Working In These Times
Labor Launches Massive Electoral Effort. Will Dems Return the Favor?
In Miami, local labor unions and Democratic politicians organized a get out the vote rally on the grounds of Jackson Memorial hospital on Oct. 18, the first day of early voting for Florida residents. (Photo by JOE RAEDLE/Getty Images)
Labor is waging an all-out battle to preserve Democratic majorities in Congress, an impressive effort outlined in a memo by AFL-CIO Political Director Karen Ackerman.
AFL-CIO members have already made 23.6 million phone calls, distributed 175 million leaflets, and held member-to-member conversations in 4,000 workplaces. Labor also has at least 40,000 members in 37 of the 75 most-hotly contested House districts. Particularly important is labor's ability to use direct member-to-member contacts, because such personal conversations convey information coming from a trusted source.
LABOR EFFORT MORE CRUCIAL THAN EVER TO DEMS
The exertions by the AFL-CIO are especially critical to the Democrats this year because of the vast, unrestrained and undisclosed corporate contributions that the Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove's American Crossroads are using for attack ads against Democrats. Labor's help is thus more important than ever, as the NY Times reports (although note the way it ridiculously equates as "outside forces" the unlimited corporate funding with the grassroots efforts of millions of unionists):
President Obama and the Democrats have spent much of the last several weeks complaining about outside groups — mostly financed by big business and wealthy donors — that they believe are interfering in campaigns across the country.
But by their own admission, the Democrats are relying more than ever this year on another outside force to help even the playing field: organized labor.
WITHOUT DEMS, NO CHANCE OF STIMULUS
Labor also realizes that if the Republicans capture the House, they will block every stimulus effort in the name of fighting the deficit.
Without a new stimulus from President Obama for the economy, we are virtually certain to see the excruciatingly long and destructive recession stretching up to the 2012 election. This will exact a horrendous human toll in lost dreams, lost lives—from heart disease, alcohol and drug abuse, suicide, and intensified violence in both the tension-wracked homes and the mean streets of desperate blue-collar and poor communities.
Further, President Obama's chances for re-election will be severely hurt, with the potential for the Republicans nominating their most extreme presidential candidate ever.
But with so much riding on the election, you almost have to hope that working people are too busy doing electoral work to read the newspapers. There have been some positive developments, such as roughly two dozen Democrats running ads to highlight Republican support for public tax deductions for the cost of moving jobs overseas. Had the Democrats waged a high-profile battle on this issue for the entire year, in my view, much more of the public would be blaming corporations for the persistence of the recession.
WILL DEMS PAY LABOR BACK?
The NY Times reported back on June 26 that the Obama administration will be seeking passage of a new "free trade" agreement with South Korea in the November lame-duck session. The White House had been planning this despite knowing that "it will risk angering labor unions" right after the crucial mid-term elections.
As tone-deaf as Obama's political advisors have proven so far, Obama's debt to labor for so much heavy lifting for November 2 would seem to rule out this capitulation to Corporate America. But will the Obama administration learn a broader lesson about how to sustain and activate its base?
The White House's increasing appreciation for labor will hopefully be coupled with an understanding that it must mend its ways; its supporters need real sustenance in the form of actually delivering to labor and other key constituencies.
Paul Waldman argues that Democratic activists share
a growing sense that the White House doesn't have much affection for the Democratic Party's base of liberal supporters. Republicans have always been better at the care and feeding of the base; when they are in charge, they work hard to convince the foot soldiers of the right that they're with them.
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Comments
As both a teacher and a member of the AFT, I wouldn’t lift a finger to save either Dems or this president.
From the anti-teacher, anti-union, pro-privatization education policies of the Obama administration to the demonization of teachers this administration and this president has engaged in, I CANNOT wait to see him sent back to Chicago in disgrace.
I know many of my colleagues at school feel the same way.
We are all lifelong Dems, have only voted for Dems, have donated time and money in the past for the Party.
But NOT any longer.
When ANY politician creates an anti-union and anti-teacher policy, we WILL work AGAINST him or her.
That goes for Obama and that goes for the anti-teacher, anti-union, in the pockets of the hedge funds Andrew Cuomo in NY.
And you would be smart to do the same.
This admin DESPISES the unions.
Rahm’s “F#$% the UAW!!” comment sums up how the entire administration has treated unions and union members.
And this president takes a special relish in sticking it to union members (and teachers!) even as he runs like a coward from conflict with right wingers like Andrew Breitbart or Karl Rove.
So stay home this November, send the Dems down to defeat, send the corporate whore Obama back to Chicago in 2012 and write letters to your papers and your politicians letting them know EXACTLY why you stayed home.
We need politicians who REALLY support union members and working class people, not politicians who pay lip service to us BEFORE the election and work AGAINST us AFTER it.
Yes, a Repub Congress and a President Palin will suck very much.
But given the anti-union, anti-teacher, pro-hedge fund, pro-spying, pro-war, pro-free trade policies of the current administration, what’s the difference in the end, really?
Frankly, after the Obama administration’s Race to the Top policies, I find myself almost nostalgic for the Bush administration’s education policies.
Dear Reality-based Teacher:
I totally respect and understand where you are coming from.
If you happened to have read my previous posts and articles—on corporate-dominated education reform, an auto-bailout that produces more offshoring of jobs, a Wall Street reform package that retains the “too big to fail” problem, insurer-centered healthcare reform, etc.—you will see that I share much of your critique of the Obama Administration.
In yesterday’s post, you may also have noted my point about the Obama team’s crucial political failure to sustain enthusiasm and momentum by neglecting the “care and feeding of the base”—people like you and I. Comments like Rahm Emanuel’s “F—- the UAW” and labeling progressive activists “f…ing retards” only deepened the sense of alienation.
BIGGER FACTORS INVOLVED IN ELECTIONS
Much as we have been infuriated, disappointed, or disillusioned by specific issue positions of the Obama Administration, there are larger questions involved in the 2010 mid-terms:
1) WILL NEW STIMULUS BE BLOCKED? If the Republicans gain a majority in either or both houses, they will certainly block any new stimulus program and start hacking away at safety net programs that mean survival for millions of low-paid or unemployed workers.
The Great Recession will roll on, taking a higher toll in wasted lives and prematurely-shortened lives. A servile corporate media will continue to blame “big government” for the economy’s continued failures and Corporate America will be shielded from public exposure of its strategy of creating as few US jobs as possible and offshoring as many as they can ( a topic I have frequently discussed), so that the Republican wrecking crew can keep whacking away at the pro-social functions of government.
We are likely also to see an intensification of right-wing extremism directed toward vulnerable scapegoats.
With Democratic majorities, on the other hand, there is at least the possibility of grass-roots militancy forcing them to adopt stimulus and public-employment programs.
WHERE WILL HOPE AND MOVEMENT COME FROM? A GOP triumph on Nov. 2 will further lower the expectations of working and poor people. Rising expectations and hope—not despair and utter fatalism—have always been crucial ingredients of any powerful progressive social movements.
My fear is that a Republican victory will further crush out hope among the constituencies of the Left—the people facing plant closings, foreclosures, and prolonged unemployment—while whipping up the frenzy of the extremist Right.
In short, I understand your impulse to abstain from voting, but believe that it will keep progressives even more on the defensive and rob us of the ability to effectively pressure Obama and the Dems in a progressive direction.
Thanks for your comments. All the best, Roger Bybee
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