2016 Postmortem

It goes without saying that data shows that the decline in union membership has tracked the increase in income inequality.

Adopting a "Well who else are you going to vote for?" attitude towards unions has cost the Democratic party.

For decades strong union support could exist effectively and cooperatively with all the other groups that the Democratic party supports. My older family members were die-hard Union members and like much of their generation they were not exactly the most enlightened and tolerant folks when it came to people of color or gays or even women. But it was never a question for them whether they would support the party that also supported those other groups because that same party supported the working man and made unions stronger and supported them as well. I watched as starting with the Clinton years the party tried to please both camps and claim to be in favor of unions, while at the same time supporting policies and positions that ran counter to what was in the best interest of the unions or working people in general. It was at that point that I started to see my relatives fall victim to the rhetoric coming from the right about who was more concerned with their best interests. The right's overtures to their racial resentment had not previously worked, but once they weren't seeing the same support from the Democratic party as far as their economic interests they became more susceptible to it.

So now these same folks within our claiming it's one or the other (economics or identity) are driving me crazy. Support unions, make them stronger, find those "walking shoes" that President Obama seemed to have lost (although he was hardly the first or the only culprit here) and it won't matter what other issues we can and do and should support strongly because people will recognize that our policies help all people.