When owning one politician isn't enough, buy an entire party

LIBERALISM HAS EVOLVED from a popular philosophy in the middle decades of the century into a "vanguard" movement today with great support among experts, academics, journalists, and government workers but with far less support among voters whom these elites purport to serve and who increasingly must pay for the programs they propose. Liberalism has always relied upon its "vanguard" classes to supply it with new problems to solve and new programs for doing so. The Progressives had their academic experts and muckraking journalists, the New Deal had its "brains trust," and the postwar liberals looked to the federal courts to engineer far-reaching reforms. What is different today is the extent to which the new aims of liberalism -- environmentalism, feminism, homosexual marriage, high taxes, and income redistribution -- are dissociated from the practical aspirations of the middle classes. The liberal vanguard once claimed to speak for the middle classes but most of the time no longer even pretends to do so. James Piereson in Is Liberalism Dead?


Is Liberalism Dead is a good read, I found it it worth saving for reference. I'll disagree a little with Pierreson's contention that liberals no longer claim to speak for the middle class, they do it every election cycle. There's no way the 20% who strongly identify with various liberal priorities could get anyone elected outside of California and a couple other strange places. The other time Democrats claim to speak for the middle class is when they see a major source of their funding threatened. Liberal Democrats have two primary sources of funding Unions and Big Business. Yeah I know, Big Business is supposed to own the Republicans Party Lock, Stock and Key to the Elephant Feed.. That's a myth, the Democrats use to keep what's left of the Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy Democrats. If you look at the top ten all time list of political donors you'll find five unions and five huge businesses. You'll also find that they've been contributing more to the Democrats than to the Republicans.

While you can't say that big business owns the GOP, there's a lot of information out there to support Union Ownership of the Democrats. This afternoon a friend of mine Reality for Eve who posts with me on another forum sent me a link. The Wall Street Journal article  indicates the Democratic Party support of the Union Teachers might not be because they believe or even care bout the teachers, Seems as though the Democrats want to provide the Unions with the most Union Friendly Government, Union Money can buy. The article, titled Political Fight Over Unions Escalates talks about the amount of money the Unions have poured into the Democratic Party's Bank Accounts over the last few years



The 1.6 million-member AFSCME last year tapped emergency accounts and took out loans as it poured more than $90 million into Democratic campaign efforts in the mid-term elections. Yes, you read correctly, the AFSCME, the Union which represents the teachers, tapped emergency funds, and obligated their membership to repay loans in order to try and keep the democrats in power. 2010 was an off year election according to the WSJ Article. According to a CBS story AFSCME was the largest single political contributor in the 2010 elections

Overall, unions put around $400 million into the 2008 campaign to help elect   Obama and other Democrats.

Four Hundred Million dollars is a lot of money, it buys a bunch of favors from Democratic Politicians who would be hard pressed to replace that kind of money from other donors.. The old Mafia Dons used to brag about having a couple politicians in their pockets. Today's Labor unions can claim to have an entire political party in theirs. The Unions are so necessary for the financial survival of the Democratic Party in an openly Political move, the Administration dug up a almost forgotten Depression Era Law, and is threatening to withhold Highway Funding to Wisconsin unless the State caves to the Unions

What about the claim that either the Democrats and the Unions represent Middle Class Working America. That's another myth...

Only about 12% of the entire American work force is now unionized and the number is dropping. According to a number put out by Rasmussen, only 9% of Americans who aren't union, would like to be unionized. Incredibly, while the percentage of unionized private sector jobs is falling, union membership among government employees keeps rising and is now over 37%.. Does Rasmussen's 9 % number mean there are some Union Members who would like not to be. Very possibly. many states allow closed shops. if you want to work.. you must join the union. In some states, if you want that well paid, secure government job with all the benefits you're going to join the Union as soon as you're eligible or you get fired.

What about the rest of America's Hard Working Middle Class? Have you noticed that the Democrats are in no hurry to close the border? Illegals work under the table, they get paid in cash. Employers who know they're using illegals aren't going to bother with Social Security, Workman's Compensation or Obamacare for that matter.

 Don't they only do jobs Americans won't touch? Nope that's another myth the democrats want you to believe. They are taking jobs away from Americans in all the skilled trades, from masons to auto mechanics. Every time some new Social Fix law is passed, illegals become a cheaper source of labor for cash strapped small businesses

So much for 88% of America's Middle Class, as long as they can be kept to busy trying to earn a living to figure out what the democrats are up to... The Democrats can keep them believing they are still the party of JFK, Harry Truman and FDR