President Barack Obama hugs Lilly Ledbetter after signing the ‘Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, January 29, 2025
So, Cenk Uygur (Young Turks), darling of the Professional Left, was, apparently, ranting again today about the President – I don’t know what he was hyperventilating about this time, I only watch him now when I’m in need of a cure for insomnia.
I used to like the guy, always watched his YouTube stuff, but I remembered today the point when we parted company:
This video (you can see it all here) was made just a year in to Barack Obama’s presidency – but by then Uygur had already concluded that the President had failed him and his fellow ‘progressives’.
Okay, that was all a bit predictable from a professional leftie, but what was most incredible about this video was this supposed progressive’s sneering comments about the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act:
“Eventually the Democrats had a 60 seat majority in the Senate, they were unstoppable. And what did we get? Lilly Ledbetter. If you don’t know, that’s a minor bill that passed in the beginning of the administration … it’s a good bill, that’s why I bring it up … about women being entitled to equal pay. God bless. Incredibly easy victory.”
A “minor” bill?
A 2009 bill that amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was an incredibly easy victory?
A 2009 bill that finally gave legal support to Lilly Ledbetter’s 1998 equal-pay lawsuit regarding pay discrimination was “minor”?
A lawsuit that the Supreme Court ruled against in 2007, by a 5-4 majority
“The case had never received much attention before going to the Supreme Court, but the Court’s ruling ignited legal groups on the left and Democrats that took action to transform the Ledbetter case into a rallying issue for the left, having activists seen in the figure of the complainant an ideal standard-bearer in their attempt to persuade the public that the Supreme Court was moving too far to the right.”
The Supreme Court’s ruling was applauded by the US Chamber of Commerce who called it a “fair decision” that “eliminates a potential wind-fall against employers by employees trying to dredge up stale pay claims.”
….The bill was re-introduced in the 111th Congress in January 2009. It passed in the House of Representatives with 247 votes in support and 171 against. The vote was nearly perfectly split along party lines…. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act passed the Senate, 61-36, on January 22, 2009.
As president, Obama actively supported the bill. The official White House blog said:
President Obama has long championed this bill and Lilly Ledbetter’s cause, and by signing it into law, he will ensure that women like Ms. Ledbetter and other victims of pay discrimination can effectively challenge unequal pay.
On January 29, Obama signed the bill into law. It was the first act he signed as president, and it fulfilled his campaign pledge to nullify Ledbetter v. Goodyear.
Here’s the video of the signing of the “minor” bill - see how little it meant to all those who attended:
So, did Cenk sneer at the successful conclusion to the long struggle for equal pay for women because he regards equal pay for women as “minor”, or because it was President Obama who signed the bill? Maybe both? Dunno.
I remember thinking, only a Republican could regard equal pay for women as a “minor” achievement. Oh, wait:
(See the full video here, from YearlyKos ‘o7, where he tries to convince progressives that not only he is no longer “so conservative judicially I went to Federalist Society meetings”, he is now a fully fledged progressive!)
So, from being a Ronald Reagan fan (which he was) and a Federalist Society supporter (wow!) and a critic of “excessive regulation” (good grief), to being a fully fledged Professional Left ‘progressive’ in no time at all …. that’s, um, change we can believe in!
Of course leopards can change their political spots, and it’s very lovely when they shift the spots from right to left, but is there not a touch of the Arianna Huffingtons about this guy? The political shift has paid off beautifully, he’s now a media star! (But still not big in to equal pay for women).
PS Isn’t it kind of curious that three of the highest profile media/internet ‘progressives’ are ex-Republicans, Arianna Huffington, Markos Zuniga (Daily Kos) and Cenk Uygur (Young Turks). And all three now host sites or personally express views that are ceaselessly anti-President Obama? Are their hearts truly in the Democrat/liberal cause? Just asking.
White House.gov
