Good Old Boy #45: The Story of Mr and Mrs Boggs

Thanks to Daily Kos for this heart-warming story. Twenty years ago, Senator Chris Dodd put forward a proposal to guarantee up to 18 weeks of job leave for parents who give birth or adopt or whose children are seriously ill. Right-wing critics suggested that this would only benefit yuppies, because it only guaranteed leave without pay. This is a frequently used right-wing argument on both sides of the Atlantic, that lefties are out of touch with real people, only interested in their liberal elitist chums and so on.

Sen. Dodd's response?

"He brought the Boggs family from rural Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to testify at a hearing on the bill. The mother testified about losing a job because of time spent waiting in hospitals with their baby boy, born with a defective windpipe. The father, a traveling salesman with a thick Carolina accent and a down-home manner, talked of a parent's constant worry.

"Mr. Boggs, are you a yuppie?" Dodd asked.

"No, sir," the man replied, leaving no one unconvinced."

This story is part of a wonderfully well-written endorsement of Dodd, an outsider for the Democratic Party nomination, which is well worth reading here.