Molly Ivins December 1HUNT, Texas — On the theory that Something Is Happening Out Here, politically speaking, that doesn't even have a name yet, let's take a look at some of the more amazing stats from the recent plebiscite. Latino vote, up 30 percent. Gender gap, 20 points. Union households, up from 14 percent to 23 percent of the total vote. Black male vote, up 52 percent. Anybody in politics ever seen a figure like that last one before in their lives? And more important than all of them, I think, are the 110 million of us who didn't vote at all. Historian Howard Zinn, after doing heavy research in this fall's bumper-sticker department, reports the following sample: "If the gods had intended for people to vote, they would have given us candidates." Now, let's see — the stock market has risen by 400 percent during the same period, and working people's wages have fallen by 15 percent. Every night, we get the Dow Jones average; come rain, shine or war in the Persian Gulf, we get the Dow Jones average. Eighty percent of Americans own no stocks, no bonds. Not through their pension funds or mutual funds or any other way — zip, zero, nada, no stake in it. Years ago, Jim Hightower invented the Doug Jones Average, Doug Jones being the average American. How's ol' Doug doin'? How come they don't tell us that every night? Is Doug affected up, down or sideways by the day's news? You'd be amazed what affects ol' Doug. President Clinton just came back from a meeting with Asian leaders that was held, happily enough, in the Green Room of the Bank of Manila. (Given the presence of the Chinese Communists, former Texas Observer honcho Ronnie Dugger suggests that it should be called the Green and Red Room henceforth.) And what are we led to expect would be the most desirable outcome of such a meeting? Why, a sort of Asian version of the North American Free Trade Agreement — now wouldn't that be the nuts and the berries? That'd put ol' Doug in the same labor market with Bangladeshis, who make 5 cents an hour. The big international corporations just love this idea. What do Pat Choate (Ross Perot's running mate), Pat Buchanan and the labor unions have in common? A sort of rough, amorphous vision that you might call nationalist economics. In other words, they care more about Doug Jones than Dow Jones. This is such an amazing country. There's an Electronic Data Systems ad running on television claiming that EDS' co-sourcing program is the reason why "all 21 million people of Taiwan's citizens are now covered by health insurance." Here's an American corporation bragging to Americans that all 21 million Taiwanese have health insurance.
There are more sweatshops in New York City today than there were at the turn of the century. And you know what worried BobDole and Clinton about that? Why, that we don't have enough inspectors to check those sweatshops for illegal immigrants! Imagine that. Not enough inspectors to check for illegal immigrants. No one cares about inspecting these places for health and safety standards or whether the workers are being paid the minimum wage, not to mention the piecework they get sent home with and are paid for by the pound. We go to all this trouble and expense to round up illegal workers and deport them back home; did anyone ever consider giving jail time to the people who hire and exploit them? Believe me, that'll cut down on your illegal immigrants, not to mention your basic unemployment rate. We all know the one clear mandate that came out of this last election: The people want campaign finance reform. We voted for it wherever it appeared on the ballot. We are sick of legalized bribery; we are sick of government of corporate special interests, by corporate special interests and for corporate special interests. So, what do we get? Republican candidates outspent Democratic candidates by 2-to-1. It's not in their interest to change it. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has already promised to kill campaign finance reform dead, dead, dead. All this is a political movement just waiting to happen. It's everywhere you look. Take a glance at this Page One story: David Kessler, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, resigns after six years. According to the Los Angles Times, Kessler "touched the lives of virtually every American consumer by restoring the agency as an aggressive public advocate and battled Congress and the cigarette industry over regulation of tobacco." On top of that, he "made the enforcement of food and drug safety and fraud laws a top priority, successfully engineered a major overhaul of the nation's good labels and streamlined the drug review process to accelerate the approval of therapies for life-threatening conditions such as cancer and AIDS." Now, here's a public servant who, by every account, has not only protected the people but also streamlined procedures and cut bureaucratic delays like cleanser through grease. But does he get the thanks of a grateful nation? Nope — the Republicans have already announced that Clinton had better not nominate anyone like Kessler for the job or they won't approve him. They want someone less "activist." What kind of nutty thinking is this? They're not nuts — they just got big contributions from the tobacco and drug companies. Just waitin' to happen. *** Molly Ivins is a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. COPYRIGHT 1996 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
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