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VAL DEMINGS -- we've seriously GOT to get behind her Senate run against corporate Rubio
From "Marco Rubio Wants to Be a Working Class Hero" In the Op-Ed New York Times -- which describes his bullshit campaign strategy in the making.
However much Republican politicians denounce “woke capital” or emphasize their growing number of working-class supporters, the fact remains that the Republican Party’s economic agenda — of tax cuts for the wealthy and impunity for employers — is organized for the benefit of capital, from wealthy shareholders and Wall Street asset managers to the billionaire owners of glorified family firms.
This is true even when Republicans try to turn their rhetorical concern for the interests of workers into something like public policy. Last week, for example, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Representative Jim Banks of Indiana introduced the Teamwork for Employees and Managers Act, which would permit the creation of voluntary organizations “comprised of an employer and a group of their employees for the purpose of discussing matters of mutual interest, such as quality of work, productivity, efficiency, compensation, benefits (including education and training), and accommodation of religious beliefs and practices.” ...
Crucially, these “employee involvement organizations” are not unions and “cannot enter into collective bargaining agreements.” They serve, instead, as an “alternative to employee unionization” and are “dissolvable by the employer.” Additionally, the Team Act would give employee organizations within large corporations the right to elect a single, nonvoting representative who could then observe corporate board meetings.
Conservative commentators have hailed this as a serious effort to make good on the populist conservatism of the Trump-era Republican Party. “The Republican Party was once the party of the worker and the boss,” Henry Olsen wrote in The Washington Post. “It can be again if it understands that the two prosper together. Rubio and Banks get that, and their Team Act is a good starting point on the G.O.P.’s road to a new majority.”
The big, glaring problem here is that there’s nothing particularly new, or pro-worker, about this sort of narrowly focused, nonconfrontational association with no ability to bargain or negotiate. If anything, these “employee involvement organizations” are a close cousin to “company unions,” which, well, already exist.
This is true even when Republicans try to turn their rhetorical concern for the interests of workers into something like public policy. Last week, for example, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Representative Jim Banks of Indiana introduced the Teamwork for Employees and Managers Act, which would permit the creation of voluntary organizations “comprised of an employer and a group of their employees for the purpose of discussing matters of mutual interest, such as quality of work, productivity, efficiency, compensation, benefits (including education and training), and accommodation of religious beliefs and practices.” ...
Crucially, these “employee involvement organizations” are not unions and “cannot enter into collective bargaining agreements.” They serve, instead, as an “alternative to employee unionization” and are “dissolvable by the employer.” Additionally, the Team Act would give employee organizations within large corporations the right to elect a single, nonvoting representative who could then observe corporate board meetings.
Conservative commentators have hailed this as a serious effort to make good on the populist conservatism of the Trump-era Republican Party. “The Republican Party was once the party of the worker and the boss,” Henry Olsen wrote in The Washington Post. “It can be again if it understands that the two prosper together. Rubio and Banks get that, and their Team Act is a good starting point on the G.O.P.’s road to a new majority.”
The big, glaring problem here is that there’s nothing particularly new, or pro-worker, about this sort of narrowly focused, nonconfrontational association with no ability to bargain or negotiate. If anything, these “employee involvement organizations” are a close cousin to “company unions,” which, well, already exist.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/opinion/marco-rubio-republicans-working-class.html
Two major truths about Rubio make his campaign a total lie to working class voters of Florida:
1.
He is from the capitalist Batista regime Cuba that lawyer Fidel Castro and doctor Che Guevara drove out; therefore, he's pro-corporate right winger, with all the racist, sexist and racketeering baggage that go with support for Trump. He's still an ass-kisser of Trump (81% voting with tfg), who still rightly bitched that Rubio has had the worst voting attendance record in the Senate.
2.
Rubio kowtows to his major donor, Ike Perlmutter, owner of Marvel, richest billionaire in Florida and a shadow ruler in Trump's VA for Vets gang, and could give a fuck about workers.
Okay, 3.
The fact that Rubio's chief of staff has been Cesar Conda, chief adviser to Dick Cheney, proves he's an enemy of workers.
He hasn't had a policy position since 2018, but I'll wager that he still tries to run again for president; I might be stretching it, but hell, he might even team up with Cheney, DeStefanik or even Sinema.
There is no slicker deceiver of the working class, or capitalist tool, than baby hands Rubio.
Rubio's continued existence in politics cries out for Bernie Sanders and Biden lovers and donors to get on board to donate and work for Val Demings.
We don't have to sell Val Demings to Democrats, one of our great impeachment managers.
But Democrats do still have to sell her to Florida workers -- Trump country -- by proving how little Rubio gives a fuck about them, or that Black lives matter.
We have to take 2022 to the battlegrounds, get ahead of incumbent messaging through pressing media to do their job, as the Miami Herald and Orland Sentinel show us.
Florida is a good place to hone our battleground GOTV. Val Demings is a force of nature, a badass, and Floridians should see how they'll win when she wins.
I'm not yet in Demings' campaign but intend to join by March. For most of us, this might be a good place to start. Any other sites and suggestions are welcome.
9 replies
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Especially since it's only Rubio's donors are not disappointed in him. Florida's not Alabama because 55+ people hail from the North and Midwest, too, along with sizable East Coast Jewish votes and growing Black votes. It's the poverty of information that confounds too many, and they know that's by design, and so they can feel beaten.
But Demings is here to give help to Floridians who need hope.
So don't FUD me, man.
I'm with her. 
But understanding is the booby prize, and we both know Democrats are better than that.
Like Obama says, better is good.
we'll see. I've backed winners like Barack Obama and Katie Porter against incumbents, and have donated to Beto O'Rourke, so I'll share my luck with you and together I think we've got a shot.