Despite what some polls are telling us the Democrats at the national level are rapidly losing the narrative thread on the issue of collective bargaining rights for public employees. The frame of the "debate" on public worker pensions, and the role of labor unions in American society generally, has already largely moved in the direction that Wall Street CEOs, hedge fund managers, and the Koch brothers want it to go. On MSNBC Ed Shultz of The Ed Show is trying his best to counter the dominant narrative but an hour of programming here and there against the Fox noise machine is like strumming a lute in the middle of a heavy metal concert.
The national press and cor-porate media news shows are now -- and for the foreseeable future will continue to be - obsessed with the pension plans, salaries, and bargaining rights of public employees. No amount of triumphalist commentary coming from MSNBC, especially now that Keith Olbermann is gone, can counter the dominant narrative of the Fox News/Talk Radio/Corporate Media propaganda system that pounds the line into our heads, day in and day out, that what's ailing America these days is not the biggest rip off ever by mortgage securities giants but the retirement plans for elementary school teachers, nurses, social workers, police officers, correctional officers, firefighters.
Just as President Obama and the Democrats lost the handle on the health care narrative in the summer of 2009 (when they allowed the Tea Party to hijack the debate at town halls while sitting by passively watching), they're doing it again by standing on the sidelines, watching, as the most aggressive assault on labor unions we've seen in a generation takes place.
The propaganda function of the corporate media is a modern marvel. Even after Wall Street pumped up a $8 trillion housing bubble and extorted from taxpayers trillions of dollars in bailouts and loan guarantees the dominant media frame has successfully pitted people who earn about $30,000 or $40,000 or $50,000 a year against other people who earn about $30,000 or $40,000 or $50,000 a year.
Millions of working Americans apparently do not understand that weakening labor unions -- yes, Michelle Rhee and Arne Duncan, even teachers' unions -- will only serve in the long run to lower their own living standards. And the reason they don't understand this simple fact is because they're constantly swimming in a polluted sea of propaganda. Pick up a newspaper or turn on the local news and in between the stories about layoffs of state, county, and municipal employees you'll find editorials and news "analyses" with the same simple message: "We" can no longer afford to pay public employees what they've been paid for the past half century.
The "Aggressive Right-wing Oligarchy" (ARO), in the post-Citizens United universe, appears to be winning. And the workers (and their nominal "representatives" in the Democratic Party) appear to be losing. No amount of cheerleading for Democrats on MSNBC from Rachel Maddow or anyone else can alter this course unless President Obama and other high-profile Democrats at the national level put aside their teacher bashing for a minute and understand that if labor unions go down the Democratic Party goes down with them.
This is the reason the ARO is telescoping its money into Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, New Jersey, and other states to bring down public employees. The ARO knows that by bringing down the public employee unions it brings down the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, what we know as the "Democratic Party" is only about one-half of a "labor party." The other half is subservient to the same Wall Street CEOs, hedge fund managers, and other elements of the ARO as the Republicans. And they have engineered the most effective and comprehensive "bait and switch" in the history of the world.
Thirty years ago President Reagan declared that "welfare queens" were not "the truly needy" but "the truly greedy." What we're seeing today is the logical extension of that argument, only now working people who receive paychecks from state, county, or municipal governments - teachers, police officers, fire fighters, etc. - are the "welfare queens."
Despite the courageous push back by workers in Wisconsin and other states, the dominant narrative largely views anyone who works for governmental institutions as somehow "freeloading"; and they're freeloading off the salt-of-the-earth private sector folks that happen to include Wall Street CEOs, hedge fund managers, the Kochs and their ilk. The fact that this sorry state of affairs is even possible is a testimony to the power of the propaganda system that came into being shortly after President Bill Clinton signed the "Telecommunications Act" of 1996.
The Democrats' strategy of kissing Wall Street's ass in the vain hope that the "good people" among the suits over there will invest in American workers again has failed. Worse still, this "strategy" has enabled the media frame to shift gears to attacking public employees, their bargaining rights, their pensions -- the base of the Democratic Party. A Faustian bargain if I've ever seen one.
In California, a right-wing group called the "Little Hoover Commission" has just produced a study that calls for stripping California's public employees RIGHT NOW of a big chunk of their retirement pensions even after years of paying into them and giving up concession after concession to maintain them. Worse, a "grassroots" group calling itself "California Pension Reform" plans to put on the ballot an initiative to impose the "Little Hoover Commission's" plan. And you know what? In the current media environment where public employee bashing rules the day, that proposition just might pass.
This attack on public employee unions has just begun and won't go away. And without a forceful, unapologetic, and painful counter punch to the nose against these elites from the Democratic Party (including the Obama Administration) the public employees are going to lose this war.
With the disempowerment of labor in our society, any sociologist will tell you, the living standards of all working people will be lowered. Yet the fear and anger of a society where 10 percent unemployment and downsizing public institutions is the norm is being channeled into public policy that serves the wealthiest interests. If the Democratic Party refuses to fight even for its own survival when workers across the country are fighting for their livelihoods, then the workers of America will have no choice but to form a third party, a labor party, to challenge the ARO.
Follow Joseph A. Palermo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JPalermo
Randi Weingarten: History and Voters Will Not Be Kind
People need to stop, read and then really think about that point for a moment. That alone, should cause people to start questioning the output of the right wing noise machines.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/05/20/68552/are-wall-street-speculators-driving.html
It's too bad Dems can't make the argument why private sector workers benefits and non union workers' benefits should not be brought UP to the level of the public unions.
The first thing the conservative svreams is WHO PAYS?
The answer is NO ONE, because:
private workers' pay and benefit costs are the product of their own labor through the profits that labor generates.
public workers pay taxes and that comes back to them as pay and benefits, almost as if they were self employed.
Why were the Dems wiped out electorally from "Scranton to Oshkosh"?
Because they have lost their ability to articulate what they stand for.
DEMOCRATIC PRIORITIES IN TAX RELIEF & UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE ACT,SMALL BUSINESS JOBS ACT,TEACHER JOBS/STATE AID/CLOSING TAX LOOPHOLES, STUDENT AID & FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT,HIRE ACT, CASH FOR CLUNKERS and on and on and on. If you don't know what Democrats stand for you're not paying attention.
Not that anyone is paying attention.
http://tinyurl.com/4w8p5ph
Beltway Wisdom, and we, out here in Bumfu#k, move on despite their attempts to define our lives and "drive" our stories? Stop the media blackout.
There are 5 workers in the private sector paying for every government worker. How about comparing government workers to regular people working in the free market instead?
Take Milwaukee, the average private sector worker makes $40,000 for a years work. Taking one government job, K-12 teachers, they get $100,000 of compensation for 9 months work. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703408604576164290717724956.html
Who knows how much other government employees make? We continue to find out about government jobs with compensation that is much larger than your average citizen's who is paying for it. That is if you can find out. One might ask how this happened for many years without the media reporting it?
They don't get $100,000. They get a salary and healthcare. About $5,000 a year less than an equivalent, EQUIVALENT counterpart in the private sector. They pay into a pension instead of Social Security. Because of this, they don't qualify for Social Security.
You cannot demand that the top math and science graduates go into teaching and at the same time demand they take less in salary, benefits and pensions. If you want the best, you'll have to pay a competitive rate. And you're not paying that now, which is why there is a shortage of qualified math and science teachers.
Consider the ongoing revelations of just how overpaid our civil servants are (see Bell CA, or Milwaukee government K-12 teachers who make over $100,000 in compensation for 9 months of work) they should be. Why haven't they done it before?
Palermo brings out the envy card against the rich, but it's really the vast majority of regular folk (the 5 of 6 who don't work for the government) who pay them. Our "civil servants" are no longer civil (see the WI statehouse) nor are they servants.
Until we did that it was "your lucky to have a job" and "just keep quiet". Then we realized the cancer rates,heart attacks etc. was beyond belief in our job. So we should return to those days??
At that time every crackpot who became a Selectman,Alderman,City Councillor or Mayor could rule with an iron fist no matter how outlandish their ideas were. I hope to God this Nation does not return to those twisted days.
We need an eye-opening, game changing, transparent discussion about slavery / slave labor. People would be shocked at the moral compass lacking in fellow Americans and elected officials.
Then you'd see.
Robert Heinlein said that the answer to the question "Why don't they ____?" is money. Republicans are out to destroy unions to make the country safe for their constituency, the rich and the corporations. And the Democrats are sitting on the sidelines because they also work for the corporations while preserving the illusion that they're actually working for the people.
At this point I'm almost glad the Republicans are winning their War on America. I learned long ago (as a union representative) that people need to be screwed badly before they'll get mad enough to protest. I just wish I didn't have to go through the coming screwing with them...