How the Republicans' Plan to Destroy the American Working-Class is Succeeding

[louis c]

For starters, let's admit that the Republicans and the corporations that fund them are brilliant strategists and patient men (and sometimes women). They are fueled by greed and they are long term thinkers. They don't want to destroy the middle class for fun.They do it for greed.

In order to succeed, they need to enlist the people they want to destroy as accomplices, and sometimes their allies, the Democrats.

Let's begin with a fact. The Middle Class of America has shrunk over the last 45 years at very nearly the same rate as labor unions have diminished http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/18/union-membership-middle-class-income_n_3948543.html

That's no coincidence. The middle class was built by organized labor and the middle class cannot be destroyed until organized labor is eliminated.

How did this happen? Let's look at what the numbers are. In the forties and fifties and sixties, union members voted their pocket books. Even when Eisenhower and Nixon were in office, unions thrived, because no politician wanted to screw with them. The rules, as set by legislation and adjudicated by the Labor Board and Supreme Court, protected workers in organizing into a union and in their employment.

A vast majority of the very wealthy and very greedy know how to vote in their own best interest. But they only make up, by my estimate, about 10% of the voters. Those groups and individuals then have to come up with a strategy on how to split the remainder of the voters (90%). That's when wedge issues began. Abortion, Guns, Flag Burning, Prayer in School, Civil Rights and Gay Rights were used to get working class voters to take their eye off of the ball and vote AGAINST their own economic interest.

The Right, especially under Reagan, started to turn the Supreme Court from a judicial body, to what it is today, a political body. It's not where anyone goes for justice, it's just the last political word in the country.

Then, with everything set and union workers voting at diminished and divided rates, putting anti-worker laws in place and having them upheld by pro-corporate, anti-worker labor boards and an increasingly worker-hostile Supreme Court was an easy step. Workers could be fired for what used to be protected activity, organizing into a union. Then, sinister "Right to Work" laws became law in every state that had a Republican majority in the State House and Senate and a Republican Governor. That meant that any union member could have all the benefits and protection of a union without paying a penny in dues. The only entity in America that was required to perform a service, by law, for free, or face the wrath of the federal government, are labor unions. How ingenious. Human nature, being what it is, allows a person to receive something for nothing. Even hospitals, that are required by law to service any injured or ill person in an emergency room, is reimbursed by a pool from insurance companies or the government. In right to work states, unions collapsed. In the South, some states have union density of less than 1% of their workers.

The Republican platform and speeches are replete with "get the government out of the way and every American can live up to his or her potential". "Be judged on your own merit and you don't need an advocate." Ya, sure. The only way for nearly every average worker, skilled or unskilled, to have any leverage with a business or corporation, is to collectively bargain.

Once again, we see this sinister plan play out. Only this time, we may be seeing the final act. What a nerve Republicans have to say that this recovery is not complete because wages are stagnate. No shitting. I represent 35 contracts, in both the public and private sector in the Greater Boston area, totaling about 850 union workers. I've been in this position for about three years, and we've negotiated about 25 of those contracts as they become due (most contracts are three years in duration). Every contract has had raises of between 2 and a half percent to 5 percent annually. Very few, if any, of those people would have received any raise without a union representing them. Most would not have even asked. The wage stagnation during this recovery is a direct result of weakening unions.

In January of this year, labor unions were on the verge of extinction, especially in the public sector. The Fredrick case, which would have allowed a California teacher to receive all of the benefits of the teachers' union accumulated over many years, without paying any dues, or even a fee, was before the 9 member Supreme Court. The arguments were heard in January, and we were sure to lose with the 5 Republican appointees voting against labor unions and the 4 Democratic appointed Justices voting to sustain the current law which requires payment for services. In February, Scalia died. in March the vote was 4 to 4, leaving the precedent in favor of the union to stand, for now.

Is it any wonder that the conservative, corporate Republicans are flocking to Donald Trump now that he has promised them a Supreme Court Justice of their choosing?

If we go from 26 right to work states to 50, due to this ruling, labor unions will not exist in ten years. With no union protection, America will resemble 1910, rather than our economic glory years of 50 years ago. We will be a Feudal America again, with the vast divide between the haves and the have not's. A whole century of the struggle to make the great American Middle Class will cease to exist in our life time and maybe never return.

So, in closing, that's what's at stake in this election. We need a Democratic President, not because Democrats have been our best friends, but because at least they will allow us to live to fight another day. As a union leader I like to explain my position to our members this way when I am confronted with how often Democratic politicians have let us down. This is what I say "The Democrats are destined to disappoint us, but the Republicans are dedicated to destroy us. All I want is a chance to live to fight another day."

[antigop]

1. oh, that's a real winning argument. We don't suck as much as the other guy.

You'll still get screwed if you're not a member of the 1%.

[teamster633]

2. Thanks for this.

Standing together is our only chance. Anyone who thinks their employer is going to treat them fairly out of the goodness of their heart is either extremely lucky or extremely gullible.

[pansypoo53219]

3. more divide & conquer. look below, not above you.

feed racism.

[appalachiablue]

4. K & R. Excellent article and comparison to the decline of unions.

[JDPriestly]

5. And do you think that Hillary cares about unions?

I don't.

I don't think that Obama really does either.

I did not see Obama or any other Democrats really, really fighting for the unions and union rights in Wisconsin, not even when the union members held vigil in the Wisconsin state house for weeks on end.

Maybe a speech or possibly a couple of speeches. That was all.

Neither Obama nor Hillary is serious about unions.

Now Bernie. That's another matter.

Bernie cares about working people.

If he had been president when the unions were in the state house in Wisconsin, we would have seen a different result.

Without unions, workers will have not rights in this country.

And as I see it, the only politician who is running for president this year who understands that fact is Bernie Sanders.

Those of you who did not vote for him, those of you who will not vote for him, you have no one to blame but yourselves when you have to work more hours per week for less pay in worsening conditions.

[louis c]

7. But we live to fight another day

If the Republicans get another vote on the Supreme Court, we will cease to exist.

I love Bernie, but I am also realistic.

It seems that Bernie Backers are great at Philosophy, but really bad at Math.

Politics is, in the end, always about Math. Addition brings victories, division brings defeats.

[JDPriestly]

8. I don't see much hope in a Hillary appointment to the Supreme Court.

She is more conservative than people realize.

With or without my vote, she will win against Trump in California in November. I'm not worried about whether the Democrat, and I hope it will be Bernie, will win in my state, California. Trump is a joke here. Very, very few people support him in California.

We are a state of many mmigrants.

[louis c]

14. Let's just look at the facts.....

.....the first union to back Hillary has been the Teachers' Union. The Fredrick case is directly against the California Teachers Association. Every Democratic Supreme court appointment has supported the unions in this all important case. Citizens United, the SCOTUS decision that put unlimited funds of corporations into politics was a case in which a PAC ran ads AGAINST Hillary.

Hillary has PACs now and those PACs haven't spent five cents against Bernie. They have only run ads against Trump.

The middle class will cease to exist if Trump wins (or any Republican) because unions are whittled down to the very end. We lose this case and we're cooked.

You have to get over your bias in this election.

We are all Democrats. Just remember Ralph Nader and the difference between a Bush presidency and a Gore one. I listened then to the same story you're selling now. "They're all the same". "Gore supported NAFTA". "Blah, blah, blah". In the end, we screwed ourselves. We're down to our last chance. I'm 63 years old. It doesn't make much difference to me, personally. But if that Supreme Court remains a Right Wing political body making the final decisions for this Country for the next 30 to 40 years, and you sit on the sidelines in the general, you have only yourself to blame.

[JPnoodleman]

6. After Hillary forces in TPP, then GOP will no longer need to. n/t

[sendero]

9. That ship has sailed..

... unions are gone and they are not coming back.

Find another horse to flog.

As for whether Dems are better than Reps, I'd say yes. But for the SCOTUS argument to hold any water the Dems would have to hold the presidency and both houses of congress.

Because the Reps fight like bulldogs and our team DOESN'T and hasn't for decades.

[pampango]

10. "unions are gone and they are not coming back." They were gone before FDR and came back.

They were gone in Germany and came back. "That ship has sailed" is only true if we, if we treat as a one-way trip - a "ship" that cannot return.

If unions aren't coming back, are progressive taxes coming back? Is the safety net coming back? Are effective business regulations coming back? If none of that is coming back, then we are genuinely screwed and can forget about Bernie or anyone else making any difference.

[sendero]

11. I believe that we have a problem...

... but I am not as sure as you that unions are the answer.

[pampango]

12. They are not the only answer but every country with an equitable distribution of income has strong

unions. They have other progressive policies (on taxes, safety net, regulation, etc.) as well, but strong unions are one of them.

[sendero]

13. Looking at the behavior of unions...

.. the last couple decades or so does not leave me wanting more of them.

A lot of the responsibility for their demise rests squarely on their shoulders.

[louis c]

15. Facts, Please

Remember, unions only represent their members. When members think like everyone else, they tend to vote like everyone else.

Unions are a Democratic institution where the workers choose their leaders. Unions are led by human beings and some human beings will have human failings.

The Right Wing will exploit the few and paint everyone with a broad brush. The same way they do with immigrants or any other group they want to demonize. Usually the ill informed can be convinced by this.

I would be disappointed, indeed, if a DUer with 28,000 posts could be fooled by the same trick.

[louis c]

16. They barley existed before FDR

People were murdered and unions were outlawed in many states. Are you kidding? go back and read your history.

We could never deal with those types of situations again.

[pampango]

17. You are, of course, right. I used 'gone' from the previous post. More accurate

would have been 'barely existed'. My point was that FDR inherited an anti-union crisis and turned it around.