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Sunday, May 8, 2016

In February, Birmingham Raised Its Minimum Wage. 2 Days Later, The State Assembly Blocked It

Portland gave its minimum wage workers a raise. Here's what happened next.


Excerpt: So far, Portland’s $10.10 wage hasn’t killed jobs, though some restaurants have cut hours. Many workers already earned above the minimum; tipped servers and bar staff make much more during the summer. Portland’s economy is booming and unemployment is below 3 percent. Even Greg Dugal, a prominent lobbyist for restaurant and hotel owners, admits that “the sky has not fallen.” Hinck calls it a “stunning silence” after the heated arguments over its adoption.   

"Conservatives Scare More Easily Than Liberals"

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George McGovern: "The Case For Liberalism, A Defense Of The Future Against The Past"

Excerpt: "My friend Bob Dole is fond of Robert Frost's observation that a liberal is someone who won't "take his own side in a quarrel." I will. I believe that the most practical and hopeful compass by which to guide the American ship of state is the philosophy of liberalism. Virtually every step forward in our history has been a liberal initiative taken over conservative opposition: civil rights, Social Security, Medicare, rural electrification, the establishment of a minimum wage, collective bargaining, the Pure Food and Drug Act, and federal aid to education, including the land-grant colleges, to name just a few.* Many of these innovations were eventually embraced by conservatives only after it became clear that they had overwhelming public approval for the simple reason that almost every American benefited from them. Every one of these liberal efforts strengthened our democracy and our quality of life. I challenge my conservative friends to name a single federal initiative now generally approved by both of our major parties that was not first put forward by liberals over the opposition of conservatives. We need conservatives, of course, to challenge liberal ideas and proposals and to impel us to examine their soundness, but we cannot depend on conservatives to offer constructive new ideas of the sort that might bring about a more just and equitable society or a more peaceful and cooperative world." 




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