http://www.salon.com/news/politics/us_senate/?story=/politics/war_room/2010/12/24/schulman_111th_congressIn the short term, the historical record suggests, the nation recoils against far-reaching change; it’s not unusual for the most successful Congressional majorities to lose seats in the next election as the American people collectively utter a breathless, “wait a minute.” But, if the lessons of the 1960s offer any guide, the brick-by-brick accretion of significant legislation can construct enduring new features of the political system.
The Congress of 1965-66 secured not only the civil rights, health, education, and welfare measures commonly associated with Johnson’s Great Society, but a host of other reforms too. The Immigration Act of 1965 eliminated the odious quota system which first became law amidst an outburst of racist nativism in the 1920s. The national origins system, as it was called, had severely limited immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe and all but blocked arrivals from Asia. The new law banned ethnic quotas and opened the doors to a steady stream of arrivals from Asia, making possible the large migrations of Koreans, Filipinos, Japanese and Vietnamese to the United States that have contributed so much to the nation's economic and cultural life.
The current Congress has amassed a record nearly that impressive. It passed controversial legislation to stabilize the financial sector, bail out the automotive industry, and stimulate the sluggish economy. Lawmakers enacted landmark health insurance reform, realizing a legislative goal frustrated since the 1940s, re-regulated Wall Street, compromised on a major tax bill, and passed the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. In the waning days of the lame duck session, the leadership scraped together bi-partisan majorities to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and ratify the most significant arms control treaty since the end of the Cold War.
Unlike their 1960s forbears, who reserved the filibuster for extraordinary measures and did their legislative horse-trading in private, Reid and Pelosi accomplished all this against a determined opposition and in the glare of 24-hour press coverage. For better or worse, their legislative achievement is remarkable.
In 1966, Johnson’s legislative staff and the leadership on Capitol Hill took justified pride in their accomplishments. But,
much like last November, the voters balked at the pace and direction of change. In the mid-term election, the Democrats lost 47 House seats; the informal liberal majority took a harder hit, as most of those losses affected progressive northerners (conservative southern Democrats, still a large part of the party’s caucus, held their own). The Democrats also lost three seats in the Senate, where renowned Illinois liberal Paul Douglas, architect of many anti-poverty programs, met defeat.
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