Democrats Must Remain True to their Mission of Fighting for the little guy [View All]

The lessons of this past presidential election have not been lost on some of us in Labor. There is no doubt in my mind that the re-election of George Bush is a stunning defeat for America's working families, both union and nonunion. Medicare will be scaled back, Social Security accounts sold off and a too costly war will continue.

Unfortunately, in response to November 2nd some of our Democratic Party leaders have been tripping over each other in a full panic run to "the middle". On Feb. 12 the members of the Democratic National Committee will vote for a new party chair. The new party chair should never even entertain the idea that Democrats only win when they espouse the mediocre center.

There is something inherently troubling with the theory that as Democrats we can only win by becoming more like Republicans. Frankly, I don't want to move towards more tax breaks for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans at the expense of health care for the majority. I don't want to find middle ground with a pharmaceutical industry that is grossly overcharging the American public. And, I won't budge an inch toward the center on the issue of encouraging American jobs to leave our country and be outsourced to the lowest bidding third world country.

In the past four years America has lost over 2.8 million manufacturing jobs. America's trade deficit has ballooned to $500.5 billion for the first 10 months of 2004. Over 45 million Americans lack even basic health care coverage. We are now amassing a record deficit that our children will be paying off for decades, at the expense of their own higher education. Middle income families are losing ground in real dollars. When we told union members these facts in the last election, they got it. Michigan union members voted over 70 percent for the Democratic candidate. By communicating a strong populist economic message to our members, early and consistently, they held with our candidate through the swift boat debacle, through the flip flop accusations and through the National Rifle Association mail and phone calls.

The problem with our current National Democratic party, and frankly, some of our candidates is that we do a great job debating complex issues and arriving at decidedly centrist conclusions. In the process, we fail to communicate to our base what those issues mean to them. Even the red state of Florida voted over 70 percent to raise their state's minimum wage. They clearly understood what the ballot proposal would mean for working families.

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http://www.detnews.com/2004/editorial/0412/29/A10-44367.htm