Labor Rights

The Sudden Rise of Senator Rick Santorum As Possible GOP Presidential Nominee!

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With the Iowa Caucuses 24 hours away, it is very clear that with all of the public opinion polls that have taken place in the past six months, that again, while they are interesting and good discussion pieces, it does not guarantee that what these polls claim are the views of the voters will actually work out in practice.

Who would have thought that former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, long regarded as insignificant and having no chance to win, is now in a position of possibly ending up winning the Iowa Caucuses? His surge the past week has come at precisely the right time with the actual vote about to occur!

But when one hears that possibly 41 percent of those who intend to vote are not settled on who to back, it proves once again the fickle and confused nature of many voters, possibly more so in a tough time economically as we are experiencing, due to the collapse of the economy in 2008 and since.

So a good looking, friendly, warm candidate who comes across as genuine and real, as Rick Santorum does, suddenly has a real shot at winning the GOP Presidential nomination.

This does not mean that progressives should be happy at Santorum being the possible winner in Iowa, and having a good chance to be the candidate of the Republican Party. He appeals to social conservatives, highly religious voters, due to his stand against gay rights in all forms and details; his total anti abortion stands from the beginning of his political career; and his decision to home school his seven children.

The point is that Santorum might come across on the surface as a “nice” guy who is accessible, does not dodge questions from voters, looks at people he is speaking to with a direct eye on them, and appears more sincere in his views than anyone, and far less of a “flip flopper” than possibly anyone in the race.

But not only Mitt Romney, the supposed GOP front runner, but also Barack Obama, needs to be aware that a Santorum candidacy is a threat to the mainstream of the nation and the Republican Party!

If he is nominated, he should, in theory, with his extreme right wing views, the most since Barry Goldwater in 1964, be easy for Barack Obama to defeat.

To believe, however, that Santorum would be easy to defeat, could be a fatal error on the part of the Democratic Party and President Obama!

Instead, a possible Rick Santorum Presidency MUST be seen as a “clear and present danger” to the achievements of the New Deal, the Great Society, and the reforms in the 20th century brought about by both Democratic and Republican Presidents!

Rick Santorum would be a danger to women, African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, immigrants of all backgrounds, gays and lesbians, the environment, government regulation of business, a fair tax system, labor rights, a fair balance in the federal courts including the Supreme Court, and American foreign policy with the threat of more foreign wars in the name of fighting what Santorum would call “Islamofascism”!

So no one should take the possible candidacy of Rick Santorum for President as something to dismiss or ignore. That would be at the threat and danger to too many groups and issues!

The Republican Motivation For Power: Take Away Human Rights Already Granted!

Ronald 1 Comment

America has developed over the past two centuries into a republic promoting democratic values and the advancement of human rights.

The Republican Party of 2011-2012, however, is making clear its desire to TAKE AWAY human rights already won over the past two centuries, with blood, sweat and tears!

We have seen the acquisition of voting rights in the 15th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, and 26th Amendments, as well as with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and yet now, the Republican Party in many states is working very hard to LIMIT the right to vote by unreasonable limitations that particularly affect African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, college students, the elderly and the poor of all races!

Women have gained the right to control their own privacy, including control of their own bodies, through a Supreme Court decision in Roe V. Wade in 1973 and other Supreme Court decisions and legislative actions, and yet now in many of our states, the attempt to take away women’s rights, including the right of abortion, is being fiercely waged, including encouragement of violence against abortion providers and closing down of locations where a woman can pursue her reproductive rights.

Gay men and lesbians have gained the right to serve in the military openly, be married in several states, adopt children in most states, and have other basic human rights, but now the move is on to take away these rights so hard fought for!

Working people, both immigrants and those born in the US, have fought for labor protection and representation through formation of labor unions, which have now been undermined for decades, and the attempt to impoverish workers by corporations and their Republican allies is in full development!

This has been a land of immigrants, and yet the Republican Party of today believes in polarizing Americans against undocumented immigrants who they would support deporting in the millions, even with the fact that 98 percent of them have committed no crime beyond entering the nation in an illegal manner, and just want the opportunity to work toward eventual citizenship through learning English, paying fees, and waiting patiently in line for the “American Dream”, and yet now work at low wage jobs that no Americans wish to fill, particularly in agriculture, retail, and home and hotel services.

Americans in general have been able to see improved educational opportunities, better health care, and opportunities for better housing and safer environment and consumer protection due to past Democrats and moderate Republicans working to better conditions for the middle class and the poor, but now the goal of the GOP is to take away these advancements and simply promote the interests of the top one percent and the corporations that sit on money, refuse to hire, and instead use government money that saved them to give bonuses to overpaid, under worked executives, and to lobby corrupt politicians who do their bidding!

Will the nation at large continue to accept an opposition party that works to DENY all of the progress on voting rights, women’s rights, gay rights, labor rights, immigrant rights, and the advancements for the middle class and poor gained over two centuries?

Only if the people are appealed to based upon ignorance, emotion, prejudice, and manipulation! For the future of America, this cannot be allowed to happen, as it will undermine the social fabric of America for the long haul!

Barack Obama Invokes Teddy Roosevelt And The “New Nationalism” Of The Progressive Party Of 1912

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President Obama invoked Teddy Roosevelt and the “New Nationalism” program of the Progressive Party of 1912 in a speech today at Osawatomie, Kansas, the site of a speech by the former President in 1910, setting the standard for his later third party run for President in 1912.

Called a socialist, a radical, and even a Communist by many conservatives a century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt promoted a very advanced series of ideas out of office, more than when he was in, including the end of child labor, equal pay for women, a minimum wage, a social insurance program including social security and health care, a progressive federal income tax, and reforming the political system.

His program, known as the “New Nationalism” became the forerunner of much of the “New Freedom” of Woodrow Wilson, the “New Deal” of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the “Fair Deal” of Harry Truman, the “New Frontier” of John F. Kennedy, and the “Great Society” of Lyndon B. Johnson.

Obama talked of the need for a strong middle class and a raised standard of living, and the need to regulate corporations and to raise taxes as other Presidents have done, in order to promote a “fair shake” for everyone, giving everyone “equal opportunity” to succeed.

Obama emphasized that major tax cuts for the rich had led to greater inequality, lower creation of jobs, growing deficits, and the collapse of the American economy in the past ten years. He declared that “trickle down economics” had never worked in the past successfully, and that assertive actions by government were necessary to promote a bright future for all Americans.

He called for more investment in education, research, technology, infrastructure, and manufacturing, rather than in banking and finance which leads to phony manipulation of financial figures and causes financial “bubbles”!

His speech, as usual, was well delivered, and was designed to inspire the American people to take on the struggle that was fought during the Progressive Era by Theodore Roosevelt to promote a bright future for America!

And remember that Theodore Roosevelt was a Republican who believed in the role of government to make a better society, something regrettably not the viewpoint of the transformed Republican Party of today, which speaks only for the wealthy and the corporations, and spends time dividing people and gaining support based on social conservatism issues, including gay rights, abortion rights, gun rights, illegal immigration and affirmative action. Meanwhile, the lives of the masses of Americans who vote on their emotions, rather than their reason, for the GOP, does not lead to better lives for those people!

Nostalgia For The 19th Century: The “Good Old Days” Of The Gilded Age?

Ronald 2 Comments

Here we are in the second decade of the 21st century, and yet the Tea Party Movement and the Republican Party contains within itself a great nostalgia for the past–the 19th century Gilded Age!

Why is the Gilded Age seen in such a positive light by the Right Wing of the Republican Party? Let us count the ways in no special order!

1. Labor unions were struggling to survive, and workers were working long hours under horrible work conditions with no protection and no basic rights for the working men, women and children. Yes, children as young as 6 were working for menial pay, as well as women being paid less than men.

2. Immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe and Asia were being discriminated against, and paid less than “native born” workers, and living in slums in the big cities.

3. Women had no rights legally and were not allowed to vote or control their work conditions.

4. No one had any health care, pension, minimum wage protection or sick leave or vacation leave, and could be fired on a whim of the employer.

5. African Americans mostly lived in the South and faced segregation, lynchings, and sharecropper poverty, and civil rights of any kind did not exist.

6. Corporations ruled in America, major monopolies which corrupted the political system on all levels–national, state and local.

7. State and local governments controlled just about every aspect of their population’s lives in a very inadequate manner, and the federal government was extremely minimal in its impact upon the people.

8. There was no social safety net of any kind, other than churches and other organizations which were unable to do much for those less fortunate, in poverty, or having serious medical ills.

9. Racial supremacy was a widely held belief, along with Laissez Faire Economics and Social Darwinism.

10. Education was minimal for the vast majority of the population, and therefore allowed little social mobility for the average American.

11. If natural disasters occurred, little assistance or aid was available, except to pray to God for divine guidance.

This nostalgia today is VERY SIMILAR to the above reality of the Gilded Age, but we have had a century of reform, including the Progressive Era, the New Deal, the Great Society and other reforms on specific issues at other times!

We have had reform oriented Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon and Barack Obama promote major changes that have made America a better nation!

Now the proposal of the Right Wing in the GOP is to reverse the reforms and changes that have made America an improved nation over the past century. The desire is to negate, to veto, to wipe out the social safety net, labor reforms, and so many other hard earned reforms. This is being offered as the GOP answer to the economic crisis we are in, as if making things worse and protecting the corporations and the extremely wealthy is the answer to our difficulties!

Returning to the Gilded Age is precisely the wrong thing to do! We cannot allow such a disaster to occur in 2011, or EVER!

President Obama: Why Are You MIA, When We Need You To Demonstrate Courage And Conviction For The Middle Class And The Poor?

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As anyone who reads this blog knows, the author is a great fan and supporter of President Barack Obama.

The author is very pleased with a lot of the reforms that President Obama has helped to bring about in his two and a half years as President, but it is disturbing that he seems to be MIA (Missing In Action) at a crucial time like now, when the stock market is going awry after the Debt Ceiling Controversy, and the decision of Standard and Poor’s to lower the credit rating of the US government from Triple A to Double A Plus.

President Obama, you are rapidly losing the faith and support of many labor union members; blacks; Hispanics and Latinos; the young; the progressive base in the media, the universities, and Hollywood; Independents; suburban voters; the unemployed; those losing their homes; and all others who were inspired and motivated to vote for this passionate, seemingly committed progressive, when he ran for President in 2008.

What has happened to this man? He is not out there fighting against the Republicans like Harry Truman would. He is not committing himself to help the Democrats in the recall elections going on this week and next in Wisconsin, where if he had intervened in the past week, we might have seen THREE Democrats or more win, instead of two, leaving the State Senate in the hands of the Republicans who are loyal to Governor Scott Walker. Obama always said he believed in labor rights, but has done nothing this whole year to step into the battles in Wisconsin or in other states, such as Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, and Maine. What is he afraid of? That he might be attacked for speaking his mind and showing his principles and beliefs regarding the middle class and the poor?

It would be far better for Barack Obama to fight tooth and nail than to seem ineffective, seem wimpy, seem scared of a challenge from the extreme Right, seem defeatist!

How can he expect us who want to support him to back him if he will not openly back us and give the opposition HELL as Truman did, or welcome the attack of his critics as Franklin D. Roosevelt did during the Great Depression!

Mr. President, respectfully, it is time to get out of the White House and show the fighting spirit we expected from you, and have not seen occur!

It is time to fight for the American people, and even if you lose the Presidency in 2012 for some reason, you would go down as a statesman who did his best, rather than go down in history as a loser in every respect!

Mr. President, IMMEDIATE ACTION for a jobs program proposal and fighting openly for the people in Wisconsin and elsewhere is REQUIRED NOW!

CNN And CBS Polls Show Republican Party The Loser In Debt Ceiling Debacle!

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CNN and CBS polls demonstrate that the Republican Party is looked at unfavorably by nearly six out of ten of those polled; that only 3 out of 10 look at the Tea Party Movement favorably, and that Barack Obama continues to have a much higher favorable image than anyone in Congress.

There is a tremendous anger against Congress, making the institution lower ranked than ever in polls, as low as 14 percent, while Obama rates in the low to mid 40s on performance, but higher on personal likability.

While there is disillusionment about all politicians in Congress, it is very clear that the Republican Party is reaping the harvest of their destructive, suicidal behavior in the Debt Ceiling Crisis. They are being blamed for the downgrading of the Triple A credit rating of the US by Standard and Poor’s, and they are seen, more than ever, as taking unpopular stands on labor rights, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education, the environment, and taxation of the wealthy and powerful corporations, among other issues.

While the credit downgrading is a terrible development, it already seems as if the Democrats will come out stronger from the debacle, and that the Republican Party will pay the price electorally in the next round of voting!

The Walmart Supreme Court Case: A Blow Against Labor And Women’s Rights!

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The Supreme Court, becoming more right wing and reactionary by the year, has again struck at the heart of democracy, and promoted corporate rights and plutocracy at the expense of labor and women’s rights in its Walmart decision this week!

Walmart, the largest retail corporation in the world, has been discriminating in pay and benefits and promotions of women for many years, and everyone who pays attention knows that fact!

But the company claims there is no conscious effort to discriminate, and the Court ruled that the class action law suit was too large and complex, covering more than a million workers all over the nation.

So the Court gave this giant corporation, which has become a monster which eats up all small business everywhere it goes, a free ride, and shown once again that the “little people” do not matter, and that only wealth and the top few percent of the population have any real input to what the Court does!

The conflicts of interest of Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas are legion, and they have no shame! They have both proved to be corrupt in their dealings, but the only way to get them off the Court, impeachment, is not available with the House of Representatives Republican majority ready and willing to back these two conservative Justices if they were ever in danger!

The idea of “Equal Justice Under Law” has been damaged, and the concept of constitutional law ruling has become a mockery!

Two Judicial Decisions: Opposite Results On Gay Rights And Labor Rights!

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Just in the past few hours, two judicial decisions have been announced that transform America in major ways.

In California, a Federal District Judge upheld a decision of a gay state judge which threw out the ban on gay marriage in the Golden State. This is a major victory for gay rights and gay marriage returning to California, although it is being appealed to the Federal Circuit Courts, and eventually will end up, in all likelihood, in the Supreme Court.

At the same time, the state Supreme Court in Wisconsin has upheld the state law taking away the right of collective bargaining for public workers in that state, which had been the leader in labor rights a century ago. The long fought battle by progressive and labor forces against the abusive legislation promoted by the Republican Party and Governor Scott Walker has been lost, and there are moves in other states to strip public workers similarly of hard earned rights to bargain collectively, and protect their benefits.

Many observers see this development in Wisconsin as the beginning of the total demise of the labor movement, while the event in California is seen as the promotion of human rights, but in a tentative way, as the critics will fight tooth and nail to preserve traditional marriage.

Human rights is a constant battle with wins and losses, but no final victory, but that is the story of American history, so the struggle for gay Americans and American workers must continue without any letup!

America And Labor Rights To a DECENT AMOUNT of VACATION!

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Many Americans love to mouth the idea that we are a “special’ nation, which is involved in the promotion of human rights!

If that is so, isn’t a basic human right in the modern civilized world to be able to have a DECENT AMOUNT of VACATION time to spend with the family, to explore new horizons through travel, to get away from the stress and tension of corporate America and the capitalistic system which has little regard for labor rights?

It is well known that corporations love to work their staff hard, to the point that by the mid 40s, many have heart attacks, strokes, and cancer, caused by the stress and pressure of their jobs, and then many are summarily dismissed without any pension guarantees and told to clean out their workplaces while security is watching, so that they don’t overreact to their being mistreated and abused!

Why is it that in this nation that is so outstanding, according to political rhetoric, the average worker receives no more than two weeks vacation, and in many cases, is expected not to utilize it all, and certainly not two weeks in a row, while elsewhere, the norm is FIVE to SIX weeks, often altogether plus Holiday weeks, off rather than days off?

More than two dozen industrialized nations require workers to take four or more weeks of paid vacation, and three nations—Finland, Brazil and France—guarantee six weeks off!

The fact is that there is no federal law that mandates that employers offer ANY paid vacation, and one out of four people, therefore, have no ability to take vacation at all! This country is the ONLY advanced nation that does not guarantte annual leave for all citizens!

Many love to say we don’t want to be like France–as if it is terrible to emulate the French and other advanced nations in promoting the human right to a DECENT AMOUNT of VACATION in the 21st century!

Wisconsin And The Future Of American Politics: A Turning Point For 2012!

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Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the Republicans in the State Senate may have won the struggle with public workers over collective bargaining in the state of Robert LaFollette, Sr. for the moment, by their dastardly legislative “trick”, which allowed them to take away labor rights without a quorum in their legislative body!

But it has aroused liberals, labor, the young, moderates and independents who recognize what Wisconsin represents: an attack on the basic human rights of workers to be able to have a “fair shake” at the bargaining table with their employers, whether the government or private corporations!

A recall movement is beginning against Republican State Senators, and some will be coming up for such elections within a few months. Early next year, the recall campaign will begin against Governor Walker.

The Wisconsin battle will also reverberate in the national campaign of 2012, including the Presidency and Congress, as well as the state governments. Public opinion polls already indicate heavy opposition to what happened in Wisconsin, both inside the state and throughout the nation!

It will mobilize many citizens to get actively involved in the political campaign, and to contribute financially to the Democratic Party, because it is more clear than ever before that the Republican Party continues to work against the interests of the working man and woman, whether blue collar or highly educated white collar workers!

This is a battle for the future! Will America’s future be one of billionaires, such as the Koch Brothers, dictating and mandating working conditions and promoting what is good only for the top two percent and the corporations and banks?

Or will it be one of the promotion of the interests of the rapidly dwindling middle class, and compassion for those less fortunate, who are not born to wealth and privilege and just want a “fair shake” from their government?

This is not just a political battle; it is also a moral battle for decency and social justice, and if it is lost in 2012, the long range implications are horrendous for the future of American democracy!