I tend to agree that the push by Republicans in Wisconsin to destroy unions have the potential to backfire. My fear however is that unlike the Republicans (Tea Party) we tend to not have staying power. After electing President Obama, instead of actively matching the false grass root movement against healthcare reform and other policies, we pouted because we did not get all we wanted. This gave the impression that only a minority wanted real healthcare reform.
If we are to win this battle we will have to get the real narrative out. The narrative is not only about the Republicans wanting to destroy unions. This is a short term story as only 12% of American workers are unionized and I can already see the Right Wing ads being made that will successfully pit the union workers with better benefits against the low end American worker both fighting for crumbs. Ironically the Right always tries to declare class envy when the middle class confronts the rich for their ill-gotten wealth.
The real story that has staying power is the condition affecting most Americans. The real story is Class Warfare. The real story is the Class War effected by the oligarchs against the middle class. While the war on the unions is a small but important part of the puzzle, the decline of the vast majority of middle class Americans’ wealth as the wealth of the top 2% grows is the story that must be articulated every hour of every day.
If FoxNews have taught us one thing, it is that Americans respond to repetition. In our case our repetition is the truth. Our repetition would be reality.
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My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
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War on labor will backfire
By Markos Moulitsas – 02/22/11 06:00 PM ET
It took fewer than 50 days for the rash of newly inaugurated Republican governors to turn their sights on their biggest boogeyman — labor unions. It’s certainly true that the Chamber of Commerce’s single-minded antipathy toward labor is a contributing factor to the attacks on unions. But there’s more than that — without labor’s financial help and boots on the ground, Democrats would have a far tougher time winning elections.
By targeting the unions, Republicans are doing the single most effective thing they can to ensure their reelection efforts and the future of their party — and they’re pleasing their corporate masters.
But as events in Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio are showing, these ham-fisted efforts to bust unions have awakened a sleeping giant. And as much as we talk about the long-term effects of the GOP’s alienation of the Latino vote, Latinos constituted just 9 percent of the electorate in 2008, compared to 21 percent from union households.
The union vote is undoubtedly Democratic, but not monolithically so. In 2008, union households voted for President Obama by a 59-39 margin. So while the unions themselves poured significant resources into supporting Democrats, their leadership has not yet convinced their membership to steer completely clear of the GOP.
And some unions have strayed from the Democrats. In 2010, several Wisconsin police and firefighter unions endorsed Republican Gov. Scott Walker. But Walker’s fierce effort to bust the unions has opened a lot of eyes, because while Walker claims this is about balancing his state’s budget, the reality is that the public unions have conceded to the governor’s wage demands. This is about trying to destroy the unions.
One Madison protester carried a sign reading, “Born-again, fundamental Baptist pro-lifer turned DEMOCRAT!!! Thanks Scott Walker!” There’s more where that came from. Like, for example, the leadership of the Wisconsin police and firefighters unions. “I specifically regret the endorsement of the Wisconsin Trooper’s Association for Governor Scott Walker,” wrote Tracey Fuller, president of the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Association. That endorsement paid dividends — the union was exempted from the anti-organizing provisions of the governor’s budget. Rather than celebrate that exemption, the blatant kickback only sickened them further: “I regret being the recipient of any of the perceived benefits provided by the governor’s anointing.”
War on labor will backfire – TheHill.com#comments#comments#comments