The U.S. Needs A Labor Party

[Yavin4]

The U.S. needs a Labor party to represent the interests of the American workers. The party's primary purpose should be to fight for the rights of American workers and protect our interests.

Let's face the facts. The Democratic party, as constituted, simply won't fight for the rights of American laborers primarily because the Democrats just like the Republicans see politics and governing through a frame of campaign and party donations. Each party is held captive by political consultants, pollsters, and media advisors all of whom drive their parties' insatiable need for more and more campaign contributions.

Some here are mad and frustrated at Obama, but that anger is displaced. Any other Democrat would pretty much do the exact same things as Obama or risk being ostracized by the party itself. IOW, for Obama to be the progressive that we all want him to be would require him starting a civil war within the Democratic party. Again, those political consultants, pollsters, and media advisors depend on corporate cash for a living, and if that corporate cash moves away from the Dem party, they would lead a revolt.

A labor party whose sole focus should be on protecting the rights of workers is what is needed.

[Donnachaidh]

1. kick and Rec! n/t

[L. Coyote]

2. The USA needs a National Minimum Wage Union

There is no better economic stimulus than the bottom wrung of the ladder spending a few more dollars at 5:15 on Friday!

[Jim Lane]

3. Anyone advocating a third party should deal with one word: "primaries".

If you have enough votes to elect a Labor Party candidate in the general election, then you can use those votes to win the Democratic primary. You don't risk splitting the progressive vote and letting a Republican win with 40% of the vote. You also attract the votes of many nonideological people who identify with the Democratic Party. They'll vote Democratic in November unless they're strongly pulled in a different direction.

You refer to the Democratic Party "as constituted" but it doesn't have to stay that way.

[Yavin4]

4. A Labor Party Would Pull Equally from Republicans and Democrats

If the focus of the party were on jobs, wages, and working conditions, it would pull in working class Republicans. The challenge would be to maintain the focus of the party on labor issues and not get bogged down too much into the social issues.

[Jim Lane]

5. No way. The kind of party you decribe would draw predominantly from disaffected Democrats,

If you keep the focus on labor issues and downplay social issues, then the Religious Right component of the Republican Party will have no interest.

As for the rest of the Republican base, a progressive stance on labor issues will turn them off by the millions.

Here's what I would see as "labor issue":
* laws relating specifically to unionization, like card check;
* employment conditions more broadly, like ENDA;
* more broadly still, macroeconomic changes that benefit the working class, like progressive taxation, effective stimulus policy including increasing the short-term deficit, public option health insurance or even single-payer health care, etc.

All those things are now favored by many Democrats and opposed by almost all Republican electeds. On some of them there's probably a bit more support among Republican voters than among Republican electeds (or among the party's corporate paymasters), but there's still way more support among Democratic voters than among Republican voters.