Dems Lose Big

Was the Latest Election a Referendum on Unions?
By Jim Vail

The Lesser of Two Evils?

Will there even be a union in five years?

This was a question my colleague posed after last month's Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates meeting.

I scratched my head, and said, yeah, that is the question.

The latest election in which multimillionaire hedge fund vulture Bruce Rauner defeated democrat machine hack Pat Quinn raises this exact question.

Rauner ran on a very visible anti-union platform. He wants to go to war against "union bosses."

Even Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who stripped the unions of collective bargaining rights so everybody's salaries dropped, got re-elected. 

A lot of people earn very little and hear the corporate media rail on and on about overpaid public servants that our tax system can't afford.

Now the question would be, did the people vote for Rauner to whack the unions (and support millionaires who don't pay their fair share of taxes!) or did working class people, union or not, just stay home on election day.

I understand the numbers were down in terms of how many people voted in Chicago. That is not good for the democrats who depend on the unions to deliver the vote.

Certainly the unions, including the Chicago Teachers Union, worked hard to get people out to vote.

But to vote for whom?

Quinn was a terrible choice for the democrats and ran with a despised running mate in Paul Vallas. 

Quinn chose Vallas to appease the business leaders who fund elections. All the politicians are aligned to money interests who buy and pay for elections!

So what is the solution?

Some are calling for a third party - a labor party. But such a political party can be easily manipulated, as it has in the past. The unions today would not all be openly supportive of such a course of action. Several have donated money to anti-unionist Rahm Emanuel to be re-elected mayor of Chicago!

I personally feel we should follow the steps of those brave teachers who led the fight to opt out of senseless over-testing in the schools.

Let's opt out of their political system to show the ruling class we are totally against the direction this country is taking the people. 

We need the Occupy Movement back to say we don't want your stinkin politics! We want jobs, health care, environmental protections now!

If we, including myself, continue to live in fear and allow them to rule with impunity as they do now, it only continues to get worse.

Let's fight power with people power.

We have no other choice!