh as prime minister and appoint General Fazlollah Zahedi (who led the Iranian side of the coup), which he did. The impact of the coup was good for the U.S. in the short run, but it would be used in later years as part of Islamist propaganda against the United States. Historian Gregory Brew wrote on the coup, “While certain policymakers, particularly CIA Director Allen Dulles, exaggerated the threat of collapse, the decision to remove Mosaddegh should not be thought of as an intelligence failure. Rather, it constitutes a moment when policymakers, surrounded by uncertainty and driven by a fear that the worst-case scenario was just around the corner, chose to undertake a radical action in the belief that it was the last remaining viable option. In the American hierarchy of motives — which included forestalling the spread of communist influence, ending the oil crisis, and promoting a pro-Western regime in Iran — preventing collapse emerged as a broadly felt justification for covert action. In that sense, the operation was a success — Iran did not collapse, its government remained pro-Western, and the oil crisis was resolved in a way that satisfied Iran’s need for revenue and the oil companies’ desire for control. Yet, the coup decision had significant implications for the future of Iran and its relations with the United States, narrowing subsequent U.S. policy and staining the shah’s post-coup government with a mark of illegitimacy” (Brew, 2019).

Two years later, the Shah began to push a modernization agenda combined with progressive policies, including land reform and equal rights for women. In 1957, he established, with the help of the CIA and the Mossad, SAVAK, the secret police of Iran. SAVAK became notorious for employing torture and execution of opponents of the regime. In 1960, it became known that the Shah favored Richard Nixon in the U.S. presidential election and his relations with the Kennedy Administration did not prove great. He suspected them of plotting against him, since the leading critic of his regime in the administration was Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

The White Revolution, Employing Leverage, and the End

In 1963, the Shah began the White Revolution, which pushed women’s rights, and met with great opposition from Islamic scholars, most notably, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. By the 1970s, Iran’s growth rate equaled South Korea, Turkey, and Taiwan and there was a strong possibility that it would become a First World nation. Although the U.S. regarded the Shah as an ally, relations weren’t always ideal and for some time he had insisted that the U.S. sever contacts with opponents of the regime, a concession he won under his friend President Nixon. Since the United States was under political and military strain given the Vietnam War, the Shah realized he could leverage power and was able to get the United States involved in his backing of Iraqi Kurds despite CIA warnings that the Shah would betray the Kurds, which he did by signing the Algiers Accord in 1975, which settled border disputes with Iraq and cut off all aid to the Kurds. The Kurds had merely been a means to pressure Iraq, and the end result was many of the rebels being executed by the Iraqi government.

In 1975, the Shah ended the two-party state in favor of a one-party state, which included mandatory membership and dues, antagonizing many who may otherwise have not been interested in politics. During the 1970s SAVAK had also ramped up arrests, tortures, and executions. These were manifestations of his increasingly autocratic nature that helped set the course to the end of his regime. Another factor in the end was his deteriorating health. In 1974, the Shah was diagnosed with lymphoma and by the spring of 1978 it had worsened to an extent that he stopped public appearances. In June of that year, his French doctors revealed to the French government that he was dying of cancer, which they relayed to the United States. Pahlavi was taking prednisone to try to stop the cancer, but this had the effect of impairing his ability to think and make decisions, and in a system so reliant on the central authority of the Shah, this was catastrophic in the face of popular dissent which had begun in October 1977 and resulted in the start of the Iranian Revolution on January 7, 1978. Although his wife, Empress Farah, urged him to appoint her regent while he got treated for cancer outside of Iran, he refused out of pride. On September 8, 1978, the event that immediately doomed the regime was Black Friday, in which the army gunned down 88 religious demonstrators who had ignored an order to disperse and had been unaware that the government had declared martial law a day prior. This event mobilized the public against the Shah, and in October a strike shut down the petroleum industry, a devastating blow to his rule.

On November 9, 1978, U.S. Ambassador to Iran William H. Sullivan notified the Carter Administration that the Shah was “doomed” and they in response sent General Robert E. Huyser to Iran. Although he was officially there to pledge the support of the U.S. government, declassified documents show that he was there to prevent a military coup to save the Shah’s regime. The Shah fled in January 1979 and the Ayatollah Khomeini was invited back to Iran to begin his rule. After fleeing Iran, the Shah was accepted into the United States for treatment after it was botched in Mexico because he didn’t tell his doctors he had cancer. The Shah’s time in the hospital in the U.S. resulted in the Iranian Hostage Crisis, which resulted in U.S. sanctions on Iran and a permanent change in how the two nations viewed each other. After being forced to leave the U.S. he went to Panama and then to Egypt, where he died.

Ultimately, many of the people who had supported the rise of Khomeini would find he was much different than they had expected and he turned on many who had supported the end of the Shah’s rule. Although the Ayatollah Khomeini had stated he would support women’s rights and freedom of speech, his actions said otherwise. While the best estimates of the deaths caused by the Shah’s regime run between 3,000 and 4,000 between 1963 and 1979, the ten years of Khomeini’s rule produced up to 20,000 deaths in the state prisons. While sanctions would be lifted as a result of freeing the hostages, the relationship between the U.S. and Iran would be largely adversarial from then on.

Conclusion

Although a common narrative is that the American and British sponsored 1953 coup d’état against Mosaddegh set Iran on the course to its current state, it is far from the leading factor. A combination of the Shah’s failing health, the Carter Administration’s secret pushing of the Shah out for Khomeini, and the Shah’s increasingly autocratic nature all resulted in the end of the rule of the Iranian monarchy on February 11, 1979. The United States primarily regarded Iran as a Cold War ally and this colored their relations until the end of the Shah’s regime.

References

Bowcott, O. (2012, November 4). Khomeini regime committed gross human rights abuses, finds tribunal. The Guardian.

Retrieved from

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/nov/04/khomeini-regime-human-rights-abuses

Brew, G. The Collapse Narrative: The United States, Mohammad Mossadegh, and the Coup Decision of 1953. Texas National Security Review, 2(4)

Retrieved from

https://tnsr.org/2019/11/the-collapse-narrative-the-united-states-mohammed-mossadegh-and-the-coup-decision-of-1953/

Dehghan, S.K. & Smith, D. (2016, June 10). US had extensive contact with Ayatollah Khomeini before Iran revolution. The Guardian.

Retrieved from

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/10/ayatollah-khomeini-jimmy-carter-administration-iran-revolution

 

 

 

William McCulloch (1901-1980) is not the typical politician profiled as a civil rights advocate: he represented a rural conservative district in Ohio with territory that has not elected a Democrat to Congress since 1936. He was a Republican in the mold of Senator Robert A. Taft, a New Deal critic who wanted to limit American involvement in foreign affairs. As Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives from 1939 to 1944 he had collaborated with Governor John W. Bricker to turn a state deficit to a surplus and after resigned to serve in World War II despite being in his forties. In 1947 he was elected to the House and as a representative he voted contrary to the “modern Republicanism” preached by Dwight Eisenhower in his opposition to foreign aid and federal aid to education. McCulloch had also followed Republican leadership in opposing a mandatory Fair Employment Practices Committee in 1950 as advocated by Harry S. Truman, instead supporting a voluntary committee which would investigate, report, and recommend on claims of discrimination, but not force action on business. He had been strongly restrictionist on immigration until his vote for the Hart-Celler Immigration Act of 1965; in 1948 he had voted against a compromise measure to admit refugees from war-torn Europe, in 1952 he had voted for the restrictive McCarran-Walter Act, and in 1953 he voted against the Refugee Relief Act. McCulloch also was no slouch on defending state’s rights: he had taken the side of the states over the federal government in the Tidelands controversy and had taken the side of states on their anti-subversive laws when the Supreme Court struck them down. Yet, he harbored an intense dislike for the Jim Crow system, as he saw its injustice firsthand when he practiced law in Florida as a young man. Indeed, McCulloch regularly voted against segregation: he supported Powell Amendments and opposed construction of a VA hospital on the grounds it would be segregated. As ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, he began in 1956 to collaborate with Rep. Emanuel Celler (D-N.Y.) on civil rights bills. In 1957, this collaboration saw their first, but very modest success, with the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The Civil Rights Act of 1960 went down similarly, and McCulloch was growing irritated with the Senate for both watering down civil rights legislation to avoid Southern filibusters while simultaneously giving publicity victories to Democrats.

In 1963, McCulloch introduced comprehensive civil rights legislation with liberal Republicans John Lindsay of New York and Charles Mathias of Maryland. This put pressure on President John F. Kennedy to introduce civil rights legislation a few months later and for this measure he sought to win him over to the measure as he knew him to be key to the bill’s success. On July 2^nd, assistant Attorney General Burke Marshall met with McCulloch in his Piqua, Ohio office. For his cooperation, he had two conditions: first, he would not accept the Senate watering down the bill again and that any changes made would have to meet his approval. Second, Republicans had to get equal credit for passage. The agreement was struck between the men and McCulloch set to work to win Minority Leader Charles Halleck’s (R-Ind.) approval, which he received. However, there was a problem: Judiciary Committee chair Celler had been pushed by the liberals in his caucus to publicly back a measure so strong-armed in its extension of federal power that it would surely meet defeat in the Senate. With this measure, state and local elections were subject to federal jurisdiction, the Attorney General could intervene in any case in which a person was denied access to a state or local facility, and it forced desegregation of nearly all kinds of businesses, including those regarded as more private in nature (private schools, law firms). McCulloch condemned the measure, stating to the Wall Street Journal, “It’s a pail of garbage” (Purdum). While his opposition to this measure was interpreted by civil rights groups and staunch liberals as a retreat on civil rights, something he understood that they didn’t was that for such a tremendous bill to pass and stand the test of time it would need to be a consensus, not a narrow victory. Narrow victories can be undone or substantively altered and McCulloch wanted what Congress would pass to stick and of course first survive a Senate filibuster. He ultimately got his way, with the voting rights section only covering federal elections, barbershops and beauty parlors were exempted from public accommodations, and the Attorney General no longer had wide powers to file desegregation suits, rather suits would have to be filed by individuals and organizations.

After John F. Kennedy’s tragic demise at the hands of Lee Harvey Oswald, the measure was crucially backed by President Lyndon B. Johnson and was adopted by the House on a vote of 290-130. McCulloch had managed to get 80% of the Republicans on board; he had been an indispensable bridge between the liberal and conservative wings of the party. In the Senate, conservative Minority Leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois and moderate Minority Whip Thomas Kuchel of California lobbied hard for the bill and met with similar success by managing to defeat the filibuster on a vote of 71-29, with the bill itself passing 73-27. Although the Senate had made changes to the House bill, they were minor and acceptable to McCulloch. Johnson signed the bill into law on July 2, 1964, exactly one year after McCulloch and Marshall’s deal. Along with the people I have already named, others who deserve substantial credit for passage included Senator Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn.), Speaker of the House John McCormack (D-Mass.), and Reps. Clarence Brown (R-Ohio) and Richard Bolling (D-Mo.). McCulloch similarly backed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 but had preferred his version, on which he had collaborated with Minority Leader Gerald Ford. His version suffered the misfortune of also being preferred by most Southern Democrats, ensuring its failure in the Great Society Congress. Unlike many of his conservative colleagues, he also backed fair housing legislation, which many of them regarded as an intrusion on property rights. In 1967, McCulloch was tapped to serve on the Kerner Commission to investigate that year’s race riots. The commission, which was dominated by liberals, largely placed the blame on white racism and warned of an increasingly de facto segregated society, with blacks in urban areas and whites in the suburbs. The Kerner Commission’s conclusion and recommendations were rejected by President Johnson.

The 1960s would change McCulloch somewhat ideologically: in 1961, the first year of the Kennedy Administration, both Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) and Americans for Constitutional Action (ACA) considered him a staunch conservative, with the former scoring him a 0% and the latter scoring him a 100%. In 1968, the last year of the Johnson Administration, he got a 42% by ADA and a 61% by ACA. This newfound moderation carried on to the Nixon Administration, and McCulloch was somewhat critical of the administration’s approach on civil rights. He opposed the Nixon Administration’s attempt to apply the Voting Rights Act nationally, supported the Philadelphia Plan, and had mixed feelings on employing busing to desegregate schools. In 1971, he was one of 24 representatives to vote against the Equal Rights Amendment. Later that year, McCulloch announced his retirement on account of poor health, which had resulted in his being absent for much of that year. Accolades poured in for him, including from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who wrote to him, “I know that you, more than anyone, were responsible for the civil rights legislation of the 1960’s, and particularly for the Civil Rights Act of 1964” (Onassis) .

Only in recent years has McCulloch received attention for his efforts on behalf of civil rights and his role in ensuring the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Traditional narratives on civil rights placed little to no emphasis on his role, and this is because he was not a great narrative fit: a rural conservative Republican. It reminds me of the story of Paul Revere’s midnight ride as popularly told in the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, but the sole focus on Revere obscures the role of the four other riders in warning the colonists of the approach of the British: William Dawes, Samuel Prescott, Israel Bissell, and Sybil Ludington. Israel Bissell made the longest ride of the five, yet his name was not as easy to fit in a rhyme.

References

Onassis, J.K. (1971, June 24). Letter to Congressman William McCulloch. National Museum of African American History & Culture.

Retrieved from

https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2014.1abcd

Purdum, T.S. (2014, March 31). The Republican Who Saved Civil Rights: How a little-known conservative Ohio congressman changed American history. Politico.

Retrieved from

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/03/the-movers-behind-the-civil-rights-act-105216

The ideology of presidents often gets disputed and one of them, interestingly enough, is Ronald Reagan. Although conservatives recognize him as one of their own, liberals, although still disliking him, will point out that Reagan compromised on some points including on one of the subjects he is most known for: taxes. Some on the left even go as far as to say that Reagan would fail a GOP litmus test today given said compromises on taxes as well as his admittedly mixed record on gun control. I decided to apply the MC-Index (Mike’s Conservative Index) to votes in which President Reagan took a position, and I arrived at the following results:

97^th Congress (1981-82), House – 87%

97^th Congress (1981-82), Senate – 86%

98^th Congress (1983-84), House – 83%

98^th Congress (1983-84), Senate – 70%

99^th Congress (1985-86), House – 100%

99^th Congress (1985-86), Senate – 100%

100^th Congress (1987-88), House – 100%

100^th Congress (1987-88), Senate – 95%

Overall Score: 90%

Although his second term is very much what people would expect given his reputation (the only hole in his record is the INF Treaty, which only five senators voted against), what of his first term? Especially, what of his 1983-84 positions in the Senate?

I find that Ronald Reagan was a doctrinaire conservative but he had some dissents from the conservative position. The most jarring was a 1984 Senate vote in which he backed a $15 million three-year program for after school childcare, one that all but eight Senate Republicans opposed, and none of the eight were close to as conservative as Reagan. In his first term, despite his 1981 tax cuts, he supported some tax raises to reduce the fiscal impact of the 1981 cut in 1982 and 1983. He also supported a foreign aid bill and opposed some efforts by Senator Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) to get even more hardline on the Soviets in the name of diplomacy.

On the conservative side of things, Reagan supported three constitutional amendments as president: balanced budget, school prayer, and an overturn of Roe v. Wade. He also opposed the Equal Rights Amendment, signed into law a bill easing gun control, supported an increase in military spending, opposed several measures expanding civil rights laws, opposed laws increasing the power of organized labor, and backed domestic budget cuts among other issues. Overall, Reagan was on the lower end of ultra-conservative by the standards of my scale. He would still very much fit in the GOP despite his backing of the Brady Bill in retirement. There are other Republican politicians who managed to do well for themselves after the start of the Tea Party despite their past support of the Brady Bill including Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin.

Since I have referred to the MC-Index before, I will show my work in this case. These are the roll calls I used to base my scoring, with yea or nay indicating the conservative position on the vote. I used the Voteview program to produce these ratings and bear in mind, President Reagan did not take a position on all of them.

1981-82 House

Yea 30   253-176 CONG. BUDGET

Yea 32   272-126 RED. CONTRIB. INTL. DEVELOP. ASSN.

Yea 33   231-166 RED. COMMITTMENT TO EXPORT-IMPORT BANK

Yea 62   265-122 PROHIBIT FUNDS FOR REQUIRING BUSING

Nay 83   245-137 $241M ANNUALLY LEGAL SERV. CORP.

Nay 93   323-86  AUTH. FUNDS CORP. OF PUBLIC BROAD.

Nay 95   209-217 BUDGET RECONCILIATION

Nay 108  201-207 CONG. HAS 60 DAYS TO APPROVE MX MISSILE BASING MOD

Yea 135  177-184 REQUIRE STATES TO INSPECT VEHICLE EMISSIONS

Yea 160  279-141 RED. $5M BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO AND FIREARMS

Yea 166  238-195 KEMP-ROTH TAX CUT

Yea 171  253-167 NO FUNDS FOR ABORTIONS

Yea 172  337-83  TAX EXEMPT STATUS PRIVATE/RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS

Yea 181  333-54  NO FUNDS OBSTRUCT SCHOOL PRAYER

Yea 205  226-181 FED. CRIME TO EXPOSE U.S. INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS

Yea 234  168-249 APPS. LABOR, HEW, EDUC.

Nay 243  301-111 DISAPPROVE SAUDI AWACS SALE

Yea 260  147-251 REQ. FOOD STAMP RECIPIENTS PAY PORTION OF THEIR ST

Yea 285  189-201 RED. APPS. 5% EXCEPT FOR DEF., SOCIAL SEC., FOOD S

Nay 299  142-263 $1.8B B-1 BOMBER

Yea 330  222-194 CONTINUING APPS.

Nay 336  281-114 RED. APPS. FOR INTL. DEVELOP. ASSN.

Nay 344  244-136 AUTH. PRES. CONTROL OIL SUPPLIES AND PRICES

Nay 366  246-144 AUTH. PRES. ALLOCATE FUEL SUPPLIES DURING SHORTAGE

Nay 401  282-132 FUNDS FOR HOUSE COMMS.

Yea 423  186-220 OSHA REG. MINING OF STONE, CLAY, GRAVEL, PHOSPHATE

Nay 480  291-102 CONSERVATION INDIAN LAND RESOURCES

Nay 518  253-151 SUPPLEMENTAL APPS.

Nay 523  242-169 SUPPLEMENTAL APPS.

Nay 549  142-257 AUTH. PROCUREMENT B-1 BOMBER

Yea 564  303-95  MUST REGISTER FOR DRAFT TO RECV EDUC. ASST.

Nay 568  163-240 RED. CIVIL DEF. BY $108M

Nay 578  268-128 RED. FUNDING CERT. CIVIL SERVICE PROGRAMS

Yea 590  204-202 MUTUAL AND VERIFIABLE FREEZE ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Yea 597  181-210 FOOD STAMP APPLICANTS MUST BE SEEKING WORK

Nay 642  226-207 MISC. TAX LAW CHANGES

Nay 652  301-117 SUPPLEMENTAL APPS.

Yea 666  200-184 NO EPA FUNDS MANDATORY INSP. PROG. VEHICLE EMISSIO

Nay 672  223-169 PUBLIC SERVICE JOBS

Yea 698  162-189 STRIKE DAVIS-BACON PROVISIONS DEF. PROD. ACT BILL

Yea 711  260-140 RESTRICT FETAL AND INFANT RESEARCH NIH

Yea 716  236-187 BALANCED BUDGET CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

Nay 751  245-176 $988M MX MISSILE

Yea 755  243-153 NO FUNDS FOR BUSING

Nay 788  215-188 EST. DOMESTIC CONTENT REQUIREMENTS MOTOR VEHICLES

Nay 812  180-87  INC. GAS TAX FOR HIGHWAY CONSTR.

1981-82 Senate

Nay 27   24-68   EXTEND ANTI-TRUST OIL EXEMPTION FOR PRICE CONTROLS

Nay 56   40-59   RESTORE FUNDS FOR ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION, ETC

Nay 76   46-52   RESTORE FUNDS FOR VOCATIONAL EDUC

Nay 87   58-32   AUTHORIZE US CONTRIB 2 INT’L DEVEL ASSOC AND AFR DEV BANK

Yea 91   24-72   DELETE FUNDS FOR LEGAL SERVICES CORP

Yea 121  49-48   TABLE CHANGES IN SOC SEC BENEFITS STRUCTURE

Yea 132  52-43   TABLE USE OF FED FUNDS FOR ABORTIONS

Nay 133  50-45   ADD’L FUNDS FOR CHILD NUTR PROGRAM AND FOOD STAMPS

Yea 140  33-66   REINSTATE PURCHASE REQ FOR FOOD STAMPS

Yea 184  38-48   INVOKE CLOTURE ON DEPT OF JUSTICE AUTHORIZATION

Yea 191  57-40   PREVENT INFLATION FROM CAUSING TAX INCREASES

Nay 212  42-57   PROVIDE 1 YEAR TARGETED RATE SCHEDULES

Yea 278  47-51   US MILITARY AID USED TO BRING ABOUT DEMOCRACY

Yea 299  66-29   SUSTAIN BAN ON MIL AID TO ANGOLA

Nay 324  30-57   TABLE REPEAL OF BAN ON MIL AID TO CHILE

Yea 336  35-61   REDUCE FUNDING FOR DEPT OF INTERIOR

Nay 338  48-52   DISAPPROVE OF SALE OF AWACS TO SAUDI ARABIA

Yea 344  32-51   REDUCE BUDGET AUTHORITY FOR AGRIC BY 2.6%

Yea 351  39-52   REDUCE DEPT OF TRANSPORT APPROP BY 4.1%

Nay 357  55-42   STRIKE PORTION OF MIL CONST RE: DAVIS-BACON

Nay 448  28-66   DELETE FUNDS FOR B-1B BOMBER

Nay 445  35-60   DELETE FUNDING FOR INTERIM DEPLOYMENT OF MX

Yea 499  58-38   AMEND ON DEPT OF JUSTICE NO INVOLVEMENT IN BUSING

Yea 550  55-39   PENALTY FOR DISCLOSURE OF FOREIGN AGENT

Nay 560  58-36   OVERRIDE PREZ ON OIL ALLOCATION IN SHORTAGE

Nay 604  40-54   ELIM AUTHORIZATION FOR TITAN II MISSILES

Nay 612  48-45   SEC OF DEF USE JOBLESS AWARD CONTRACT 1.5% DIFFERENTIAL

Yea 622  53-44   TABLE REDUCE DEFENSE BUDGET OUTLAY BY $7.4 BILLION

Nay 629  32-68   ELIM TAX CUT TO BALANCE BUDGET

Yea 637  52-42   TABLE ADD’L $ FOR UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

Yea 649  61-30   TABLE REDUCED DEFENSE AND INCREASED SOCIAL PROGRAMS

Yea 740  64-32   ALLOW INDEXING OF ASSET VALUE RE: CAP GAINS TAX

Yea 785  69-31   PASS CONSTITUTIONAL AMEND ALTERING FEDERAL PROCEDURE

Yea 803  68-28   AMEND VAR 812

Yea 812  17-82   ELIMINATE SOME PROVISIONS OF ACT

Nay 834  52-47   AGREE TO CONF RPT MISCELLANEOUS CHANGES IN TAX LAW

Nay 838  60-30   OVERRIDE PREZ VETO OF SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPS

Nay 841  47-46   TABLE ABORTION BAN

Nay 845  47-53   TABLE COURTS HEARING SCHOOL PRAYER CASES

Nay 865  61-37   FEC CAN WRITE REGS ON USES OF UNION DUES

Yea 864  50-48   RECONSIDER VAR 873

Nay 868  52-44   TABLE CHANGING DAVIS-BACON ACT

Yea 867  50-46   TABLE LIMIT FUNDS FOR MX MISSILE

Yea 869  60-37   TABLE 5% PAYMENT TO DEPT OF LABOR FOR COMPENSATION

Nay 966  54-33   AGREE TO CONF REPORT ON HR 6211

Nay 165  35-63   REVISE CERTAIN DEPT OF ENERGY AUTHORIZATIONS

1983-84 House

Nay 43   243-102 SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM PACKAGE

Nay 42   229-196 CONG. BUDGET

Nay 98   216-196 EMERG. MORTGAGE ASST. AND AID TO HOMELESS

Yea 170  226-182 NO FUNDS FOR ABORTIONS

Nay 185  164-255 DELETE FUNDING B-1 BOMBER

Yea 198  191-223 RED. DEPT. OF TRANSPORTATION 4%

Nay 207  229-191 LIMIT MAX. RED. IN INDIV. INCOME TAX FROM 3RD OF R

Yea 211  211-209 RED. DEPT. OF INT. 4%

Nay 235  263-158 HOUSING PROGRAM

Nay 248  207-220 MX MISSILE

Yea 266  203-223 PROHIBIT U.S. SUPPORT PARAMILITARY OPERATIONS NICA

Nay 289  338-90  MAKE B-DAY MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. PUBLIC HOLIDAY

Nay 300  252-174 HEALTH CARE BENEFITS FOR UNEMPLOYED

Yea 301  242-185 OPPOSE IMF LOANS TO COMMUNIST COUNTRIES

Nay 304  217-211 U.S. PART. INTL. DEVELOP. BANKS

Nay 307  286-128 HOW PRES. CAN REMOVE PRSN. FROM CIVIL RIGHTS COMMI

Nay 335  302-111 INC. FUNDING CERT. EDUC. PROGRAMS

Nay 83   278-149 MUTUAL AND VERIFIABLE FREEZE ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Nay 55   221-195 MUTUAL AND VERIFIABLE FREEZE ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Nay 377  227-194 COVERT AID TO NICARAGUAN CONTRAS

Yea 397  188-223 REGULATE LOW TECH. EXPORTS NON-COMMUNIST COUNTRIES

Nay 469  278-147 PROPOSE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT

Nay 417  219-199 DOMESTIC CONTENT REQUIREMENTS CERT. MOTOR VEHICLES

Nay 329  208-210 SP. UNEMPLOYMENT AID CERT. PRSNS. HIGH UNEMPLOYMEN

Nay 39   329-86  EMERG. SUPPLEMENTAL APPS.

Nay 559  318-97  TAX REFORM TO RAISE $50B IN REVENUE

Yea 617  270-151 NO DISC. SCHOOLS WHICH PERMIT VOL. RELIGIOUS MEETI

Nay 640  238-181 ANTI-SATELLITE WEAPONS

Yea 649  267-154 $61.75M ASST. TO NEW EL SALVADOR GOVT.

Nay 650  241-177 WIND DOWN COVERT OPERATIONS IN NICARAGUA

Nay 670  104-291 PERSHING II MISSILES IN EUROPE

Nay 689  290-102 EXTEND CERT. PUBLIC HEALTH PROGRAMS

Nay 731  375-58  CLARIFY VARIOUS DISC. LAWS

Nay 733  268-155 TAX REFORM

Nay 735  156-261 NO FUNDS FOR ABORTIONS

Yea 775  194-215 SCHOOL PRAYER

Yea 781  128-231 UNFAIR IMPORT COMPETITION

Yea 785  182-226 RED. LABOR AND HHS FUNDING $147.5M

Nay 791  282-131 $4500 LIMIT CAR VALUE FOOD STAMP ELIGIBILITY

Nay 794  294-118 AUTH. APPS. INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES

Yea 798  212-181 RED. INTERIOR DEPT. APPS 3%

Yea 820  142-205 WHEN TO TERM. TAX PROVISIONS SUPERFUND

Nay 854  242-162 CONTRACTING OUT ADMIN. OF 30 JOB CORPS CENTERS

Nay 874  285-134 RESTRICT IMPORTS CARBON AND ALLOY STEEL INTO U.S.

Nay 876  174-233 DUTY FREE TREATMENT TAIWAN, HONG KONG, SOUTH KOREA

Yea 882  167-234 FUNDING FOR CORP. FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING

Yea 858  243-166 CONTINUING APPS.

Yea 786  144-276 RED. DISCRETIONARY FUNDS 5.9% LABOR AND HHS FUNDING

Nay 802  278-138 $305M LEGAL SERVICES CORP.

Yea 581  136-270 PERM. AUTH. APPS. CHILD NUTRITION AND SCHOOL LUNCH A

1983-84 Senate

Yea 41   27-67   ELIMINATE PAYROLL TAX INCREASES

Nay 54   58-14   AGREE TO CONF REPORT ON HR 1900

Nay 44   82-15   TABLE APPROP FOR NEGLECTED NEEDS

Yea 67   23-75   FREEZE SOCIAL SPENDING INCREASE DEFENSE $285 B

Nay 170  45-55   LIMIT MAXIMUM REDUCTION IN TAXES

Yea 169  49-50   OVERTURN ROE V. WADE

Yea 186  56-41   TABLE ADJUST B1-B PROCUREMENT PROGRAM

Yea 199  47-40   TBL SENSE OF SEN PREZ AND SOV PREZ DISCUSS SUBS MISSILES

Nay 239  60-36   TABLE PREZ EMPHASIZE SOV VIOLATION OF MONROE DOCTRINE

Yea 256  66-23   CONDITIONALLY RESTRICT PAYMENTS TO U.N.

Nay 258  45-30   TABLE IMF FUNDING FOR COMMUNIST DICTATORSHIP

Nay 244  63-33   SET UP COMMISSION TO LOOK AT INTERIOR COAL LEASING

Yea 316  42-55   NO TAX INCREASES W/O SPENDING CUTS

Yea 317  58-40   TABLE MUTUAL AND VERIFIABLE REDUCE OF NUKE WEAPONS

Nay 293  78-22   PASS ML KING B-DAY AS NAT’L HOLIDAY

Nay 327  37-56   DELETE FUNDS FOR MX MISSILE

Yea 254  26-68   PROVIDE FUNDS FOR RADIO TRANSMITTER SITES

Nay 364  67-30   AUTHORIZE NEW FEDERAL ASST FOR LOW INCOME HOUSING

Nay 357  49-46   TABLE MONTHLY/QUARTERLY DEBT LIMITS

Nay 325  50-29   TABLE END COMPLIANCE WITH SALT II TREATY

Nay 355  59-38   TABLE REFUNDABLE TAX CREDIT FOR TUITION

Nay 72   36-63   ADDITIONAL $ FOR HEALTH CARE FOR UNEMPLOYED

Yea 75   46-48   INCREASED FUNDING EDUCATION, TRAINING ETC

Yea 161  55-39   TABLE MORTGAGE RELIEF FOR UNEMPLOYED HOMEOWNERS

Yea 106  45-55   REDUCE MOST PROGS 5%, DEFENSE .5%

Yea 383  63-24   ALLOWING SEARCH AND SEIZURE EVIDENCE MORE READILY

Yea 385  63-32   PASS PERMISSION FOR DEATH PENALTY

Yea 405  56-44   CONST AMEND FOR SCHOOL PRAYER

Yea 432  57-38   TABLE DELAYED TAX INDEXING TIL 1988

Yea 449  27-68   PROVIDE 10% REDUCTION IN BUDGET AUTHORITY

Nay 479  65-32   BAN LABOR UNION FROM SUPPORTING PAC’S

Nay 492  61-28   BAN ON FUNDS 4 ANTI-SATELLITE TEST W/O PREZ CONFIRMATION

Yea 503  48-48   TABLE DEPLOYMENT OF MX MISSILE

Yea 511  63-31   TABLE LIMIT US TROOPS IN EL SALVADOR / NICARAGUA

Nay 551  78-22   AGREE TO PROVIDE FUNDS FOR LEGAL SERVICES CORP

Nay 587  29-69   DELETE MIL FUNDS FOR EL SALVADOR

Nay 586  37-62   REDUCE LEVEL OF FOREIGN AID

Nay 590  23-69   RULE ON GERMANENESS OF AMEND RE: TAIWAN

Nay 639  46-54   REDUCE FUNDING FOR MIL ASST PROG

Nay 642  45-53   TABLE BAN USE OF FUNDS FOR TERRORISM IN NICARGUA

Yea 645  54-44   TABLE ALLOWING ABORTION FUNDS FOR INCEST AND RAPE

Yea 654  55-42   TABLE MUTUAL/VERIFIABLE FREEZE IN NUKES

Yea 457  45-46   TABLE POINT OF ORDER ON PREZ VETO

Yea 533  51-42   TABLE USE OF SCHOOLS FOR DAY CARE CENTERS

Yea 517  34-65   TABLE SENSE OF SEN ON LIMITING NUKE TESTING THRU TREATY

Nay 433  39-57   ADDITIONAL $ FOR HEALTH CARE FOR UNEMPLOYED

Yea 441  62-30   TABLE MODIFIED MIN CORPORATE INCOME TAX

Nay 624  51-48   RULE ON GERMANENESS OF CIVIL RIGHTS AMEND

Nay 635  38-59   RULE ON GERMANENESS OF SUPERFUND AMEND

Nay 648  47-50   TABLE NOISE EXEMPTIONS FOR FLA. AND ME. AIRPORTS

1985-86 House

Yea 34   219-213 FUNDING FOR MX MISSILES

Yea 58   180-248 FUNDS FOR MIL. OPERATIONS IN NICARAGUA

Yea 142  248-184 HUMANITARIAN AID NICARAGUAN CONTRAS

Yea 156  229-196 BINARY CHEMICAL WEAPONS

Yea 161  104-315 INC. SDI AUTH $490M

Nay 178  229-193 PROHIBIT ANTI-SATELLITE WEAPONS TESTS

Yea 199  236-185 AID ANGOLAN RESISTANCE

Nay 226  340-83  $21B FOR SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANTS

Yea 233  213-204 RED. NO. NEW PUBLIC HOUSING UNITS FROM 10,000 TO 5

Yea 247  221-199 NO FUNDS FOR ABORTIONS IN D.C.

Yea 301  251-174 FARMER REFERENDA ON CORN AND WHEAT LIMITS

Yea 307  183-227 FOOD STAMP RECIPIENTS MUST RECIEVE JOB TRAINING

Nay 318  259-162 DO FED. PAY DIFF. RESULT FROM SEX/RACE DISC.

Yea 334  209-219 BUDGET RECONCILIATION–ELIMINATE HOUSING, COASTAL

Nay 383  203-208 90 DAYS NOTICE PLANT CLOSING OR 30% LAYOFFS

Nay 386  255-161 RESTRICT TEXTILE IMPORTS

Yea 390  127-289 APPS. HIGHER EDUC. ASST.

Yea 415  271-154 INC. DEBT CEILING TO $2.079T

Nay 120  258-170 CONG. BUDGET

Yea 508  292-130 AMEND 1968 GUN CONTROL ACT (ADOPT)

Nay 519  229-173 NATL LABOR RELS–INCR COLLECT BARGAIN IN BLDG IND

Yea 532  140-267 FREEZE COMMUNITY SERVICES BLOCK GRANT AUTH AT 1986

Yea 573  223-180 RESTRICT PUB HOUSING FUNDS TO COMPLETE EXISTING UN

Yea 617  221-209 ASST TO CONTRAS AND ECON ASST TO COSTA RICA, EL SALV

Yea 644  103-278 STRIKE LEGAL SERVICES CORP APPS

Yea 688  164-253 LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERV &&EDUC. DEPT APPS–LIMI

Nay 704  276-149 MULTI-FIBER ARRANGEMENT; ECON TEXTILE RECOVERY (OV

Yea 712  198-218 STATES MAX SPEED LIMIT OF 65 MPH ON RURAL INTERST

Nay 727  178-210 PROHIB APPS TEST MX MISSILES; STRIKE MX MISSILE PR

Nay 739  239-176 REDUCE DEFENSE AND ENERGY DEPTS SDI FUNDING

Nay 741  225-186 PROHIB DEPLOY NUCLEAR WEAPON VIOLATE SALT II–SOVI

Nay 748  222-197 PROHIB ANTI-SATELLITE SPACE TESTS IF SOVIETS DO SA

Nay 750  210-209 PROHIB PROCUREMENT BINARY NERVE GAS WEAPONS

Nay 762  259-135 INCR SET-ASIDE APPS FOR MINORITY BUSINESS DEFENSE

Yea 783  296-112 PERMIT DEATH PENALTY–CONT. CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE DR

Yea 782  259-153 PERMIT INTRO CERT. EVIDENCE FROM DRUG SEARCH/SEIZU

Yea 795  229-186 INTELLIGENCE ACTIV. APPS–ELIM MIL APPS TO ANGOLA

Nay 829  313-83  IMPOSE ECONOMIC SANCTIONS AGAINST S AFRICA (OVERRI

Yea 858  192-199 IMMIGRATION–STRIKE LEGALIZATION PROGRAM

Nay 407  162-261 VICTIMS OF RELEASE OF TOXIC SUBSTANCES CAN SUE

1985-86 Senate

Yea 20   55-45   FURTHER APPROVAL FOR $1.5B FOR MX MISSILES

Yea 31   53-46   APPROVE $ FOR MIL OR PARAMIL OPERATIONS IN NICARAGUA

Yea 65   25-72   REDUCE OUTLAYS FOR FED MASS TRANSIT ASSISTANCE

Yea 72   49-49   SET SUBSTITUTE BUDGET LEVELS FOR 1986

Nay 90   46-50   PROMOTE INT’L BAN ON LETHAL BINARY CHEM WEAPON

Nay 95   35-50   MORATORIUM ON TESTING OF SPACE BASED WEAPONS

Nay 100  38-57   REDUCE SDI FUNDS

Yea 112  55-42   AUTHORIZE PREZ $24M FOR HUMANITARIAN ASST IN NICARAGUA

Yea 119  63-34   REPEAL SECT 113 OF INT’L SECURITY AND DEVEL ACT OF 1980

Nay 58   47-50   RESTORE FUNDING FOR CERTAIN EDUCATIONAL PROGS

Yea 142  79-15   PASS REVISED GUN CONTROL ACT OF 1968

Yea 158  58-40   INVOKE CLOTURE ON LINE ITEM VETO

Nay 172  62-36   TABLE PROHIBIT FED COURTS FROM RULE ON SCHOOL PRAYER

Nay 291  54-41   TABLE PROHIBIT USE DC$ 4 ABORTION EXCPT LIFE THREATENED

Nay 295  60-37   REMV PROVIS REQ FED ASST 4 ENRGY INCME AS FOODSTAMPS

Yea 367  39-58   OFFER JUDGMENT OF GERMANENESS ON ANTI-COM IN ANGOLA

Yea 371  61-31   RAISE DEBT LIMIT TEMPORARILY TO $2.079 TRILLION

Yea 193  49-45   STRIKE DEMO PROGRAM FOR VICTIM MEDICAL ASSISTANCE

Yea 69   62-35   RESTORE FUNDS FOR SUMMER YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

Yea 74   54-44   TABLE RESTORE FUNDS FOR MEDICAID

Yea 426  66-34   PASS BALANCED BUDGET CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

Yea 473  63-34   TABLE STINGER MISSILES TO ANGOLA AND AFGHANISTAN

Nay 489  45-50   TABLE REQ FED COURT PROHIBIT SCHOOL BUSING

Yea 518  71-29   TABLE CREATION OF THIRD TAX BRACKET

Nay 543  49-49   RECONSIDER MANION NOMINATION VOTE 543

Nay 555  41-53   TABLE VOIDING BAN ON D.C. INSURANCE DISCRIMINATION

Nay 558  49-50   REDUCE SDI TO $3.56 BILLION

Nay 565  50-50   AMEND ACT FOR PROCUREMENT OF BIGEYE CHEM BOMB

Yea 573  55-43   BAN ON TEST IN SPACE UNLESS SOVIETS DO IT

Nay 579  64-30   TABLE PREVENT FUNDING SMALL MOBILE ICBM

Yea 611  59-41   ADOPT MIL CONSTRUCTION APPROP

Nay 644  48-42   LIMIT DC FUNDS FOR ABORTIONS

Yea 647  65-33   CONFIRM WILLIAM REHNQUIST   CHIEF JUSTICE SUPREME CT

Yea 663  56-36   ADOPT 65 MPH SPEED LIMIT ON RURAL HIGHWAYS

Yea 664  49-46   INCREASE MIN FOR APPL OF DAVIS BACON ACT

Nay 681  25-60   TABLE DEATH PENALTY FOR CERTAIN DRUG OFFENSES

Nay 692  78-21   OVERRIDE PRES VETO ON ANTI-EID ACT

Nay 686  49-49   WAIVE GERMANE REQ OF CONG BUDG ACT W/RESP EMPLOYEE SENR

Nay 470  70-25   PASS BUDGET RESOLUTION

Nay 641  83-12   ADOPT LABOR,HHS,ANDEDUC APPROPRIATIONS

1987-88 House

Yea 19   101-292 HOMELESS RELIEF–TEST HOMELESS SEEK HEALTH SERV FO

Nay 23   264-121 HOMELESS RELIEF–AUTHS FOR 4 YRS (PASS)

Nay 28   230-196 MORATORIUM ON CONTRA AID–REAGAN ACCT: PREVIOUS FU

Nay 37   350-73  HIGHWAY RE-AUTH THRU FISCAL 1991 (OVERRIDE VETO)

Nay 68   218-214 TRADE BILL–REGS IF COUNTRY NOT ALTER UNFAIR TRADE

Nay 83   245-181 DEFENSE AUTH–PROHIB APPS VIOLATE SALT II UNLESS S

Yea 85   159-262 DEF AUTH–STRIKE COMPLY W/ 1972 US/SOVIET ABM TREA

Yea 102  129-286 DEFENSE AUTH–INCR SDI RESEARCH APPS

Nay 127  234-187 DEF AUTH–NO NUCLEAR TEST OVER 1 KILOTON IF SOVIET

Nay 171  285-120 HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOP AUTHS FISCAL 1988 (PAS

Yea 181  162-262 CONSTRUCT LABOR LAW–NO COL. BARGAIN IF UNIONS VIO

Nay 184  227-197 CONSTRUCT LABOR LAW–INCR COL. BARGAIN STABILITY (

Yea 210  191-181 D.C. APPS–PROHIB USE FUNDS PAY FOR ABORTIONS

Yea 228  127-282 COMMERCE/JUST./STATE APPS–ELIM LEGAL SERVICE CORP

Nay 266  302-127 CATASTROPHIC HEALTH INSURANCE (PASS)

Nay 340  225-186 HIGH-RISK-OCCUPATION-DISEASE NOTIFICATION (PASS)

Yea 343  199-216 DEF AUTH–END SOVIET/US AGREE RE BUILD EMBASSIES I

Nay 414  305-112 RESTORE FED EMPLOY RIGHT TO PARTIC. IN POLIT ACTIV

Yea 422  190-229 FOREIGN AID–REDUCE CONTRIBS TO INTL PROG AND ORGÕS

Nay 372  206-205 BUDGET RECONICILIATION FISCAL 1988 (PASS)

Nay 434  259-157 CONT. APPS–RADIO/TV BROADCAST EXPRESS ALL CONTROV

Nay 465  230-194 FAMILY WELFARE REFORM–CHANGE TO FAMILY SUPPORT PR

Yea 493  211-219 CONTRA AID–APPROVE PRES REQUEST FOR MIL AND NON-MIL

Nay 527  292-133 CIVIL RIGHTS RESTORE ACT–REGS RE FUNDS TO INSTIT

Nay 534  234-180 FORMER AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS REHIRING (PASS)

Nay 556  240-174 DEFENSE AUTH–ADHERE TO UNRATIFIED SALT II IF SOVI

Nay 562  197-205 DEFENSE AUTH–BAR SPACE TESTS OF ANTI-SATELLITE WE

Nay 564  214-186 DEFENSE AUTH–BAR 1 KILOTON NUCLEAR TESTS IF SOVIE

Yea 579  204-210 DEFENSE AUTH–ALTER DAVIS-BACON..EXEMPT CERT. DEF

Nay 586  223-195 DEFENSE AUTH–REDUCE SDI APPS

Yea 608  167-249 DEFENSE AUTH–REPORT RE PROTECTION SYS. RE ACCIDEN

Nay 623  383-29  HATE CRIME STATS–JUSTICE DEPT RELEASE DATA (PASS)

Nay 634  308-113 OMNIBUS TRADE BILL (OVERRIDE PRES VETO)

Yea 684  222-186 D.C APPS–BAR FUNDS PERFORM ABORTIONS

Yea 694  139-265 FAIR HOUSING–BILL NOT AUTH PREF TREATMENT BASED O

Yea 700  227-168 FAMILY WELFARE REFORM–NO IMPEDIMENT TO EMPLOY REC

Yea 704  223-186 MILITARY BASE CLOSINGS–REGÕS

Nay 710  286-136 PLANT CLOSINGS–REQ 60 DAYS NOTICE (PASS)

Nay 766  244-132 SOUTH AFRICA SANCTIONS–PREV ALMOST ALL US TRADE (

Yea 776  299-111 OMNIBUS DRUG BILL–DEATH PENALTY: DRUG-RELATED MUR

Yea 779  259-134 DRUG BILL–EXCEPTION RE EXCLUSIONARY RULE IN RE DR

Yea 797  228-182 DRUG BILL–DEVELOP ID SYSTEM RE PEOPLE INELIGIBLE

Yea 812  70-327  AIDS POLICY–STATE PUB HEALTH OFF COLLECT PEOPLE W

Nay 846  302-98  EQUITABLE PAY–COMM STUDY JOB SYS. ADHERE DISCRIM

Nay 849  134-201 D.C. APPS–ALLOW RELIG ASSOC W/HOLD MONEY FROM ORG

Yea 287  132-287 LABOR, HHS AND ED APPS–REDUCE LABOR DISCR. FUND INC

1987-88 Senate

Nay 31   48-52   DISAPPROVE MORE ASSISTANCE TO NICARAGUAN CONTRAS

Nay 60   67-33   OVERRIDE PRESIDENTIAL VETO OF FED HIWAY ACT OF 1987

Nay 75   59-31   BROADCASTERS ALLOW BOTH SIDES OF CONFLICTING ISSUES

Nay 122  63-32   TABLE REQUIRING MARRIAGE LIC APPLIC BE AIDS TESTED

Nay 167  65-8    ADOPT CONF REPORT ON URGENT RELIEF FOR HOMELESS

Yea 180  40-60   REMOVE 60 DAYS ADVANCE NOTICE LAYOFF PROVISION

Yea 220  41-48   ALLOW PREZ VETO OF INDIVIDUAL SECTS IN APPROPRIATIONS

Nay 248  58-38   TABLE REMOVING RESTRICTION ON ABM TESTING

Nay 254  61-31   TABLE MILITARY AID FOR NICARAGUAN CONTRAS CONDITIONALLY

Yea 259  50-50   TABLE REDUCING SDI AUTHRZATION TO $3.7B

Yea 260  51-47   TABLE BAN ON SPACE TESTING OF ABM

Yea 265  70-27   CANCEL AGREEM’T W/SOVIET ON EMBASSY IN D.C.

Yea 267  61-36   TABLE PROHIBIT NUCLEAR TEST > 1 KILOTON

Nay 271  62-28   NO INF AGREEMENT UNLESS COMPLETELY VERIFIABLE

Nay 284  56-41   TABLE EXEMPT MIL CONTRCT <$250K FROM DAVIS BACON ACT

Nay 289  60-39   TBL BAN OF FED OR DC $ FOR ABORTIONS UNLESS MOM ENDANGER

Nay 299  57-41   PROHIBIT DEPLOYMENT OF CERTAIN STRATEGIC NUKE WEAPONS

Yea 348  42-58   CONFIRM ROBERT BORK       ASSOC JUSTICE OF SUPREME CT

Yea 351  18-77   PROVIDE CATASTROPHIC BENEFITS VOLUNTARILY

Yea 399  47-42   TBL PROHIBIT OF MANUF,SALE, POSSESS OF PLASTIC HANDGUNS

Nay 404  72-24   TABLE FREEZE SELECT BUDGET AUTHORITY AT 1987 LEVELS

Nay 410  70-28   LIMIT FUNDING FOR LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION

Nay 450  53-41   INVOKE CLOTURE ON SENATE CAMPAIGN FINANCE BILL

Nay 499  42-52   HIGH RISK OCCUPATIONS AND TOXIC SUBSTANCES

Yea 438  51-48   CONTRA AID

Yea 549  51-45   SDI AND SALT II LIMITS

Yea 550  57-39   SDI AND UNDERGROUND NUCLEAR TESTING

Yea 553  61-36   REDUCE AMT FOR MX MISSILE

Nay 556  56-37   SDI AND ACCIDENTAL LAUNCH OF MISSILES

Nay 581  66-30   INF TREATY — WITHDRAW IF SOVIET VIOLATES

Nay 586  93-5    PASS INF TREATY

Nay 589  61-37   OMNIBUS TRADE BILL

Yea 595  65-29   DEATH PENALTY DRUG MURDERS

Nay 608  41-54   WORK REQUIREMENTS FOR WELFARE

Nay 622  59-31   PLANT CLOSINGS–REQ ADVANCE NOTICE, CERT EXEMPTIONS

Nay 645  72-23   PASS PLANT CLOSINGS

Yea 656  58-33   D.C. APPS — HOMOSEXUALS

Yea 680  28-66   TRANSFER $58.5M FROM LEGAL SERVICES TO DEA

Nay 687  47-46   HHS APPS — AIDS EDUC AND HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVITIES

Nay 716  50-44   DEFENSE APPS — INC SDI APPS

Nay 756  56-35   MINIMUM WAGE

Yea 768  45-44   D.C. APPS–BAN FUND ABORTION UNLESS MOTHER LIFE IN DANGER

Nay 775  50-46   FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE

Nay 789  35-52   DEATH PENALTY DRUG MURDERS — RACIALLY DISPROPORTIONATE

Nay 487  73-24   CIVIL RIGHTS RESTORATION (OVERRIDE VETO)

Nay 49   71-27   ADOPT HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ACT

On May 24, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed into law the Immigration Act of 1924, which put in place a national origins quota system for immigration based on the 1890 census, which was before the wave of Eastern European immigration. Although the measure was popular at the time, support wasn’t unanimous. One of the law’s strongest opponents was freshman Congressman Emanuel Celler (1888-1981) of Brooklyn, who made it his goal to repeal the act. Although a fairly standard urban liberal during the 1920s, Celler was more accommodationist in his ideology than he would be after the onset of the Great Depression, which made him a staunch liberal. He attributed his record in his first ten years of Congress to a desire to fit in. Celler became a firm supporter of most New Deal laws and recounted the excitement of the early days of the New Deal in his autobiography, You Never Leave Brooklyn (1953), “The first days of the Roosevelt Administration charged the air with the snap and the zigzag of electricity. I felt it. We all felt it. It seemed as it you could hold out your hand and close it over the piece of excitement you had ripped away. It was the return of hope. The mind was elastic and capable of crowding idea into idea. New faces came to Washington – young faces of bright lads who could talk. It was contagious. We started to talk in the cloak rooms; we started to talk in committees. The shining new faces called on us and talked. In March of 1933 we had witnessed a revolution – a revolution in manner, in mores, in the definition of government. What before had been black or white sprang alive with color. The messages to Congress, the legislation; even the reports on the legislation took on the briskness of authority” (Spartacus).

While Celler was a strong supporter of the New Deal, he was even stronger in his support of intervention in Europe, supporting FDR’s foreign policy. However, he thought the Roosevelt Administration overly restrictive on immigration and condemned the policy restricting the taking in of Jewish refugees. Because Celler was Jewish and was willing to publicly stand up for them, he became a target for Jew-baiting by the House’s foremost anti-Semite, John Rankin (D-Miss.). An example of this was when Rankin referred to him as “the Jewish gentleman from New York”, and after Celler protested Rankin responded, “Does the member from New York object to being called a Jew or does he object to being called a gentleman? What is he kicking about?” (Spartacus) Celler would write in his autobiography that dealing with Rankin was an agony for him. Celler supported measures to ease restrictions on immigration, which became more successful starting with World War II. In 1946, he sponsored a bill with Clare Boothe Luce (R-Conn.), which eased restrictions on Filipino and Indian immigration. In 1949, Celler became chair of the House Judiciary Committee, where he would wield his greatest influence. In 1950, he sponsored the Celler-Kefauver Act, which updated and strengthened the Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914. In 1952, he voted against the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act, which although it eliminated race-based restrictions on immigration, it strengthened the national origins quota system to which he stood unalterably opposed. Celler also staunchly opposed the rise of influence of Senator Joseph McCarthy and his brand of anti-communism, condemning it in a speech before the 1952 Democratic National Convention.

Celler and Civil Rights

Celler proved a crucial advocate for civil rights in a time when many committee chairs were Southern Democrats who supported Jim Crow laws. In 1956, he, with ranking Republican William McCulloch of Ohio, began collaborating to shepherd civil rights bills through the House and Celler was a key sponsor of these measures. In 1964, the two were the most important representatives in the passage of the monumental Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1965, he introduced the 25^th Amendment, providing for a constitutional procedure for presidential succession. That year he was the House sponsor of the Hart-Celler Act, which ended the national origins quota system. Like he had been for the New Deal, Fair Deal, and New Frontier, Celler was a strong supporter of the Great Society. However, despite his strong social and fiscal liberalism he ultimately ran afoul of the changing times he had helped bring about.

Emanuel Celler had long been an opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment and his reasoning was the same as Eleanor Roosevelt’s: adoption of the amendment would undo hard-fought sex-specific labor protections for women. Additionally, Celler opposed drafting women into the army. His Judiciary Committee counterpart, McCulloch, again joined him in this pursuit. He had managed to keep the measure bottled up in committee since 1949, but in 1970, Rep. Martha Griffiths (D-Mich.) managed to successfully petition the House to discharge the amendment from the Judiciary Committee, a humiliating blow to him. In 1971, the amendment succeeded in passing the House 354-24, and the following year in the Senate 84-8. It also did not help Celler with women’s rights activists that he had resisted adding women to coverage under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as he thought that would be best as a separate bill. In 1972, the 84-year old Celler was defeated for renomination by Elizabeth Holtzman, a 31-year old women’s rights activist who had centered her campaign on his opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment. It is a tremendous irony that the House’s leading advocates for civil rights would also turn out to be the House’s leading opponents of the Equal Rights Amendment and that said opposition ended Celler’s career. Emanuel Celler’s career, spanning from 1923 to 1973, was remarkable both in its length and breadth of accomplishment.

References

Emanuel Celler. Spartacus Educational.

Retrieved from

https://spartacus-educational.com/USAceller.htm

John Rankin. Spartacus Educational.

Retrieved from

https://spartacus-educational.com/USArankinJ.htm