Conventional Wisdom Brewing: Screw the Janitors
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The unions turned out big for Obama precisely because he was the Senate sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act, and promised to sign it as President.
Union support was critical to Obama’s victory:
- Obama won among white men who are union members by 18 points while losing that group by 16 points in the general public.
- Obama won among union gun owners by a 12-point margin while losing that group in the general public by 25 points.
- Union veterans voted for Obama by a 25-point margin. He lost among that group in the general public by nine points.
- Union voters supported Obama 67 percent to 30 percent over Sen. John McCain. In the top-tier battleground states the difference was even more stark, with union members going for Obama 69 to 28—a 41-point margin.
- While McCain won among voters ages 65 and up, active and retired union members older than 65 went for Obama by a 46-point margin.
Unions spent more than $400 million for Obama, in addition to mounting massive voter registration and GOTV efforts.
Obama walked a day in the shoes of home healthcare worker Pauline Beck. Before conventional wisdom gets minted that passing EFCA is a bad idea, people ought to think about the workers who are struggling to earn a living for themselves in a country that has seen unprecedented amounts of wealth transferred to the top over the past 8 years.
Those people turned out for Obama. They were the people who could least afford it, and they are putting their hopes in him for a better future.
A bunch of Republicans on television who ought to be explaining why they got their asses whipped this week telling me that all these janitors need to pipe down and suck it up is not compelling.
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