OUR COMMUNITY
“WE NEED LEADERSHIP IN
CONGRESS WHO ARE WILLING TO
WORK TOGETHER AND LIKE EACH
OTHER EVEN IF THEY DISAGREE.”
— SEN. CARL LEVIN
Q&A from page 13
14 | APRIL 1 • 2021
were the first Jews to arrive in
Birmingham in the 1890s, where
they started a little store at Maple
and Woodward that eventually
became four stores.
While I found all that fasci-
nating, this is really a book about
how government, principally the
Senate, works, and what needs to
be done to make it work better.
Levin does provide a concise and
mostly interesting history of the
major issues of our time, espe-
cially the ones in which he played
a role, from the armed services,
his best-known area of expertise,
to the Clinton impeachment to
the auto industry and financial
crises of the Great Recession.
There is a weak point or two;
he discussed the emotionally
wrenching right-to-die contro-
versy involving a vegetative-state
patient, Terri Schiavo, without
mentioning that her feeding
tube was eventually removed.
Also, if you aren’t an accountant,
your eyes may glaze over at the
level of detail provided when he
recounts the financial abuses his
Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations uncovered.
However, the U.S. Senate is
divided into show horses and
work horses, and this is a good
reminder of how hard a good
U.S. senator must work to do his
job the way it is supposed to be
done.
MAN OF THE SENATE
Nobody ever accused Carl Levin
of being a slacker. The funda-
mental message of this book is
one about governing.
“If you don’t come to elected
office willing to compromise, you
don’t come wanting to govern,
”
Levin says in discussing the role
of an elected official.
He also has a view on the
nature of his job many who are
in Congress — or, for that matter,
any elected position — ought
to hear. “Being an effective
representative, I’ve concluded,
doesn’t necessarily mean voting
in the way the majority of one’s
constituents think best.
” Instead,
he thought it was his job to “seri-
ously study, without arrogance or
certainly” any issue, “being open
to and respecting different views,
”
and then “do what I believed was
in the best interests of my con-
stituents in the long run.
”
That at times, meant unpopu-
lar votes, from opposing our war
against Iraq in 2002 to voting
against the Reagan tax cuts in
1981, a vote that might have cost
him reelection, had his opponent,
astronaut Jack Lousma, not been
filmed praising Toyota and telling
Japanese auto executives how
happy he was that his son drove
one.
Levin was, and is, thoroughly
a man of the Senate, including
its rules and traditions. Some
reformers may be dismayed
to learn, for example, that he
stoutly defends the practice of
“earmarking” funds for special
local projects, something oppo-
nents call “pork-barrel” spending.
Levin believes that while there
have indeed been some abuses,
earmarks are “a legitimate part of
the legislative process.
”
While all will not agree, he
makes a compelling case for his
position. He is also adamant-
ly opposed to abolishing the
much-maligned filibuster. True,
there are times when it has been
used to obstruct progress, but
Levin also thinks it is a huge
mistake for either party to resort
to the so-called “nuclear option,
”
one in which the Senate over-
rules the rule that you need 60
votes to end debate.
Instead, he recommends that
instead of just allowing oppo-
nents to stop debate by threat-
ening to filibuster, the majority
should call their bluff and force
them to do it; in most cases, he
thinks those threatening to stage
ty, but if government is split,
you have no choice but to
work together. Sometimes in
a family, you learn that, too.
You know, Sandy [his
older brother, former U.S.
Rep. Sander Levin] is my role
model. Talk about bringing
people together! He did that
as leader of the Democrats in
the Michigan Senate.
By the way, he is also the
one who taught me how
to play squash — starting
when I was a freshman and
he was a senior at Harvard
Law School. We calculated
a while ago that we’d played
something like 15,000 games
together over the years.
How can we fix things?
No. 1, elect a president
who wants to work togeth-
er — and we’ve done that.
Trump was the most divisive
president in our history. He
appealed to racial biases,
ethnic biases and set differ-
ent sections of the country
against each other.
Do you think President
Biden is the right person
for the right time?
I sure do. I think his back-
ground is right. Biden is
known for bringing people
together to look at prob-
lems. You need someone
who is not anti-government.
We worked together in the
Senate for many years. I
saw the way he worked with
people. He was a big part of
always getting things done.
But we also need leadership
in Congress who are willing
to work together and like
each other even if they dis-
agree. People who can argue
but then have a drink together
and laugh together. They have
to know how to get along.
How did you feel when
you saw the riot at the
U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6?
I was disgusted, obviously.
To witness the central pro-
cess of our democracy being
subject to an attack — a
betrayal of so much in this
country and what we stand
for. But when I see the voters
in this country defeating a
divider and electing a unifier,
it makes me feel confident
that nothing will tear down
this democracy.
I think we withstood a
storm with Trump. That
democracy came out stron-
ger than ever. What hap-
pened [Jan. 6] was a real
lesson for our country, and I
think we came out stronger.
Finally, why did you write
this book?
I wanted to share with my
family and anyone else who
might be interested what I had
learned in politics and share it
with anyone who might pos-
sibly find it an incentive to go
into public service.
Public service is an hon-
orable profession, whether
elected or appointed or vol-
unteer. Young people need to
realize how important it is.
LEGACY from page 12