[Peace-discuss] Left Business Observer on Kennedy

[C. G. Estabrook]

Actually, they stood up straight...

C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> [A couple stooped by the AWARE booth at the Urbana festival yesterday to 
> say that they were opposed to the Obama administration because 
> deregulation -- specifically of trucking -- has been disastrous for the 
> work prospects of the husband, a trucker.  They were surprised to learn 
> that Ted Kennedy was responsible for it. --CGE]
> 
>     De mortuis: Teddy Kennedy & dereg
> 
> According to just about everybody, Teddy Kennedy represented the “soul” 
> of the Democratic party, which presumably refers to his long-professed 
> concern the poor and the weak. Now that that soul is safely buried, the 
> Dems can move on to the important stuff, like preserving Wall Street 
> power and escalating the war in Afghanistan.
> 
> Let’s inspect that soul a little more closely though. I’ve never been 
> inclined to hold my tongue about the recently departed. Well, yes, in 
> personal life, but certainly not public life—especially in the midst of 
> one of these orchestrated rituals of national morning that have become 
> so damned compuslory since Ronald Reagan went on to his reward.
> 
> Sure, Teddy had his virtues, especially in contrast to his older brother 
> John, who could wage imperialist war with the best of them, and who’s 
> revered by supply siders as their political ancestor. (Since we’re 
> talking politics, not personality, let’s bracket that little incident 
> where he drunkenly drove a woman to her death, left the scene of the 
> crime, and then dispatched a family laywer to get to the Kopechne family 
> before the press did. One can only imagine what went on at that 
> meeting.) Let’s just look at Teddy’s role in one of the greatest 
> assaults on working class living standards of the modern neoliberal era, 
> transport deregulation.
> 
> Once upon a time, working for an airline or driving a truck was a pretty 
> good way to make a living without an advanced degree: union jobs with 
> high pay and decent benefits. A major reason for that is that both 
> industries were federally regulated, with competition kept to a minimum. 
> Starting in the early 1970s, an odd coalition of right-wingers, 
> mainstream economists, liberals, and consumer advocates (including Ralph 
> Nader) began agitating for the deregulation of these industries. All 
> agreed that competition would bring down prices and improve service.
> 
> Among the leading agitators was Teddy Kennedy. The right has been noting 
> this in their memorials for “The Lion,” but not the weepy left...
> 
> Full article at 
> http://doughenwood.wordpress.com/2009/08/30/de-mortuis-teddy-kennedy-dereg/
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