Economic inequality

by Jeremy Leaming

Judith L. Lichtman one of the nation’s leading -- and most successful -- advocates for equality says she has no intention of ceasing the work she loves anytime soon. And that is tremendous news for a nation where inequalities still loom large.

In an interview with Kathryn Alfisi for Washington Lawyer, Lichtman (pictured) provides insight into her decades-long career of fighting pervasive racial and gender discrimination, as well as income inequality. She entered law school in the 1960s, which was not at any easy endeavor for women because of deeply held prejudices, and she faced hazing for it.

Not terribly long after graduation, Lichtman launched what would become a tireless career as a civil rights activist. She started out investigating segregation and other forms of racial discrimination in southern cities.

“Despite the requirements to integrate public accommodations in Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, there remained many places where public accommodations were segregated,” Lichtman said. “We definitely needed to be cautious during the spring and summer of 1966. One could see segregation all around.”

Later, Lichtman, a member of the ACS Board, would join the Women’s Legal Defense Fund, now the National Partnership for Women & Families, as its executive director. There she oversaw several landmark achievements, including the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) during President Bill Clinton’s first few weeks in office.

It took, Lichtman recalls, nearly nine years to enact FMLA.

“We Americans always like to say that we’re a family friendly nation, but for that to be true, people need to be able to take time off for medical needs without fear of losing their jobs,” she said. “We were vilified at that time as really being social engineers, but today we estimate that FMLA has been used more than a 100 million times and is wildly popular.”

by Jeremy Leaming

Discussion of the nation’s growing economic inequalities inevitably leads some pundits, notably on the Right, to assert that such talk is fueling “class warfare.”

In his State of the Union address, President Obama spoke to that charge when he raised the need for the nation’s super wealthy to pay more in taxes. “You can call this class warfare all you want,” Obama said. “But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense.”

But the president’s assertion is unlikely to dissuade conservative pundits from whining about so-called “class warfare” anytime soon.

Indeed, Media Matters For America has complied research detailing the Right’s obsession with “shouting class warfare,” whenever the president or others, for that matter, delve into discussion of the nation’s economic inequalities. 

For example after the president’s State of the Union address, Rush Limbaugh claimed that the president’s use of the word “fairness” was “code for class warfare.”

And likely not surprising, Limbaugh’s theme as Media Matters notes was echoed on Fox News. On the network’s “Fox & friends,” the hosts advocated for the poor to pay income taxes. “Kick in a buck, kick in something!” co-host Steve Doocy cried.

Although class warfare has long been bandied about by the Right whenever talk of raising taxes on the wealthy occurs, the Occupy Wall Street protests and commentary from several economists and more moderate policy makers have intensified the class warfare rhetoric. Elizabeth Warren who advocated for the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been hit with it for her straightforward discussions of income inequality and the need for the nation’s uber-wealthy to start paying their fair share in taxes.

As Media Matters notes, however, the Right is likely ramping up its class warfare rhetoric in light of statements from high-profile figures, such as billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, maintaining that their kind simply don’t pay enough in taxes.