Wednesday, July 27, 2005
How the Labor Movement and the Downtrodden Party Became One, and Died at the Same Time
This would be a fantastic idea for a book, for someone ballsy enough to write it: how the labor movement, slowly dying since the 1960s, threw their lot in completely with the Downtrodden Party, used vital resources needed for workers, not party development, to help the Downies try to win elections, and how, in the end, both lost more ground than gained and left both tired, shopworn, and in full disintegration mode by the middle of 2005. The key villains of this story are John Sweeney, head of the AFL-CIO and a man wholly out of touch with any sense of reality, Downie leaders like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and Bill Clinton, and others in the liberal movement who spent millions of hard-earned dollars stolen from American workers by their unions to aid Downie candidates and in the end bought them nothing.
The Wall Street Journal touched on this story in Tuesday's opinion piece; check out the money quote highlighted below:
Very Old Labor
Imagine for a moment, if you will, that a major movement of workers had millions of dollars stolen from them to get Republicans elected, whether they liked it or not, at the same time that the corrupt leaders of this movement were doing nothing to save the movement they allegedly led. These millions helped no one, even as the workers they were stolen from lost their jobs because the movement did everything it could to make American industry so unprofitable in America that they took their factories and jobs to Mexico and China. And, in the end, after years of theft and do-nothing politics from the supporters of this movement, the movement was split into 2 camps, and the party they supported had been at its lowest in number of representatives in Washington than at any time in more than a century, with the other party in firm control of all three branches of government. What would the liberal media call this? We can see the headlines of rags such as The New York Times: "How Big Labor and the Republicans Destroyed Each Other." Or the WaPo: "Millions Siphoned from American Workers Fed the Republican Party But Led to Increased Losses." Or, perhaps, the LA Times: "How Sweeney's Stolen Millions Helped the GOP." We would see Downies rushing to microphones to call for an investigation how millions were stolen from American workers. The MSM would have repeated and in-depth stories on what happened, with tons of thick hilarity on the shape of Republican politics.
Now, in the real world the words "Republican" and "GOP" should be replaced by "Downtrodden Party" and "Downies." But there will be no stories - and no investigation by any court or investigator. And so much the shame.
This would be a fantastic idea for a book, for someone ballsy enough to write it: how the labor movement, slowly dying since the 1960s, threw their lot in completely with the Downtrodden Party, used vital resources needed for workers, not party development, to help the Downies try to win elections, and how, in the end, both lost more ground than gained and left both tired, shopworn, and in full disintegration mode by the middle of 2005. The key villains of this story are John Sweeney, head of the AFL-CIO and a man wholly out of touch with any sense of reality, Downie leaders like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and Bill Clinton, and others in the liberal movement who spent millions of hard-earned dollars stolen from American workers by their unions to aid Downie candidates and in the end bought them nothing.
The Wall Street Journal touched on this story in Tuesday's opinion piece; check out the money quote highlighted below:
Very Old Labor
In the wake of the GOP takeover of Congress the year before, Mr. Sweeney promised to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into electoral politics to stop the Gingrich revolution. He staffed AFL-CIO headquarters with activists from the political left - environmental groups, culturally liberal outfits - and made the union consortium a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party.
A decade later we can see how that turned out. Democrats remain in the House and Senate minority, and union membership continues to decline across the American economy. The unionized share of the total U.S. work force has been sliding steadily for years, and was down again last year to 12.5% from 12.9% in 2003. In the more dynamic private sector, only 7.9% of employees now carry the union label.
Imagine for a moment, if you will, that a major movement of workers had millions of dollars stolen from them to get Republicans elected, whether they liked it or not, at the same time that the corrupt leaders of this movement were doing nothing to save the movement they allegedly led. These millions helped no one, even as the workers they were stolen from lost their jobs because the movement did everything it could to make American industry so unprofitable in America that they took their factories and jobs to Mexico and China. And, in the end, after years of theft and do-nothing politics from the supporters of this movement, the movement was split into 2 camps, and the party they supported had been at its lowest in number of representatives in Washington than at any time in more than a century, with the other party in firm control of all three branches of government. What would the liberal media call this? We can see the headlines of rags such as The New York Times: "How Big Labor and the Republicans Destroyed Each Other." Or the WaPo: "Millions Siphoned from American Workers Fed the Republican Party But Led to Increased Losses." Or, perhaps, the LA Times: "How Sweeney's Stolen Millions Helped the GOP." We would see Downies rushing to microphones to call for an investigation how millions were stolen from American workers. The MSM would have repeated and in-depth stories on what happened, with tons of thick hilarity on the shape of Republican politics.
Now, in the real world the words "Republican" and "GOP" should be replaced by "Downtrodden Party" and "Downies." But there will be no stories - and no investigation by any court or investigator. And so much the shame.
