Though one wouldn’t know it living in Tennessee, the recent elections provided evidence that many states were willing to put progressive measures on the ballot.
One of those measures, which passed in six states, did so in resounding fashion. By an average margin of 2-to-1, the voters in six states decided to raise the minimum wage from its current level of $5.15 per hour.
Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and Ohio all approved measures to increase the minimum wage to anywhere from $6.15 to $6.85 per hour.
Many of those bills also stipulated that the minimum wage be increased annually if necessary to keep pace with inflation.
Unfortunately, no such measure was offered to Tennessee voters. Instead we were given the politically motivated and socially regressive ballot measure to ban gay marriage.
Though the initiative brought homophobes (especially ones that use their Christian “faith” to cloak their bigotry) to the polls in droves, the Karl Rovian machination failed to achieve its desired goal of maintaining the GOP majority in Congress.
One can only imagine what would have happened if George Macaca Allen’s campaign platform had shown some compassion to the working poor.
If Allen had included raising the minimum wage as part of his election strategy, could it have made a difference?
We’ll never know because Allen chose instead to ride a protestant, heterosexual and racially-pure bandwagon to an Election Day loss in Virginia.
It’s a mystery why Republicans don’t embrace populist initiatives like raising the minimum wage.
Eventually they will run out of crusades based solely on intolerance, and even the ones they have now are losing steam.
In Arizona, where the initiative outlawing same sex marriage was voted down, younger voters rejected the ban overwhelmingly.
To solve the mystery surrounding the GOP’s aversion to populist causes, one must venture, not into the brain of Rove, but into the brain of Bush himself.
Though that proposition is frightening, it’s necessary for understanding why, at the national level, no attempt has been made to raise the minimum wage.
To be sure, when it comes to taking care of those who are already wealthy, the upper class has known no better benefactor than President Bush.
Indeed, Bush has been the guiding patriarch leading America into its second Gilded Age.
But what about the working poor? What about those who have to work multiple jobs just to survive paycheck to paycheck?
Wouldn’t a boost in the minimum wage be the compassionate thing to do for people that are working so hard to make ends meet?
We could ask Bush about such compassion, but a struggling divorced mother of three already did when she explained to Bush how hard she must work to support her family.
“You work three jobs?” Bush responded. “Uniquely American, isn’t it? I mean that is fantastic that you’re doing that.”
The first thought that came to mind was “What an asshole,” but then it’s important to bear in mind Bush’s upbringing. It’s hard for a man who’s never had to earn his own way to appreciate what it takes to live paycheck to paycheck.
The response does make one thing perfectly clear. So long as George “Let Them Eat Cake” Bush remains in the Oval Office, only action at the state level will be effective in pushing populist initiatives, such as raising the minimum wage.

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