1 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:06,560 Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, it's Rebecca Greenfield, the co host of The Paycheck. 2 00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:09,000 Speaker 1: I wanted to tell you about a show from a 3 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:12,360 Speaker 1: wonder media network you might really like. I'm not a 4 00:00:12,440 --> 00:00:15,520 Speaker 1: parent myself, but I know a lot of parents, and 5 00:00:15,560 --> 00:00:19,040 Speaker 1: I've read a lot about parenting during the pandemic. I 6 00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:24,000 Speaker 1: know how difficult it's been, between the zoom homeschooling or 7 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:27,600 Speaker 1: the constant threat of closures because of COVID cases, not 8 00:00:27,680 --> 00:00:31,280 Speaker 1: to mention fears about the virus itself. In season two 9 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:34,520 Speaker 1: of White Picket, Fence, Post and Single Mom, Julie Kohler 10 00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:38,159 Speaker 1: asks why did it have to be this way? She 11 00:00:38,240 --> 00:00:41,720 Speaker 1: talks to experts, activists, and parents as they unpack the 12 00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:45,559 Speaker 1: caregiving crisis in America and reveal why the conditions were 13 00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:50,560 Speaker 1: set long before COVID nineteen ever hit American shores. Julia 14 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:54,920 Speaker 1: explores the myths about race, gender, families, and the economy 15 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:56,920 Speaker 1: that have gotten us to a point where so many 16 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:01,640 Speaker 1: parents and especially mothers, are cracking. She also looks at 17 00:01:01,640 --> 00:01:04,720 Speaker 1: how the pandemic could change things. It could be a 18 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:09,320 Speaker 1: tipping point. We could build an alternative economic approach, one 19 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:13,360 Speaker 1: that puts caregiving at the center of the economy. Stay 20 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:15,880 Speaker 1: tuned to hear the latest episode, and don't forget to 21 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:26,760 Speaker 1: subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. If you listen to 22 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:29,600 Speaker 1: this show, you probably already realized that I'm a bit 23 00:01:29,640 --> 00:01:33,120 Speaker 1: of a political junkie. I spend a lot of my 24 00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:37,640 Speaker 1: day thinking about, discussing, and writing about politics and policy, 25 00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:40,880 Speaker 1: so it shouldn't come as a surprise to hear that 26 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:44,120 Speaker 1: I've been following the debate over President Biden's Build Back 27 00:01:44,160 --> 00:01:49,400 Speaker 1: Better Act pretty closely. Several months ago, I noticed a 28 00:01:49,440 --> 00:01:53,640 Speaker 1: lot of prominent conservatives leveling a coordinated attack against the 29 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:59,200 Speaker 1: acts childcare provisions. Specifically, they argued that investments in childcare 30 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:02,720 Speaker 1: would penalized families in which a parent stays home to 31 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:08,160 Speaker 1: raise children. It sounded kind of ludicrous. I mean, how 32 00:02:08,240 --> 00:02:11,799 Speaker 1: is someone who doesn't need childcare penalized by its availability? 33 00:02:12,760 --> 00:02:15,840 Speaker 1: The Build Back Better Act wouldn't require anyone to use childcare. 34 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:18,960 Speaker 1: Parents could choose to access child care for their children 35 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:22,000 Speaker 1: or not. They could choose to take advantage of free 36 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:25,280 Speaker 1: pre K or not. But then I realized that this 37 00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:30,400 Speaker 1: argument was tapping into something more fundamental fear. We need 38 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:34,320 Speaker 1: to take this argument seriously because, as we'll talk about today, 39 00:02:34,639 --> 00:02:36,800 Speaker 1: fear is what's been used to block investments in child 40 00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:40,680 Speaker 1: care for decades, in any public benefit that would help families. 41 00:02:42,639 --> 00:02:46,160 Speaker 1: This fear evokes the same nostalgic undertones for the traditional 42 00:02:46,240 --> 00:02:49,320 Speaker 1: nuclear family that we talked about last week, and by 43 00:02:49,320 --> 00:02:52,840 Speaker 1: framing child care is a preference of elite families, they're 44 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:56,120 Speaker 1: tapping into the anti feminism that was used the last 45 00:02:56,120 --> 00:02:59,160 Speaker 1: time we had a political debate over child care fifty 46 00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:02,639 Speaker 1: years ago. But if we're going to talk about fear 47 00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:04,800 Speaker 1: and how it's been used to block investments in the 48 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:07,239 Speaker 1: common good, then we're also going to have to talk 49 00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:14,440 Speaker 1: about something else, racism. I'm Julie Cohler, and this is 50 00:03:14,480 --> 00:03:18,800 Speaker 1: White Picket Fence. This season, we're exploring our country's caregiving 51 00:03:18,880 --> 00:03:24,640 Speaker 1: crisis and the ideologies about race, gender, families, the economy, 52 00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:29,160 Speaker 1: and yes, white women that have blocked public investment in 53 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:31,760 Speaker 1: care and let us to a point where so many 54 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:37,520 Speaker 1: of us are cracking. As we've talked about a lot, 55 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:41,160 Speaker 1: the US does not have a national child care system, 56 00:03:41,160 --> 00:03:46,040 Speaker 1: and our lack of investment has had devastating effects on women, children, 57 00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:50,760 Speaker 1: and our economy. Right now, with the Build Back Better Act, 58 00:03:51,360 --> 00:03:55,200 Speaker 1: the Biden administration might deliver a four hundred billion dollar 59 00:03:55,320 --> 00:03:59,160 Speaker 1: investment in universal pre K and childcare. It would be 60 00:03:59,160 --> 00:04:04,320 Speaker 1: a revolutionary step. Here's the thing, though, this is not 61 00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:09,120 Speaker 1: our country's first rodeo with national childcare. The system once existed. 62 00:04:10,400 --> 00:04:14,160 Speaker 1: During World War Two, our government spent seventy eight million 63 00:04:14,200 --> 00:04:19,039 Speaker 1: dollars creating high quality child care centers. These centers helped 64 00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:22,680 Speaker 1: Rosie the Riveter and thousands like her enter the workforce. 65 00:04:23,560 --> 00:04:27,799 Speaker 1: Seven percent of Richmond ship builders were women. Feminine workers 66 00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:31,320 Speaker 1: with small children inspired the founding of thirty five nursery 67 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:36,000 Speaker 1: school units and then extended daycare centers, which mothered over 68 00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:41,080 Speaker 1: fourteen hundred youngsters at a time. But after the war 69 00:04:41,440 --> 00:04:46,520 Speaker 1: funding evaporated, these centers disappeared and the number of women 70 00:04:46,520 --> 00:04:53,719 Speaker 1: working plummeted. Then came the sixties, second wave feminism, civil rights, 71 00:04:54,279 --> 00:04:58,640 Speaker 1: a dramatic rise in women's employment, and suddenly there was 72 00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:03,719 Speaker 1: political interest in child care again. In fact, fifty years ago, 73 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:07,920 Speaker 1: the Comprehensive Child Development Act landed on President Nixon's desk. 74 00:05:08,760 --> 00:05:12,080 Speaker 1: It had passed both houses of Congress with bipartisan support, 75 00:05:12,960 --> 00:05:16,919 Speaker 1: and Nixon vetoed it. He warned of a communal approach 76 00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:21,160 Speaker 1: to child wearing, and the bill's family weakening implications. Those 77 00:05:21,200 --> 00:05:24,440 Speaker 1: are direct quotes, says, the two billion dollars to have 78 00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:27,320 Speaker 1: been spent on the first year for childcare would be, 79 00:05:27,360 --> 00:05:29,679 Speaker 1: as he put it, a long leap into the dark. 80 00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:35,360 Speaker 1: The Build Back Better Act is facing familiar opposition from conservatives, 81 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:39,800 Speaker 1: peddaling Nixon era rhetoric. Some have invoked fears of a 82 00:05:39,880 --> 00:05:43,800 Speaker 1: government takeover of daycare. Others have claimed that investments in 83 00:05:43,880 --> 00:05:47,920 Speaker 1: childcare would be unfair to so called traditional families, where 84 00:05:47,960 --> 00:05:51,080 Speaker 1: mothers stay at home with their kids. This plan is 85 00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:54,360 Speaker 1: meant to get as many parents, especially mothers, into the workforce. 86 00:05:54,720 --> 00:05:58,120 Speaker 1: I stopped and say, well, why do we want that. 87 00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:01,920 Speaker 1: Let me be clear, Radical Democrats are not the party 88 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:05,160 Speaker 1: of parents, and they're certainly not the party for children. 89 00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:08,640 Speaker 1: Their interests in passing universal child care and universal pre 90 00:06:08,720 --> 00:06:13,080 Speaker 1: k is just to start indoctrinating our kids sooner. Children 91 00:06:13,120 --> 00:06:16,760 Speaker 1: are not entitled to government daycare. What children are entitled 92 00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:21,679 Speaker 1: to is love from their own parents. But this time 93 00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:25,160 Speaker 1: the rhetoric is falling short. It looks like the childcare 94 00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:28,839 Speaker 1: bill might pass. The Build Back Better Act would create 95 00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:31,919 Speaker 1: free universal pre K for three and four year olds. 96 00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:36,320 Speaker 1: It would limit childcare expenses to seven percent of family's income, 97 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:40,159 Speaker 1: nine and ten American families with young children would gain 98 00:06:40,200 --> 00:06:44,120 Speaker 1: access to affordable childcare. It really makes you wonder why 99 00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:48,200 Speaker 1: it took fifty years to happen, to understand why we 100 00:06:48,279 --> 00:06:55,559 Speaker 1: need to first understand what went wrong back in Here's 101 00:06:55,640 --> 00:06:59,600 Speaker 1: Nancy Cohen, president of the Gender Equality Policy Institute. Let 102 00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:04,360 Speaker 1: me still art with setting the scene of the women's 103 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:07,839 Speaker 1: movements and the feminist movements of the late sixties and 104 00:07:07,960 --> 00:07:13,800 Speaker 1: early seventies. It was really one of the only times 105 00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:19,120 Speaker 1: in American history that the women's movement, very broad based, 106 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:26,080 Speaker 1: very diverse, was a mass movement by n had significantly 107 00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:30,840 Speaker 1: changed public opinion in favor of a lot of issues 108 00:07:30,880 --> 00:07:36,280 Speaker 1: that we would consider central to women's equality and gender equality. 109 00:07:36,880 --> 00:07:42,480 Speaker 1: At the same time, you have a reactionary President Mixon 110 00:07:42,840 --> 00:07:45,360 Speaker 1: in office. So in the middle of all of that 111 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:50,600 Speaker 1: entered a Midwestern senator with a big idea. What you 112 00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:55,720 Speaker 1: have in setting the scene for this bill being introduced. 113 00:07:56,360 --> 00:08:00,120 Speaker 1: Senator Walter Mondale had always been a strong at the 114 00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:04,320 Speaker 1: kit for children, true progressive. Came from a poor family 115 00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:10,200 Speaker 1: himself and had a very precarious childhood, so his interest 116 00:08:10,320 --> 00:08:13,520 Speaker 1: in this came a little bit out of understanding what 117 00:08:13,600 --> 00:08:16,720 Speaker 1: it was like for children. Fans of the show will 118 00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:21,000 Speaker 1: remember this fun fact from last season's prologue, Walter Mondale, 119 00:08:21,280 --> 00:08:25,640 Speaker 1: former Minnesota Senator and vice president, winning the Democratic nomination 120 00:08:27,440 --> 00:08:30,560 Speaker 1: was the catalyst for my own passion for politics. He's 121 00:08:30,600 --> 00:08:33,560 Speaker 1: kind of my guy, so it's no surprise to me 122 00:08:33,640 --> 00:08:37,040 Speaker 1: that he championed this effort. And at the time, lots 123 00:08:37,080 --> 00:08:42,120 Speaker 1: of things, public opinions, social movements, political influence, we're coming 124 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:45,920 Speaker 1: together just right in favor of positive change. There was 125 00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:51,840 Speaker 1: a convergence of civil rights movements, of women's movements, child 126 00:08:51,880 --> 00:08:58,240 Speaker 1: development experts who realized that the US had already reached 127 00:08:58,280 --> 00:09:03,400 Speaker 1: a crisis where with women in the workforce, and so 128 00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:07,319 Speaker 1: through a lot of maneuvering, this Comprehensive Child Development Act 129 00:09:07,760 --> 00:09:12,400 Speaker 1: came through and passed the Senate by more than a 130 00:09:12,400 --> 00:09:16,200 Speaker 1: two thirds majority on a bipartisan vote, had a little 131 00:09:16,240 --> 00:09:19,839 Speaker 1: bit more difficulty in the House, but still passed the House. 132 00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:24,840 Speaker 1: The US was still in the tail end of President 133 00:09:24,920 --> 00:09:28,680 Speaker 1: Johnson's War on poverty, so there was very much a 134 00:09:29,240 --> 00:09:33,320 Speaker 1: sense of this was an economic justice bill and a 135 00:09:33,400 --> 00:09:37,559 Speaker 1: racial justice bill. These same social and political movements also 136 00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:41,920 Speaker 1: contributed to Nixon's veto all of those factors coming together 137 00:09:42,800 --> 00:09:48,560 Speaker 1: set the scene for Nixon vetoing the bill with a 138 00:09:48,640 --> 00:09:55,839 Speaker 1: really unhinged Vito message, warning that it would sovietize America, 139 00:09:56,400 --> 00:10:01,040 Speaker 1: that it was basically a communist plot. On one hand, 140 00:10:01,080 --> 00:10:06,000 Speaker 1: he's reaching to anti communist rhetoric, but it really was 141 00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:10,359 Speaker 1: a dog whistle to patriarchy. It may not sound surprising 142 00:10:10,480 --> 00:10:14,640 Speaker 1: that a Republican president shot down a childcare bill today, 143 00:10:14,679 --> 00:10:17,320 Speaker 1: that's kind of a given, but at the time it 144 00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:22,040 Speaker 1: was shocking. Nixon's own administration had helped draft the bill, 145 00:10:23,040 --> 00:10:28,000 Speaker 1: and Nixon was conflicted. He even requested two speeches, one 146 00:10:28,040 --> 00:10:31,640 Speaker 1: for signing the bill and one for vetoing it. So 147 00:10:31,679 --> 00:10:36,440 Speaker 1: who tipped the scales a guy named Pat Buchanan Back 148 00:10:36,440 --> 00:10:40,440 Speaker 1: then he was nixon speechwriter. He convinced the president that 149 00:10:40,559 --> 00:10:43,600 Speaker 1: killing the bill would boost his standing with an emerging 150 00:10:43,640 --> 00:10:48,320 Speaker 1: base of conservative activists. The real reason for the veto, 151 00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:53,760 Speaker 1: based on my research, is that it was a play 152 00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:58,880 Speaker 1: to the right. This is December one. Within a few weeks, 153 00:10:59,160 --> 00:11:02,839 Speaker 1: Nixon is go going to be running in the New 154 00:11:02,880 --> 00:11:08,319 Speaker 1: Hampshire primary for re election, and he faced an opponent 155 00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:11,440 Speaker 1: on his right who was very much playing to the 156 00:11:11,480 --> 00:11:15,960 Speaker 1: anti communist wings of the party. So Nixon had his 157 00:11:16,040 --> 00:11:21,800 Speaker 1: finger in the wind about where Republican primary voters were going. 158 00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:26,640 Speaker 1: I just want to emphasize that at the time there 159 00:11:26,679 --> 00:11:31,960 Speaker 1: are lots of feminists within the Republican Party and they 160 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:37,200 Speaker 1: actually held sway over the anti feminists in the party. 161 00:11:37,320 --> 00:11:41,920 Speaker 1: The family values rhetoric that Nixon used wasn't actually mainstream. 162 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:44,920 Speaker 1: The idea of women working was just not that political. 163 00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:48,440 Speaker 1: But Nixon saw where the grassroots energy and the party 164 00:11:48,520 --> 00:11:52,199 Speaker 1: was going. His vtail was the beginning of the end 165 00:11:52,240 --> 00:11:56,760 Speaker 1: for universal childcare. In the years that followed, Walter Mondale 166 00:11:56,760 --> 00:12:00,679 Speaker 1: tried to revive the bill, scaling back at scope. A 167 00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:04,720 Speaker 1: revised version passed the Senate ine, but it died in 168 00:12:04,760 --> 00:12:09,120 Speaker 1: the House. Talk of childcare proposals started to resurface a 169 00:12:09,120 --> 00:12:13,559 Speaker 1: couple of years later, but this time white conservative women 170 00:12:13,760 --> 00:12:18,280 Speaker 1: mobilized a massive counterattack. Now it was still tiny numbers 171 00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:24,160 Speaker 1: compared to the support that feminism had, and particularly these 172 00:12:24,559 --> 00:12:30,160 Speaker 1: pretty mainstream feminist ideas of providing childcare and equal pay. 173 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:33,760 Speaker 1: But basically these women um mostly in the South, some 174 00:12:33,920 --> 00:12:38,040 Speaker 1: in the West in anti feminist groups got wind of 175 00:12:38,080 --> 00:12:46,520 Speaker 1: the childcare bills coming forward and in really an explicit 176 00:12:46,559 --> 00:12:53,160 Speaker 1: defense of patriarchy and women's suppordination in the family mobilized 177 00:12:53,400 --> 00:13:00,240 Speaker 1: and flooded Congress with thousands of letters opposing these childcare bills, 178 00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:03,120 Speaker 1: and that was it. That was the end of it. 179 00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:09,360 Speaker 1: For quite some time, anti feminism and anti socialism have 180 00:13:09,559 --> 00:13:11,920 Speaker 1: always been at the heart of the opposition to child 181 00:13:11,960 --> 00:13:15,240 Speaker 1: care or any of the supports that would make raising 182 00:13:15,320 --> 00:13:19,600 Speaker 1: children easier. We've been hearing these ideas recycled in the 183 00:13:19,640 --> 00:13:23,480 Speaker 1: debate over the Build Back Better Act, but opposition is 184 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:29,240 Speaker 1: intrinsically linked to something else too, racism. We've talked about 185 00:13:29,240 --> 00:13:32,800 Speaker 1: how women of color, especially black women, have long provided 186 00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:37,280 Speaker 1: the domestic labor that keeps more affluent families afloat, and 187 00:13:37,280 --> 00:13:40,800 Speaker 1: their labor helped create this vision of the traditional nuclear family. 188 00:13:41,880 --> 00:13:45,920 Speaker 1: Our government's continued refusal to invest in childcare keeps that 189 00:13:45,960 --> 00:13:51,600 Speaker 1: work undervalued and underpaid. Here story and Warren, co president 190 00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:55,520 Speaker 1: of Community Change and co founder of the Economic Security Project. 191 00:13:56,720 --> 00:14:00,920 Speaker 1: I think to understand the care economy, pol sees again, 192 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:03,200 Speaker 1: we have to go back to the founding and think 193 00:14:03,280 --> 00:14:07,440 Speaker 1: about the nature of care work and how devalued it 194 00:14:07,480 --> 00:14:10,920 Speaker 1: has been from for centuries. And this is not just 195 00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:14,600 Speaker 1: in the US, this is across the world where care 196 00:14:14,640 --> 00:14:18,600 Speaker 1: work has been defined in very stark gendered terms as 197 00:14:18,679 --> 00:14:24,240 Speaker 1: women's work and therefore um not deserving of dignity, of 198 00:14:24,440 --> 00:14:29,440 Speaker 1: value and of renumeration for that labor. And then you 199 00:14:29,520 --> 00:14:33,240 Speaker 1: add in the American racial context of who is doing 200 00:14:33,280 --> 00:14:36,000 Speaker 1: the care work for the first couple of hundred years 201 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:38,600 Speaker 1: of this country, well, it was black women in particular. 202 00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:42,320 Speaker 1: And so if you look at the composition of who 203 00:14:42,560 --> 00:14:45,560 Speaker 1: is doing the care work in terms of women of color, 204 00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:49,400 Speaker 1: black women, immigrant women, if you think about essential workers today, 205 00:14:49,640 --> 00:14:53,400 Speaker 1: it's no coincidence to me that the composition of who 206 00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:56,320 Speaker 1: performs that work and the devaluation of that work goes 207 00:14:56,400 --> 00:14:59,600 Speaker 1: hand in hand. So this has been a long, long 208 00:14:59,640 --> 00:15:03,000 Speaker 1: effort to try to do the political work and the 209 00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:08,560 Speaker 1: cultural work to value care work as work as labor. 210 00:15:08,680 --> 00:15:12,400 Speaker 1: The death of child care bill didn't just hurt middle 211 00:15:12,400 --> 00:15:15,840 Speaker 1: class women who wanted to work outside the home. It 212 00:15:15,960 --> 00:15:18,680 Speaker 1: was part of a long history of policies that kept 213 00:15:18,720 --> 00:15:23,080 Speaker 1: a certain kind of work and worker low paid at 214 00:15:23,080 --> 00:15:26,120 Speaker 1: the margins of our economy. I have to point out 215 00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:31,480 Speaker 1: just to say the rules of our economy also helped 216 00:15:31,520 --> 00:15:34,520 Speaker 1: solidify the evaluation of care work. So I'm thinking here 217 00:15:34,600 --> 00:15:39,160 Speaker 1: of how domestic workers in particular were excluded from New 218 00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:42,360 Speaker 1: Deal social policies. Um, if you think of the Wagner 219 00:15:42,400 --> 00:15:45,000 Speaker 1: Act and the right to organize into a union domestic 220 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:47,320 Speaker 1: and agricultural workers, Nope. If you think of the Fair 221 00:15:47,360 --> 00:15:50,480 Speaker 1: Labor Standard deck which is our minimum wage, domestic workers 222 00:15:50,480 --> 00:15:54,720 Speaker 1: and agricultural workers excluded. So domestic workers in particular have 223 00:15:55,280 --> 00:16:00,640 Speaker 1: always always been seen as another as those who are 224 00:16:00,680 --> 00:16:04,840 Speaker 1: only supposed to perform certain duties for wealthy and elite 225 00:16:05,040 --> 00:16:08,400 Speaker 1: and privileged people. And I think because of the decades 226 00:16:08,440 --> 00:16:12,760 Speaker 1: of organizing, we're at a potentially different and maybe even 227 00:16:12,800 --> 00:16:15,080 Speaker 1: transformative moment when it comes to care work. Right now, 228 00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:20,000 Speaker 1: like Nancy said, Nixon was reading the tea leaves, he 229 00:16:20,040 --> 00:16:23,520 Speaker 1: could see that a conservative grassroots movement was coming. It 230 00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:28,040 Speaker 1: was anti feminist, sure, and strongly antisocialist, but there was 231 00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:32,080 Speaker 1: something more. Racist backlash was at the heart of the 232 00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:36,080 Speaker 1: modern day conservative movement. Over the next couple of decades, 233 00:16:36,520 --> 00:16:40,360 Speaker 1: childcare became central to how that backlash would manifest itself 234 00:16:40,360 --> 00:16:44,720 Speaker 1: in our politics, and no one embraced that strategy more 235 00:16:44,800 --> 00:16:49,280 Speaker 1: clearly than an actor with big political ambitions Ronald Reagan. 236 00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:57,360 Speaker 1: Understanding Reagan as part of he is the exemplification. He 237 00:16:57,480 --> 00:17:01,560 Speaker 1: is sort of the maturity of the backlash against the 238 00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:04,280 Speaker 1: civil rights and black freedom movement in the sixties. He 239 00:17:04,359 --> 00:17:08,280 Speaker 1: comes out of, you know, very Goldwater and the conservative 240 00:17:08,359 --> 00:17:13,840 Speaker 1: West Coast politicians who were searching for ways to resist 241 00:17:14,359 --> 00:17:17,920 Speaker 1: the efforts at racial justice and racial equity. From the start, 242 00:17:18,080 --> 00:17:22,040 Speaker 1: Reagan embraced the racist dog whistle. He launched his presidential 243 00:17:22,080 --> 00:17:27,280 Speaker 1: campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the site where civil rights activists 244 00:17:27,359 --> 00:17:31,879 Speaker 1: James Cheney, Andrew Goodman, and Mickey Scharner were murdered for 245 00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:36,480 Speaker 1: trying to register black voters in four I know they're 246 00:17:36,520 --> 00:17:41,159 Speaker 1: speaking to this brow speaking what it has to be 247 00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:52,040 Speaker 1: a dog night Democrat. I just bid fight party affiliation. 248 00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:56,040 Speaker 1: I didn't mean how you feel now. I was a 249 00:17:56,119 --> 00:18:02,000 Speaker 1: Democrat post of my life myself, and that is not 250 00:18:02,080 --> 00:18:05,040 Speaker 1: an accident. He knew exactly what he was doing. That 251 00:18:05,119 --> 00:18:08,320 Speaker 1: was political strategy, and it was an explicit anti black 252 00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:11,920 Speaker 1: political strategy to really signal to white voters, especially white 253 00:18:11,960 --> 00:18:14,640 Speaker 1: Southern voters, I'm one of you, and I will take 254 00:18:14,720 --> 00:18:18,040 Speaker 1: up the lost cause. And he didn't stop there. And 255 00:18:18,080 --> 00:18:21,240 Speaker 1: then on the campaign trail, he tells this story over 256 00:18:21,320 --> 00:18:25,240 Speaker 1: and over and over, and it always enrages me every 257 00:18:25,240 --> 00:18:27,399 Speaker 1: time I even think about it, because it's very personal 258 00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:29,440 Speaker 1: for me. Tells the story of a black woman from Chicago. 259 00:18:30,080 --> 00:18:32,240 Speaker 1: Chicago is my hometown, so it's very personal for me, 260 00:18:32,560 --> 00:18:35,520 Speaker 1: and it's the welfare queen story. And he's telling this 261 00:18:35,560 --> 00:18:38,080 Speaker 1: story over and over all there's this woman in Chicago 262 00:18:38,280 --> 00:18:40,919 Speaker 1: and she has Cadillac and for coats and buy stakes 263 00:18:40,960 --> 00:18:44,199 Speaker 1: with her food, sad and all this stuff that becomes 264 00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:48,920 Speaker 1: the dominant narrative around welfare. Reagan ran on a platform 265 00:18:49,160 --> 00:18:53,520 Speaker 1: that's now synonymous with the Republican Party, low taxes, small government. 266 00:18:54,600 --> 00:18:57,600 Speaker 1: His welfare queen story was meant to be a cautionary 267 00:18:57,640 --> 00:19:01,760 Speaker 1: tale of wasteful government spending. But it was no coincidence 268 00:19:01,920 --> 00:19:04,119 Speaker 1: that the woman at the center of that story was black. 269 00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:07,600 Speaker 1: So Reagan is telling the story about wealth, you know, 270 00:19:07,640 --> 00:19:10,919 Speaker 1: the welfare queen over and over the Republican Party and 271 00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:16,960 Speaker 1: conservatives are repeating the story, and then Democrats at the time, 272 00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:21,719 Speaker 1: let's talk about it. We're also quick to jump in 273 00:19:21,720 --> 00:19:25,320 Speaker 1: on the story on the broader narrative around who is 274 00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:28,960 Speaker 1: deserving and who is not deserving. And we know what 275 00:19:29,200 --> 00:19:33,200 Speaker 1: both parties meant by that white people are deserving non 276 00:19:33,240 --> 00:19:37,200 Speaker 1: white people not deserving. We've been living with that legacy 277 00:19:37,320 --> 00:19:42,520 Speaker 1: for forty years. By stoking fear of so called undeserving 278 00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:47,800 Speaker 1: black single mothers, Reagan transformed our national conversation about public benefits, 279 00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:52,320 Speaker 1: and he wasn't alone. In the nine nineties, President Bill 280 00:19:52,320 --> 00:19:56,080 Speaker 1: Clinton reformed welfare. What was previously a program of cash 281 00:19:56,119 --> 00:20:00,560 Speaker 1: assistance for poor women and children became temporary system with 282 00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:05,439 Speaker 1: work requirements. President George W. Bush took welfare reform to 283 00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:09,399 Speaker 1: the next level. He dumped millions of dollars into marriage 284 00:20:09,440 --> 00:20:13,680 Speaker 1: promotion programs, literally government programs that encouraged poor women to 285 00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:17,960 Speaker 1: get married. These programs did nothing to reduce poverty or 286 00:20:18,040 --> 00:20:22,000 Speaker 1: increase marriage, but they further the belief that being poor 287 00:20:22,080 --> 00:20:26,399 Speaker 1: was the result of bad personal decision making. Common sense 288 00:20:26,440 --> 00:20:32,760 Speaker 1: policies like child care Bill became politically toxic. Any government 289 00:20:32,800 --> 00:20:37,919 Speaker 1: benefit evoked that welfare queen image. A lot of beliefs 290 00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:40,680 Speaker 1: about gender and race have made the U S an 291 00:20:40,680 --> 00:20:45,919 Speaker 1: inhospitable place for families, especially mothers and other caregivers. But 292 00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:48,280 Speaker 1: at the root of all of this is a fear 293 00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:52,040 Speaker 1: that helping the vulnerable will somehow hurt the rest of us. 294 00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:57,680 Speaker 1: It's what some call is zero sum scarcity framework. This 295 00:20:57,760 --> 00:20:59,800 Speaker 1: fear is what kept the US from creating a child 296 00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:04,919 Speaker 1: system back in. It's what prompted politicians from both parties 297 00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:07,400 Speaker 1: to get our social safety net in the following decades, 298 00:21:08,560 --> 00:21:11,560 Speaker 1: and it's what conservatives trotted out again in the debate 299 00:21:11,600 --> 00:21:16,440 Speaker 1: over the Built Back Better Act. Its origins run deep well. 300 00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:20,639 Speaker 1: I think the origins of our zero some scarcity framework 301 00:21:21,280 --> 00:21:23,800 Speaker 1: essentially come from the origins of this country, and so 302 00:21:23,960 --> 00:21:28,760 Speaker 1: um due respect to Nicolahannah Jones, the sixteen nineteen project, 303 00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:32,000 Speaker 1: I think we can start there in the structuring of 304 00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:38,080 Speaker 1: a country. First of taking of land from indigenous inhabitants 305 00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:42,000 Speaker 1: who already were on that land. That's already the beginning 306 00:21:42,480 --> 00:21:47,520 Speaker 1: of a zero sum framework. And notion that somehow the 307 00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:51,600 Speaker 1: folks who were already here did not deserve the land 308 00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:55,720 Speaker 1: of this country like these white settlers, and so that's 309 00:21:55,760 --> 00:21:57,480 Speaker 1: the beginning of zero some. And then you add in 310 00:21:57,520 --> 00:22:00,760 Speaker 1: and servants, and then of course those who were enslave, 311 00:22:00,760 --> 00:22:05,240 Speaker 1: particularly from the continent of Africa, and the notion that, um, 312 00:22:05,280 --> 00:22:10,919 Speaker 1: it was divinely ordained that some people did not deserve 313 00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:14,679 Speaker 1: the same freedoms as others, and particularly not only deserved 314 00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:19,040 Speaker 1: the same freedoms were meant to be exploited for others wealth. 315 00:22:20,080 --> 00:22:22,679 Speaker 1: So I tend to think of American history and in 316 00:22:22,800 --> 00:22:27,879 Speaker 1: three numbers and five, and those represent decades. So the 317 00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:32,560 Speaker 1: first twenty five decades system of chattel slavery and human bondage. 318 00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:36,240 Speaker 1: Then we had a civil war and a little period 319 00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:40,120 Speaker 1: called reconstruction, which was the idea was to reconstruct our 320 00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:44,439 Speaker 1: democracy and economy. And then that short period ended, it 321 00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:48,800 Speaker 1: was fought against, and we had another ten decades of 322 00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:52,400 Speaker 1: Jim Crow, what some scholars called slavery by another name. 323 00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:57,600 Speaker 1: So that's twenty five decades of slavery, then ten decades 324 00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:00,879 Speaker 1: or a hundred years of Jim Kroll, and then the 325 00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:04,760 Speaker 1: last number is five. The last five decades or fifty 326 00:23:04,880 --> 00:23:08,399 Speaker 1: years or so, we have seen the opening up in 327 00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:12,359 Speaker 1: many ways of this country in terms of full citizenship, 328 00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:16,880 Speaker 1: particularly for black people. But that's a recent amount. That's 329 00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:19,600 Speaker 1: a small amount of time in the great sweep of history. 330 00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:22,520 Speaker 1: And so if you think of the first twenty five 331 00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:25,840 Speaker 1: decades and then the second ten decades, zero sum thinking 332 00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:30,320 Speaker 1: pervaded our country throughout that entire time. And so it's 333 00:23:30,440 --> 00:23:34,640 Speaker 1: not an accident that here we are. You know, five 334 00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:38,120 Speaker 1: decades after the civil rights movement and the women's movement, 335 00:23:38,359 --> 00:23:42,800 Speaker 1: and the gay liberation movement and others, that we're still 336 00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:45,439 Speaker 1: dealing with this fundamental framework that has to find the 337 00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:50,320 Speaker 1: country from the founding. One piece of legislation can't undo 338 00:23:50,359 --> 00:23:53,760 Speaker 1: this foundational framework, but I believe that it can be 339 00:23:53,800 --> 00:23:57,720 Speaker 1: an important first step. As author and activist Heather McGee 340 00:23:57,800 --> 00:23:59,879 Speaker 1: writes in her book The Some of Us, there's a 341 00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:04,199 Speaker 1: way to defeat the zero sum thinking. It's by cultivating 342 00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:08,360 Speaker 1: what she calls the solidarity dividend, the idea that by 343 00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:12,080 Speaker 1: coming together across race, we can accomplish what we can't 344 00:24:12,119 --> 00:24:15,400 Speaker 1: do on our own. McGee says that the quickest way 345 00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:18,560 Speaker 1: to get there is to refill the pool on public 346 00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:22,480 Speaker 1: goods for everyone. Child Care is one of those critical 347 00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:26,600 Speaker 1: public goods. But to get there, we need not only 348 00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:30,840 Speaker 1: to overcome the nostalgic ideology of family life that continues 349 00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:33,760 Speaker 1: to be evoked today, and not only the racial fear 350 00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:37,240 Speaker 1: and stratification that's been with us since our nation's founding. 351 00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:41,720 Speaker 1: We will need to overcome a theory about the economy 352 00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:44,640 Speaker 1: that has become something close to religious doctrine for much 353 00:24:44,640 --> 00:24:48,680 Speaker 1: of the last half Century next week on White Picket Fence. 354 00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:52,600 Speaker 1: You know, it's kind of like the fish in the 355 00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:55,800 Speaker 1: bowl of water doesn't know that it's in the bowl 356 00:24:55,840 --> 00:24:58,600 Speaker 1: of water until it suddenly finds itself outside the bowl 357 00:24:58,640 --> 00:25:03,359 Speaker 1: of water, gasping for air. White pick of Fence is 358 00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:07,159 Speaker 1: a Wonder Media Network production. Our producers are Maddie Foley, 359 00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:11,960 Speaker 1: Eadie Allard, and Taylor Williamson. Executive producer is Jenny Kaplan. 360 00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:15,800 Speaker 1: Special thanks to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the 361 00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:18,879 Speaker 1: Share Descent Fund for their generous support for this season. 362 00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:24,400 Speaker 1: We want to hear about your caregiving experiences, especially during 363 00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:29,720 Speaker 1: the pandemic. Just called to one to six five zero 364 00:25:29,840 --> 00:25:32,480 Speaker 1: four eight and leave us a voicemail with your story. 365 00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:36,119 Speaker 1: We might just play it on the show. That's two 366 00:25:36,119 --> 00:25:40,040 Speaker 1: one to six five zero four eight.