Surprisingly, many politicians and business owners were actually in favor of giving workers more time off. As the U. Shortening the work week was one way of turning the working class into the consuming class.
The common misconception is that since Labor Day is a national holiday, everyone gets the day off. Nothing could be further from the truth.
While the first Labor Day was created by striking, the idea of a special holiday for workers was easy for politicians to support. Within 12 years, half the states in the country recognized Labor Day as a holiday. It is up to each state to declare its own legal holidays. Moreover, proclaiming any day an official holiday means little, as an official holiday does not require private employers and even some government agencies to give their workers the day off.
Many stores are open on Labor Day. Essential government services in protection and transportation continue to function, and even less essential programs like national parks are open.
Because not everyone is given time off on Labor Day, union workers as recently as the s were being urged to stage one-day strikes if their employer refused to give them the day off. There is no family drama like at Thanksgiving , no religious issues like at Christmas. However, years ago there was controversy.
The first controversy that people fought over was how militant workers should act on a day designed to honor workers. Communist, Marxist and socialist members of the trade union movement supported May 1 as an international day of demonstrations, street protests and even violence , which continues even today. More moderate trade union members, however, advocated for a September Labor Day of parades and picnics.
In the U. Open primaries form the sort of simple step forward that can lead to bigger changes, which is why broad support for this solution is so important. The past week has brought both positive and negative news for supporters of expanded access to voting by mail. During last week's election, voters in New York rejected a ballot proposal that would have directed the Legislature to pass a bill allowing for no-excuse absentee ballots.
The result caught many by surprise, as most states — especially those that tend to vote Democratic — have such policies in place. Instead, only 38 percent of voters in the nation's fourth most populous state supported the proposal. Meanwhile, the D. City Council began the process this week for institutionalizing vote-by-mail for the nearly , residents of the nation's capital.
While Americans used mail-in voting at a historic rate in , New York lagged behind most other states. According to a report issued this summer by the federal Election Assistance Commission, But only According to Ballotpedia, 34 states either provide all voters with a mail ballot or allow the use of an absentee ballot without providing a reason.
The remaining 16, primarily Republican-dominated states in the South, require voters to meet certain requirements in order to vote by absentee ballot.
Another proposal, which would have allowed people to register to vote and cast a ballot on Election Day, was also defeated. Proponents of such policies argue that same-day registration increases turnout, considered a key component of a strong democracy. And a third proposal, one that would have reformed the state's redistricting process, went down as well. Anti-democracy forces are drowning out common-sense reforms with fear mongering scare tactics, and voters are listening.
According to The Guardian, the Conservative and Republican parties vastly out-spent Democrats to fight those proposals and devoted significant on-the-ground resources as well. While New York has settled these issues for the time being, some potential election reforms are just getting underway in Washington, D.
New legislation was introduced Tuesday to make a series of changes to D. The city made a one-time decision to mail ballots to all voters for the general election, and this bill would codify such a system for future elections. The bill would also increase the use of ballot drop boxes, establish voting centers and make Election Day a holiday. In doing so, we will broaden the number of people who are able to participate in our elections and feel more invested in their government.
In addition, Allen will chair a hearing Nov. Political campaigns in the U. In this episode of Democracy Works, the team looks at the political discourse around nine particularly deplorable elections. Listen now. This is the first in a two-part series on election integrity. The second part will look ahead to the election and the third will discuss why all Americans should oppose efforts to politicize vote-counting.
Until recently, asserting that the presidential election would mark the end of American democracy would have seemed hyperbole, even ludicrous. No longer. Observers as diverse as Bill Maher and the Cato Institute's Andy Craig have warned that a "slow-moving coup" or the "end of peaceful transfer of power in America" has already been put in motion by Donald Trump and his enablers in the Republican Party. Their case is persuasive. Trump Republicans have been purging the party of apostates on the national, state and local levels, as well as enacting state laws that would allow party operatives to overrule nonpartisan election officials and substitute election results more to their liking.
According to Craig, "Fringe legal theories about how to subvert the election are being workshopped and moved into the mainstream of Republican thought even as we speak. If Trump runs again, a near certainty, and the election result is close, the country could face a constitutional crisis with a potential for political violence that would make look tame.
That subversion of a free and fair election is even possible is due to deep flaws in the Constitution, which does not include specific rules as to how presidential elections will be conducted and certified. Most Americans are both unaware of these shortcomings and blissfully ignorant of the potential for a would-be autocrat to suborn the electoral process and seize power. In addition, most of those who believe a fraudulent presidential election would not be possible are unaware that one has already occurred.
In , Republican Rutherford B. Hayes ran against Democrat Samuel Tilden. The Republicans, the party of Lincoln, had been champions of equal rights for newly freed slaves and had even initiated an army of occupation in the defeated Confederacy to ensure them.
Democrats, at least in the South, were the party of white supremacy. But the nation had grown weary of Reconstruction and Tilden won the popular vote handily. He could also clearly claim electoral votes, one short of the number needed for election. Hayes could claim only Twenty electoral votes were in dispute, nineteen of which were in the three Reconstruction states still titularly under Republican control: Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina. In each of those, election officials declared Tilden the winner, but accounts of fraud and voter intimidation against African Americans were widespread.
The Army could not be everywhere. Nonetheless, given an absence of proof, Tilden seemed to deserve the presidency. Reid, had been a prisoner of war at the infamous Andersonville stockade during the Civil War. Reid loathed Democrats and convinced Republican leaders to contest the result. New York Republicans wired partisans in the disputed states to hold out. Governor Hayes Elected.
Only after the Times ran its piece did Republicans in the three states appoint canvassing boards, which not surprisingly ignored the reported vote totals, confirmed the Times assertion and declared Hayes the winner. Democrats howled fraud. Threats of armed insurrection spread throughout Washington. Calls for secession were heard for the first time since the war. A shot was fired at Hayes' home in Ohio while the candidate was having dinner inside. No constitutional provision existed to handle this crisis, but the necessity to devise some solution was apparent to both sides.
Eventually, the decision was reached to appoint a man Electoral Commission: five senators; five representatives; and five Supreme Court justices. Fourteen would be members of the two parties, divided equally, and the fifteenth nonpartisan.
Little knowledge of politics and even less of arithmetic is necessary to recognize that, in effect, one man, hopefully worthy of Diogenes, would choose the president. Incredibly, such a man seemed to both exist and be available. In what was certain to be an vote, he would be the ideal eighth. So trusted as an independent was the justice that it was said, "No one, perhaps not even Davis himself, knew which presidential candidate he preferred.
But before the commission could meet, the Democratic-controlled legislature in Illinois offered Davis a vacant seat in the U. Senate, hoping Davis would decline but be grateful to Democrats for the gesture. Republican newspapers denounced the scheme, but Davis flummoxed the Democrats by resigning from the bench to accept the appointment.
With Davis now ineligible, one of the remaining four justices would be forced to sit in his place. Each was associated with one of the political parties. Grant was chosen to take Davis' place. Democrats claimed a fix, but after the Davis fiasco their credibility was strained.
Bradley accepted the appointment and thus became the only man in American history empowered to choose a president on his own. Before deciding which man would be declared the winner, Bradley meticulously drew up a written opinion for each man, and then, after all this supposed soul-searching, surprised no one and chose Hayes.
Democrats once more threatened rebellion. Rumors circulated that an army of , men was prepared to march on the capital to prevent "Rutherfraud" or "His Fraudulency" from being sworn in. In the House of Representatives, Democrats began a filibuster to prevent Hayes' inauguration. What happened next has been a subject of debate among scholars ever since. There, in the traditional smoke-filled room, emissaries of Hayes agreed to abandon the Republican state governments in Louisiana and South Carolina while southern Democrats agreed to abandon the filibuster and thus trade off the presidency in exchange for the end of Reconstruction.
As one of his first orders of business, this supposed defender of African American rights ordered federal troops withdrawn from the South. When the soldiers marched out, they took Reconstruction and equal rights with them. The election had all the elements that will potentially be present in a nation cleaved in two; a resurgence of white supremacy; accusations of voter fraud; corrupt election officials; an influential media outlet seeking to overturn the result; even the distinct possibility of armed conflict.
But that election had something the contest will not — a convenient scapegoat that allowed both sides to overcome their mutual loathing and come together in compromise: African Americans.
Democrats were so determined to end the military occupation in the South and thereby have an open field to restore white minority rule and return Black Americans to slavery in all but name that they were willing to sacrifice the presidency to do it.
The perpetuation of free elections, the cornerstone of democracy, transcends — or should transcend — partisan politics. All Americans, be they Democrats, Republicans or independents, can and should commit themselves to thwarting any effort, no matter from where on the ideological spectrum it emanates, to destroy that which untold thousands of their fellow citizens fought and died for. Democracy is precious but cannot be preserved through apathy. The nation needs desperately for people of good faith, regardless of political affiliation, to join together so that our form of government can be passed on to generations to come.
Eight months after Inauguration Day, one-third of Americans told pollsters they still believed Donald Trump actually won the election and that Joe Biden stole it away from the incumbent. A new report offers a mix of government and corporate reforms to limit the spread and influence of such election disinformation. The Common Cause Education Fund, an affiliate of the democracy reform advocacy group Common Cause, issued a report in late October reviewing the state of disinformation campaigns and a series of recommendations designed to stem the tide.
The report groups its 14 recommendations in three categories: statutory reforms, executive and regulatory agency reforms, and corporate policy reforms for social media businesses. While many of the solutions require some mix of legislative activity, increased civic education and media literacy, and grassroots advocacy, others are easier to achieve — particularly self-imposed corporate reforms, said Jesse Littlewood, vice president of campaigns for Common Cause.
For example, he suggested it would not be complicated for social media platforms to consistently enforce their own standards. Some aspects of these proposals already exist in federal legislation that has stalled in Congress. Littlewood said access to the data is one of the most important recommendations, as it influences the potential to achieve others.
It's very difficult to come up with recommendations that balance the private interests of the platform and the public interest. That's got to be our starting point. Read the full report. Jasper Johns' work will be on display in two of the country's most famous art museums concurrently, through Feb.
Johns' career spans some 65 years. A Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, the painter came of age around the time abstract expressionism had taken hold in the New York art world.
Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko were some of the more notable artists creating "cathedrals … out of their own feelings. Johns' early artistic rise coincided with the waning of the "ab ex" movement. Some suggest that his younger work pays homage to this school while also nodding to the emergent pop art scene — he pulls off a curious, thought-provoking blend of the quotidian and authentic gestural self-expression.
Among Johns' favorite subjects, the American flag. Why the flag? Johns is notoriously tight-lipped when it comes to the interpretation of his work. His party-line response when asked about his fascination with the flag is to say that the imagery comes from "things the mind already knows. So what exactly is Jasper Johns' "private experience" of the public symbol that is the American flag?
This is of course a question the artist has never really answered, but one nevertheless that a number of his paintings with their recurring stars-and-stripes motif poses.
This doesn't really seem a coincidence, as art, culture and current events all seem to have a rather curious way of converging on provocatively interpretable planes. Gazing through the lens of the moment's political and social climate and trying to understand Johns' "flags" accordingly, means contextualizing the art. But what exactly is the context?
The flag has been the subject of many artists' work; Johns is not unique in that endeavor, though he is perhaps among the most famous, if not most enigmatic, depicters of Old Glory. David Cole and Keith Haring, for instance, also created highly memorable art using the flag as a prompt:. Haring's trademark faceless figures tend to signify the common humanness of people in this country while, at the same time, suggesting that our differences are what gives the flag any sort of meaning.
Cole's iteration featuring toy soldiers melted down and painted over in red, white and blue is intended to evoke in an "emotional, visceral way — the way the world is now. If we look at Johns' iconic "Three Flags," we encounter a representation of "flag as subjective experience" versus just "flag as flag.
Johns used encaustic, which is a wax-based substance. The results are textural, meaning there is a tactile quality to this painting that just screams out for people to touch it though the folks at the Whitney would highly advise against this.
In this implicit call to touch, perhaps the artist is suggesting that people can stake their own claim on this patriotic territory, and that's the point. The dimensionality here is also key, giving the flag a distinct 3D space of its own that could also be interpreted as invading the space of the audience. As the artist himself is not exactly forthcoming about what we are "supposed" to see, it is left up to the individual onlooker to determine what in fact they are looking at.
Are they seeing an emblem of liberty and justice for all? Is it a nostalgic symbol of the world our grandparents and parents went to war to preserve? Or is it something else?
Is it, for example, what singer Macy Gray called a "dated, divisive, and incorrect" symbol of the Jan. Is it that which compelled NFL quarterback turned civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick to take a knee?
We need only look around at the versions of Old Glory that have sprung up throughout the years —each with its own messaging, each representing its own symbology and each laying claim to its own 3D space:. So where does this leave us in terms of what the flag means today, in terms of what Jasper Johns was trying to "say" with his recurrent use of the symbol, in terms of our own journeys where Americanness is concerned?
I have to admit, I personally harbor some ambivalence when it comes to the Stars and Stripes. But then, I think of my immigrant mother who flies a flag on her front porch because she is proud of what that flag symbolizes and the space it gave her to carve out a better life here, to embark on a fulfilling career and to raise a family.
Every day I take a walk around my neighborhood and honestly, I have to say I never noticed this until I began working on this article:. This is one of the best depictions of the American flag I have ever seen because of the way it is painted, the canvas on which it is painted, the place where I found it and its current condition. I know exactly what it means to me, and I suppose I shall take a cue from Jasper Johns and let you decide what it means to you.
Rob Fersh of Convergence joins The Great Battlefield podcast to talk about his career in politics and how Convergence is bringing groups together with conflicting views to build trust and find solutions to critical national issues.
In workplaces and living rooms across the country, people are having hard conversations about the Covid vaccine. And with Thanksgiving around the corner, we'll soon be navigating these vaccination questions for family get-togethers and holiday gatherings. Talking about vaccination can arouse deep-seated anxieties related to safety, health and autonomy. High-stakes conversations like these can unravel quickly. Wrong words or bad assumptions can thrust a relationship into repetitive cycles of defensiveness, mistrust and antagonism.
If you've ever seen Thanksgiving dinner devolve into a shouting argument about politics, you know what this looks like — and you know how painful it can be, not only for the people involved but for a whole community. The conversations we have in private are also microcosms of our public discourse, where some people bemoan "anti-vaxxers" who "don't believe in science" while unvaccinated people who are anxious about the government or the medical system might feel that their concerns aren't being heard at all.
This dynamic serves no one. It generates even more mistrust and makes us no safer or healthier. How do we do better? In the eighth century, Presidents' Day is a federal holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February; Presidents' Day will occur on Monday, February Originally established in in recognition of President George Washington, the holiday became popularly known as Presidents' Day after it Live TV.
This Day In History. History Vault. Recommended for you. Labor Day. Labor Day's Railroad Strike Roots. Labor Movement. Child Labor. Franklin D. Roosevelt's Labor Day Speech. Veterans Day Veterans Day is a U.
Labor Movement The labor movement in the United States grew out of the need to protect the common interest of workers. Columbus Day Columbus Day is a U. Child Labor Child labor, or the use of children as servants and apprentices, has been practiced throughout most of human history, but reached a zenith during the Industrial Revolution.
How a Deadly Railroad Strike Led to the Labor Day Holiday Today many Americans see Labor Day as time off from work, an opportunity to enjoy a barbecue with friends and family and a final moment of summertime relaxation before the busy fall season begins.
Memorial Day Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U. Halloween Halloween is a holiday celebrated each year on October 31, and Halloween will occur on Sunday, October
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