I never knew Phil Burton. Until about a year or so ago, I didn't even know who he was. Neither, I suspect, do many of us here. Yet in these difficult days, when it seems that all we worked for and all we desired is being snatched away from us by the mental and moral midgets of our age, I think that there is much we can learn from Phil Burton. Specifically, there is much we can learn from him in terms of what he accomplished and how he did it. Join me below the fold for a voyage through history.
Phil Burton started out his career in politics as a California state assemblyman. He didn't have it easy getting into politics; nobody seemed to want him around. He was an upstart, an outsider, but he managed to beat the odds, crash the gates, and get himself into office. He set about learning his chosen trade, but he didn't forget about what had brought him to politics -- a burning need, both to succeed, and to destroy utterly every injustice that crossed his path. He became famous for passing a multimillion dollar increase in California's welfare budget, making California's welfare payments some of the most generous in the nation. Many men would call that a singular accomplishment, and be satisfied.
But Burton was not satisfied with that. While he was in Congress, he succeeded in defunding and eliminating the House Un-American Activities Committee where a generation of extremely earnest liberals before him had failed. He worked to make the House a more democratic body, curtailing and eliminating the autocratic power of reactionary Southern Congressmen. When Nixon's Family Assistance Program went down in flames, Burton salvaged what he could from it, and pushed the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program through Congress almost singlehandedly. He passed legislation that helped thousands of miners who were plagued by health problems due to the greed and negligence of the mining industry. He sponsored some of the greatest expansions of the national park system in history, and contributed to the cause of environmental protection. He was one of the best and truest friends, bar none, that the labor and environmental movements had in this country. It is thanks to him that millions of elderly, blind, and disabled people are able to collect checks from the government, and that there are more national parks for people like you and me to go to and enjoy the benefits of nature. By the time he died, at the tragic and disappointingly early age of 56, he was acknowledged as one of the only "doers" left in Congress. Some men gave pretty speeches, talking about reform and change. Others merely serviced their constituents and ran constant campaigns for reelection. Phil Burton actually made things happen.
Just what was it that made Burton so effective? For one thing, he knew and understood parliamentary procedure better than anyone else. He knew how to deal with problems in roundabout ways that did not attract attention, but that were no less effective than methods that attract fanfare and notice. He was gifted with a mind like greased lightning, and could run circles around his colleagues, Democrats and Republicans alike. It helped his effectiveness that, as a state assemblyman in California, he had drawn up a Congressional district in San Francisco specially made for himself, encompassing all of the poor and working class precincts in the city and allowing him to be as liberal as he wanted without having to ever worry about a challenger. While many of his colleagues left Washington on Thursday night, and often did not return until Monday night, Burton would regularly work through the weekends. Another trait that helped him was his ability to cut deals and form alliances with unlikely allies. For example, he gained the support of Southern Congressmen for social welfare programs in exchange for his support for agricultural subsidies that benefited the South. He was not too pure to get his hands a little dirty in the doing of things. He also had an overpowering drive to succeed, and a love for wading into combat with his fellow legislators. It was said by one man who knew him, following the 1994 elections, that it was a shame that Burton wasn't still around, because he would have been running circles around the Gingrich class, cutting deals with them every which way to get what he wanted.
Most of all, I think, he was not afraid to make enemies. Like Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., he was a flamboyant, wild man of fierce emotions and strong appetites. It is true that his infamous temper served him very poorly on many occasions -- he ruined his chances of rising in the House leadership by insulting and physically threatening Tip O'Neill, something that O'Neill never forgot -- but his willingness to make enemies was, I think, a sign that he was truly on the right track. Even among his own colleagues, he was feared and hated as much as he was loved and respected. It was said of him that "the conservatives were afraid of him because he was too liberal, the moderates were afraid of him because he was uncontrollable, the vested interests hated him because he was not on the take, and the liberal establishment was threatened by him because they did not like his style." Yet in spite of all that was going against him, this man came within one vote of becoming House majority leader. It is perhaps the greatest shame in recent Congressional history that he did not become majority leader. Some people thought he would become the strongest Speaker since Sam Rayburn died in 1961. One associate said that "he might have made a lousy Speaker, but as majority leader have made Tip O'Neill the greatest Speaker in American history."
So what, at last, does all this add up to? What am I driving at by rehashing all this old history that most people who aren't Congressional history nuts or politics buffs with long memories even remember? I am pointing out what we used to have in this country, and what we should be expecting from our public servants. The current state of right wing dominance in American politics did not emerge fully formed in 1994 as an unalterable act of God. It was the result of a long decline of the Democratic Party, particularly its liberal wing. That decline began with the faltering of the Carter years, when despite large majorities in both the House and Senate the Carter Administration was unable to get much of its agenda passed. That faltering turned into a freefall after the election of Ronald Reagan to the Presidency, the Republican victory in the Senate, and the loss of numerous seats in the House in 1980. By the time he died, Phil Burton seemed to be one of the only people even interested in running against the tide of Reaganism, to say nothing of one of the only people who believed it was possible and desirable to turn back that tide.
In my reading of history, where politics is concerned people generally get more or less what they expect. For entirely too long we have countenanced the lowering of expectations, and the seemingly inexorable slide (or in the Republican's case, drop) to the right. For too long we have countenanced the buying and selling of votes for campaign contributions, the loathsome growth of the lobbying industry, which has replaced legislation for the public good with legislation for private benefit. And for too long we have allowed Democrats and liberals in Congress to remain apathetic and listless, to the point of almost fearing to wield power. How else can the inaction of Senator Harry Reid, and the general ineptness of House and Senate Democrats alike, be explained?
I, for one, hope that in the future we will see two or three politicians like Phil Burton emerge on the scene. We need a few wild men to whip the rest of us into action where otherwise we would just sit around on our hands. We need a few people on our side with a taste for success and for exercising power in the service of justice. We have spent a generation and a half now settling for less. I think it's time we started demanding more.
So, who do you think will be the Phil Burton of our generation?
EDIT: For those who want to learn more about Phil Burton, I recommend "A Rage for Justice" by John Jacobs. It is available on Amazon. I would also recommend "The Ambition and the Power" by John Barry, which is about Speaker Jim Wright, the man who defeated Burton for House majority leader. While not as liberal as Burton, Wright was also a "doer," and someone who genuinely cared about improving America. Like Burton he also had a taste for power in the service of justice, and was lusty in wielding it. I would like to think that, if Burton had lived a little longer, he and Wright would have found that they had more in common than what divided them. Both books together are an excellent picture of the way politics really works when you get inside the halls of power. It is very easy for us to talk about ideas and philosophy and programs out here, but inside the Congress, it is a much more complicated and completely different ballgame.