Let’s look behind the headlines about those terrible 83 Republicans who voted against the amendment to rehire pilots fired over refusal to get COVID vaccines
I’ve often seen it around the blogosphere – the old “uniparty” label for the GOP members of Congress. Here’s a typical treatment of today’s version of the old story (hat tip: commenter “miguel cervantes”):
83 Republican congressmen joined nearly every Democrat in Congress to defeat an amendment that would allow airlines to re-hire any pilots that they let go because of the vaccine mandates.
With Republicans like this, who needs Democrats?
Of course, Democrats are awful. But nearly 100 Republicans also opposed this measure. 83 Republicans are STILL pro-vax mandate.
What a clown world we live in.
When people read that, what do they think? The author seems to be saying that (a) the amendment in question that the 83 GOP members opposed merely would allow airlines to rehire the pilots (b) those who voted against the measure support making vaccines compulsory for pilots; and (c) this represents a “clown world” in which people act like idiots and all is pretense, and the notion that Republicans in Congress represent anything much different from Democrats amounts to belief in one of those pretenses.
When I read the story, I thought: that’s a lot of Republicans. I wonder what they gave as their reason. And so I looked it up, and after about a minute I found this explanation [emphasis mine]:
The U.S. House of Representatives failed to pass an amendment to a bill on Thursday morning that would have required airlines to rehire pilots who were fired or forced to resign for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine.
Oh; that’s interesting. It would have required their rehiring, not just allowed it.
And in fact, the bill itself (not the amendment that was voted down, but the bill) “includes a prohibition on vaccine and mask mandates on airlines.” Also interesting. Nothing appears to keep airlines from hiring the fired pilots back. The bill passed overwhelmingly without that extra amendment.
But most interesting to me was the following – the reasons some GOP members gave for voting against the amendment:
Both Strong and Rogers, when contacted by 1819 News for comment, suggested that the amendment would offer undue authority to the FAA, which is currently under the control of the Biden administration.
“This Amendment proposed to give the Biden FAA new authority to mandate the hiring practice of airlines,” Strong explained. “Given that woke Washington bureaucrats are already trying to push their DEI policies on airlines hiring, I am concerned it is a slippery slope that would be abused.”
“I cannot support any measure that allows Biden’s FAA to meddle in private sector employment decisions,” Rogers said.
Now, you either buy their reasons or don’t buy them. But I think those condemning them should be aware of their explanation. But I don’t see that sort of evenhanded treatment of the background of the issue from pundits around Twitter and the blogosphere. What I see instead is propaganda.
And I see it often from the right as well as constantly from the left. The message is just a different one. And sometimes – actually, quite often – the propaganda message from the right serves to divide the right – which is not to say that there aren’t some Republicans in Congress who really do seem to be Democrats-lite. But they are nowhere near as numerous as they used to be.
So – propaganda to the left of me, propaganda to the right:
I try to be fair and present a fuller version of the story and let the reader decide. Of course, time constraints and knowledge constraints mean that my efforts never come close to actual fullness. But I certainly try not to just give a kneejerk response.
neo:
Seems that those that see a Uniparty get played often.
“Look – another squirrel!”
I could only wish they had been as concerned about the authority of the NIH or CDC which caused the pilots to be fired.
as if they won’t push dei anyways its the only thing they know, it seems to me the more money lavished on these agencies the worse they perform, you can take foggy bottom or pentagon or transportation,
Charles Kitchens:
What would GOP members of Congress have had the power to do about it at the time?
Have you ever checked to see what they said about it at the time?
As they say, the devil is in the details, so of course I don’t know what was in the bill or the amendment.
As for this push for DEI in the airline business: you can have diversity or you can have standards. Choose wisely.
Thanks for ding the homework on this, Neo. I heard the headline but didn’t know why Republicans would side with the Dems unless they were pro vax mandates. Government REQUIRING private businesses to do something isn’t a good Idea.
lets not direct them to do something constructive, because they might do something destructive, fine lets not do anything
Recently, Sen. Rand Paul offered an amendment to a bill one that he had offered in a prior resolution on June 22nd.
One asserting that Article 5 of the NATO Treaty does not supersede Congress’s responsibility to declare war or authorize military force before engaging in hostilities.
Only 16 Republican Senators voted in approval of the Senate reestablishing the constitutional authority it has abandoned.
“Article 5 states, “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them . . . shall be considered an attack against them all and . . . each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense . . . will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith . . . such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force…” In other words, NATO allies are committed to assist each other in the event of an attack, but military action is not mandated, and the United States maintains its sovereign capacity to determine what kind of response is warranted.”
Obviously, this is not more evidence of what, more often than not amounts to a Uniparty. sarc/off
Why NOT require airlines to rehire rehire pilots who were fired or forced to resign for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine? The dems use every lever of government and regulation to push their agenda, but republicans do nothing in response when in power. If they don’t do anything it is not like things go back to “normal”. There is only a pause until dems push their own agenda again. If there was no other reason for pilots to be fired, why not turn the tables and use the levers of government now that republicans are power?!?
But the main theme remains the same – republicans are worthless and have conserved nothing, playing checkers while the dems play chess. I don’t see why to vote republicans since they don’t do anything for the people who voted for them, go to “hands off don’t do anything” when put in power. You don’t fight to the magical “what should be”, you fight based on the rules as they are.
Yeah the dems are totalitarian, but the republicans don’t do anything about it, so why bother to vote for them?
This is why I come back here every day.
Damn good work, neo.
I think it is well to remember that people always do what they do for a reason. Though that reason or set of reasons may be obscured by various factors and difficult or impossible to discern from the outside – and sometimes even by the person himself, inwardly – it’s there, somewhere. This is one of the things that I picked up from my chess experiences.
In this case, Neo sets a good example to dig deeper for the story behind the story.
whatever:
Either a person believes the ends justify the means, or the person believes that if you compromise a larger principle for a short-term and momentary gain, you’re opening up Pandora’s box.
In this case, you would like the right to abandon a principle that says the federal government should allow companies to make their own hiring decisions. And in particular you seem to think that the right should do this at a moment when the left controls that government.
Shortsighted. Not only does it compromise a principle, but to what real gain? Even if the bill passed the House with that amendment, would it pass the Senate – a Senate controlled by the left? Are there enough good things in the bill that it’s worth sacrificing that one thing in order to get it passed? Isn’t the bill’s prohibition on vaccine and mask mandates enough? And how many pilots are still without jobs because of this, versus how many have already been hired back voluntarily? Do you know? Do you have a clue? Have you ever tried to find out?
Republicans have done plenty to block Democrats’ more nefarious plans for a host of things. The fact that they haven’t blocked everything doesn’t mean that electing them isn’t far far better than electing Democrats. I’ve fought this battle for the nearly twenty years I’ve been blogging. The position you (and many others) are taking is destructive and unreasonable.
@neo:Either a person believes the ends justify the means, or the person believes that if you compromise a larger principle for a short-term and momentary gain, you’re opening up Pandora’s box.
No, there’s other positions, one of which is quite reasonable: when the system incentivizes an undesirable behavior, change the incentives, in this case by increasing the cost of the undesirable behavior by retaliating it.
Right now the Republicans and Democrats act together in a ratchet-and-pawl system: the Dems do most of what their base wants, and the Republicans at best provide a period of stasis that doesn’t last, but there’s not a roll-back, the Left doesn’t ever have to give up any ground.
We’ve done it this way for the last fifty years and where are we now? With children literally being mutilated and the government punishing those parents who would stop it. (Remember when flag burning and gay marriage were what we worried about? Good times…)
In WWI Allied and Central Powers armies used poison gas. In WWII neither Axis nor Allied armies did. It wasn’t because one side said “we’ll never use poison gas again because it’s wrong”. It’s because both sides knew if they started it there would be retaliation.
What kept nuclear war at bay during the Cold War? Not a renunciation of nuclear weapons, but mutual assured destruction.
I guarantee that once Republicans start forcing the private sector to do what Republicans want the Left will find principles again right quick. Just like they found them against violent song lyrics just now, or when they condemned the inappropriateness of posting Hunter Biden’ nude photos where minors might see them.
Thanks for digging into this, Neo!
Standards have declined so much, one has to read the mouth-breathing media with a large shaker of salt.
I complained to my local radio station, after one of its “reporters” said that Derek Chauvin “strangled” George Floyd.
Oh the musings of Frederick.
If the US is governed by the Uniparty who is going to impose disincentives on the Uniparty, and how? The local, magic, other, means?
Thanks for doing the research.
I saw the story late last night and, on the face of the headline and what now appears to be an actual misstatement of the amendment, it certainly looked bad.
However, this is the nature of sound-bite journalism, on both sides.
But, just a niggle: if the amendment was such a slippery slope, despite mandating rehiring ONLY of the vax-fired pilots, why did the Democrats reject this tempting bite of the apple? Are they not as conniving and long-sighted as their reputation?
“83 Republicans voted with Democrats to not reinstate pilots who were ousted over vaccine mandates.”
NOTE: I saw only the Not The Bee story; the explanations didn’t come clear until today.
Answer to the question: Why thenewneo.com is at least a daily read for me. Thanks, neo.
because they want to eliminate air travel for the peasants, not for the lords, didn’t you hear ocasio cortez,
they want to defer to the ipcc, the who unesco, because well its the right thing to do, they don’t have the will to exercise the power of the purse, the whip over the administrative state,
Well done, Neo
what our betters say,
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/07/22/italy-ruffled-by-german-health-ministers-wild-claim-climate-change-destroying-southern-europe/
“I try to be fair and present a fuller version of the story and let the reader decide.”
I will soon introduce an apolitical friend to politics by having her read writers like you, Glenn Reynolds, and Frances Menton. All three of you are wise, knowledgeable and,
intellectually honest.
You’re also lawyers. Go figure.
I see what those who voted against it are saying, but that bridge was crossed when the government mandated they were sacked. Who exactly thinks the government doesn’t have authority to mandate hiring decisions after the covid mandates experience ?
Its one thing to use the levers of government to achieve your own goals. Its quite another imho to use those same levers to undo what was done by your opponents. If there are no consequences on the other side because we’re too moral or principled to do it, you get the inevitable slide to the left as their wins stay, our wins are at best periods of inertia, which then recommence when the left again takes power.
“Whatever”. I agree that the GOP is worthless. If they can’t come up with an appropriate bill that only affects the pilots, they should get jobs selling apples on the street.
The author needs a lesson on logic. He/She (didn’t see an actual name on the article) interviews couple of GOP Reps and focuses on their reluctance to support this amendment because it REQUIRED airlines to rehire fully qualified pilots they had ALREADY hired once. So – what’s wrong with that. Government interference was what caused them to be fired in the first place! They should be forced to retire these pilots.
As a recently retired airline pilot who was able to stiff-arm my airline until I reached mandatory retirement age of 65 without getting the death jab, let me shed some light on why Dems and Reps joined forces to kill this amendment.
The pilots’ union is supposed to protect their members. I can’t think of a more important way to protect the pilots than to resist mandatory injections of potentially deadly substances. However, in every case, the pilots’ unions rolled over and supported mandatory death labs! Why? Money!!!
In my case we were given up to $5000 to get injected. This came from the company, with the urging of Biden.
Why wouldn’t Dems/Reps fight this obvious fascist move by the government/industry by forcing these airlines to rehire these wrongly fired pilots? Money! Biden is a Fascist but the unions love him, so…. They did what Biden told them to do. What about the 83 Reps? Money! I guarantee you that the airlines will contribute sizable donations to these 83 Republicans for their next election.
THEY’RE ALL CORRUPT.