[lbo-talk] WI recall FWIW

James Leveque jamespl79 at gmail.com
Wed Jun 6 06:41:19 PDT 2012


Listening to Doug's show this weekend, it really looks like the DNC was reluctant to fight this one. Obama never went out to Wisconsin, and even with the loss, the state looks like an uphill battle for Romney so President Kill-List isn't all that damaged by it. Looking at the recall, what also happened in San Diego and San Jose (under Democratic governership, no less), and the last couple of years of Obama's education reform, which in many ways works as a cover to destroy teacher's unions - I'm wondering if the Democrats are looking to a post-labor-union period. I ran across a chart on opensecrets.org that showed that unions' contributions to the Dems made up only about a third - which isn't nothing, but it has been getting smaller over the years relative to business/finance, and the DNC has done nothing to stop that trend. Given the importance of unions, at least as on-the-ground organisers for Dem elections, is it conceivable that the party can operate either materially (money and manpower) or ideologically ('Of course we're progressive! Look how the unions support us!') without any organized labor? Because it really looks like the Dems are starting to see themselves a post-union party.

James



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