Word: losses
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...part because any discussion of the presidential succession had long been regarded as treasonable. But more than that, there was a sense of uncertainty at every level. Government officials discreetly asked friendly embassies about the protocol for a state funeral. As a shy domestic servant explained the sudden loss, "It's like going on a ship from the shore; you don't know what is out there. And you know, I have never been on a ship...
Failure to expand membership, of course, is one reason for this loss of power. The smaller the proportion of workers that he speaks for, the less influence a union leader has with a politician. In Massachusetts, the state AFL-CIO, hit by sagging membership, lacks the $150,000 that it needs to computerize its lists of voters. Knowing that the unions' ability to turn out the vote has declined, Bay State politicos feel less obligated to court labor...
...make arbitration compulsory for cops, firemen and other public-safety workers. Instead of simply decrying the tax revolt, as Meany does, Wurf calls for reforms: cuts in property taxes for low-and middle-income homeowners, higher and more progressive state and local income taxes to reduce the revenue loss...
Wurf, however, concedes that he has no chance of becoming AFL-CIO president, and some other new leaders do not go along with his moderation. Winpisinger is so frustrated by labor's loss of power that he hints darkly at a resort to violence. Says he: "In my lifetime, no group has ever gotten justice in this country without lawlessness. So if we want to see change, then we may have to stop having such a high regard for law-and-order...
This animus extends, when the need arises, to great masses of Americans. One week before his murder in Los Angeles, while pursuing his party's 1968 presidential nomination, R.F.K. was defeated by Eugene McCarthy in the Oregon Democratic primary, the first loss ever sustained by a Kennedy in a general election. The defender of the faith now tries to even the score. Writes Schlesinger: "Oregon [is] a pleasant, homogeneous, self-contained state filled with pleasant, homogeneous, self-contained people, overwhelmingly white, Protestant and middle class. Even the working class was middle class, with boats on the lakes and weekend...