It was a “once-upon-a-time’’ afternoon at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, featuring Walter Mondale and Ira Shapiro.
Shapiro’s recently published book, “The Last Great Senate: Courage and Statesmanship in Times of Crisis,’’ is creating a bit of a stir among people who have forgotten that once upon a time, the U.S. Senate actually created more than national headaches.
He’s a Democrat who worked on the staffs of such senators as Gaylord Nelson, Abraham Ribicoff, Tom Eagleton and Jay Rockefeller, and he also worked on Mondale’s failed presidential bid in 1984.
Shapiro believes the period from the 1960s until 1980 represents the ideal for what the Senate should be.
“You must read the book,” Mondale told the audience, “because it tells the story of the Senate when it actually functioned.”
Reagan victory ended era
Shapiro believes that that functioning Senate ended in 1980 when Ronald Reagan swept into the White House.
Not only did Reagan win, but his coattails were long, too. Republicans took control of the Senate. Such mighty senators as Idaho’s Frank Church, South Dakota’s George McGovern, Wisconsin’s Nelson and Indiana’s Birch Bayh all were defeated. (Bayh lost to Dan Quayle.)
The Senate did recover some of its luster in the late 1980s but lost it again during the 1990s Gingrich revolution, which Shapiro believes was the start of a downward cycle that is ongoing.
Any sign of hope that things will change?
“There are some senators who are as angry as the public is,” said Shapiro. “The difference is, they have it in their power to change. Change the rules (especially around filibusters), change leaders and change attitudes. They’re supposed to be U.S. senators, not partisan operatives.”
Obviously, both Shapiro and Mondale could be guilty of some good-old-days thinking in all of this.
Far from perfect, though
Those senators of yesteryear were capable of some major failures — even bipartisan debacles.
The 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, for example, which gave President Lyndon Johnson a free hand for a long disastrous war, was supported with gusto by Democrats and Republicans alike. (Only two senators, Wayne Morse of Oregon and Ernest Gruening of Alaska had the courage to vote “no’’ on the resolution.)
When someone in the audience brought up that issue, Shapiro acknowledged the tragic vote that the Senate spent the next 10 years debating “and trying to rectify.”
But, he added, that in that same year, the Senate, after a 57-day filibuster by Southern senators, passed the Civil Rights Act, which fundamentally changed the laws of the country.
Mondale pointed out that the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution should stand as proof that haste should never be the goal of the Senate.
“I heard Hubert Humphrey give this speech a thousand times,’’ said Mondale. “You can read the Constitution from the first word to the last, the Declaration of Independence from the first word to the last and the Bible from the first word to the last and you’ll never see the word ‘efficiency’ once.’’
Senate’s slow movement isn’t the problem
The message: It’s OK for the Senate to be slow and deliberative and often messy. But what’s not OK is for that body to be tied to partisan ideologies.
“It’s not just the Congress,’’ Mondale said of the current state of public affairs.
“You’ve got the same thing in the Legislature here. It’s just a train wreck,” he said. “We need a more assertive public to look for people who will break the impasse. A public that will seek out young Howard Bakers” — a reference to the Tennessee Republican who served as Senate majority leader from 1981 to 1985.
“If we don’t do something about the way we vote,” Mondale added, “we will continue to see this.”
This “last great Senate” had some common bonds, Shapiro said.
“You had an unusual group of people, a World War II generation, who had a great sense of country, of common purpose,’’ Shapiro said. “They had an unspoken pledge that, as a senator, you have a great opportunity and that you should be guided by the national interest.
“They weren’t focused on partisan issues. And they had a love of the Senate. The agenda of the Senate was more important than the individual agendas of the senators. Barry Goldwater and Humphrey agreed on nothing, except their love of the Senate.”
Shapiro does believe contemporary senators face problems their predecessors didn’t. Because of the huge money in politics, they are forced to be raising money constantly. Additionally, there is a constant media barrage that can make such old-fashioned verities as deliberation and compromise look like weaknesses.
He also points out that the current Senate isn’t the first small-thinking Senate. Prior to the 1960s, the 20th Century was filled with mediocrity — and worse. The Senate , the author said, was controlled by a handful of small-minded, racist Southern Democrats.
“Up until the 1960s, it was often said that the Senate was the one place the South didn’t lose the Civil War,” Shapiro said.
Judging by the number of people lined up to purchase Shapiro’s book after the presentation, it appears there still are people who want to believe the Senate can be productive.
But before they went on stage, Shapiro and Mondale had a little discussion on the book business, which can be as unpredictable and unforgiving as politics.
“How’s the book doing?’ Mondale asked his old friend.”
“My publisher warned me that every author thinks his book is going to take the nation by storm,” said Shapiro. “I told him, ‘The only difference is that my book will take the nation by storm.’ ”
Mondale told a self-deprecating story about his 2010 book, “The Good Fight: A Life in Liberal Politics.”
The former vice president walked into a Borders’ bookstore.
“I asked the person up front, ‘What about that Mondale book?’ ” Mondale said. “The guy just looked at me. I don’t know that they even had the book in the back of the store."