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impottance of labor unions
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President Obama’s approval ratings continue to tank and the black clouds of recession remains over the economy. Curiously, however, he spends much of his time trolling for bottom feeders by dropping his progressive net into the murky, stagnate, backwaters of network television in an effort to shore up his base. He is in his element schmoozing with daytime and late-night talk shows laughing it up with lightweight liberals. Running the Ship of State aground or demeaning the Office of the Presidency does not appear to be a big deal to the community organizer from the left-side of Chicago. Additionally, he continues the union circuit, ingratiating himself with the hard-core Marxist unions of the country that are responsible for much of the financial woes from which our country suffers. His pandering and bailouts of big Labor at the expense of job creating business is nothing more than an endowment to his base using taxpayer’s money. The only overtures to business are to the ones he can control or nationalize. The last couple of decades have brought to the states another scourge; public service employee unions which are welfare programs on steroids. States found themselves in the same position as business; if they didn’t capitulate to unions, they could not produce a product or provide a service, if they did capitulate, they were driven into bankruptcy. No politician since Ronald Reagan has had the guts to stand against them. Obama owes his presidency to the unions; therefore, everything he does is payback for that support. Every piece of legislation passed during Obama’s presidency has been a socialistic, redistribution of income to please the unions. He has a complicit Congress in complete agreement with his agenda of totally t... ... middle of paper ... ...t is for politicians to remain in power. American taxpayers are now called on to bail out these states that have been reckless in their spending, careless with their promises, and lacking in judgment and common sense. Fewer taxpayers are being asked to support more people. Obama knows his economic plan will not produce jobs in the private sector. Blaming Republicans and George Bush is his only defense of his policies. The only offense he has is creating more public sector jobs and bailing out states to protect the jobs of his base; the unions. Every public policy and legislation enacted by this administration and Congress goes contrary to the opinions of Americans. Obama’s Marxist agenda is paramount to his presidency and he is convinced he can reverse public opinion by lying, blaming others, and bringing more Democrats into the voting rolls using our money.
Talbott, John R. Obamanomics: How Bottom-up Economic Prosperity Will Replace Trickle-down Economics. New York: Seven Stories, 2008. Print.
Once more, President Obama presented the annual State of the Union Address to the American people. For the most part, Mr. Obama focused on the issues of immigration and health care reform, wages, energy, infrastructure and education; all the while particularly stressing the value of hard work. Like any other discourse, his speech employs various rhetorical devices as well as the elements of the “rhetorical triangle”: ethos, pathos and logos. Thus, in order to gauge the effectiveness of Mr. Obama’s address, one must examine the speech wholly on a rhetorical level, making sure to ignore any personal political views and notions of inaccuracy. Arguably, it also seems that of his various methods, the President’s most effective strategy was to mention personal anecdotes of people planted within his audience. Basically, it appears that the various rhetorical strategies utilized by President Obama in his address were mostly effective; while still, of course, holding some notable flaws.
In recent years, President Obama and the way he handles things has become a very controversial topic. In the article “Obama’s ‘Where’s Waldo?’ Presidency” Ruth Marcus describes that controversy, in which she gives her opinion of President Obama. Marcus begins by discussing how in Barack Obama’s campaign he talked about “change we can believe in”, but she later tells the reader that he has “been missing in action” (Marcus, Paragraph 1). Throughout the article, she tells of numerous issues that Obama seemed to be missing on, and presents the reader with the question, where is President Obama?
President Obama was no different. Five weeks after the election, President Obama met with his economic and political advisors that presented him with their reports of the rapidly deteriorating economic conditions and their plan to hinder the economy from collapsing. President Obama delegated the legislative work to party members and committees because, as a former legislator, he believed that giving Congress discretion in writing the bill would contribute to its enactment (Wayne, 2013). “In general, crises, when they first occur, enhance opportunities for presidential leadership” Stephen J. Wayne stated in Rivals of Power: Presidential-Congressional Relations. “Members of Congress, much like the general public, look to the president and rally behind him” (Wayne, 2013). At first, president Obama hit the ground running after he won the election, and immediately started to figure out with his advisors on how to get the United States back on its feet again. And Congress members look up to the president just as much as American citizens do when the United States faces a crisis. Which in turn can boost the president’s and Congress’ relationship to American citizens. However, Obama’s operating style spawned criticism from both the Democrats and Republicans. The Democrats companied that he did not give much support for their
President Roosevelt worked towards many different objectives throughout his 8 years of presidency. He believed in the social justice and economic opportunity of the people. For this reason, he committed himself and the government to trying to regulate big businesses and being in favor of the workers after being elected president (Doc A). One example of this taking place would be the Coal Strike of 1902. During this strike, workers demanded shorter work days, higher wages, and recognition of the union. When the coal company failed to meet the workers’ demands, the government was forced to intervene to avoid the risk of a coal shortage for the winter. The go...
New Nationalism focused on eradicating economic inequality. In 2007, the top 1 percent of Americans owned 23.5 percent of the nation’s wealth (Pear, 2011). This problem has increased, not gone away, since Roosevelt addressed it in 1910. Unfairness in the tax code has become a prominent topic of political discussion. President Obama called for alterations to the U.S. tax system, which allows millionaires to pay lower rates than middle-class workers like teachers and firefighters, in his 2012 State of the Union address (“Remarks of President Barack Obama – As prepared for delivery State of the Union Address,” 2012.). In December, the president traveled to Osawatomie to speak. He echoed Roosevelt’s New Nationalism, saying he believes “this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share” (Fox, 2011). Although he spoke in Os...
However, unions do take an active part in politics. Traditionally, unions have received more support from the NLRB during times during Democratic administrations. Fossum writes that Democrats in Congress are “more likely to promote legislation favored by labor unions and to appropriate funds for activities that unions support”. Union members, in general, tend to be more politically conservative than the union leaders, and between 20 to 40 percent of members believe that unions should not be overly involved in politics. However, there is evidence that the more political activity by unions in the public sector, the higher the salary levels and number of jobs available (Fossum,
During the Progressive Movement, government regulation of big business was a prominent theme. This theme was primarily shown in President Roosevelt’s idea of the ‘Square Deal.’ In 1904 he advocated this domestic reform program which called for government control of corporate abuses. The ‘Square Deal’ was his campaign slogan in the election of 1904. It basically meant that when big business abuses its power, the government will step in to make business equal on all sides, like a square. This ensured that business was fair for all. In 1902, Roosevelt put his idea into use during the United Mine Workers Strike when the workers wanted a raise, shorter hours and recognition of their union but their employers refused to give them what they wanted. Roosevelt called both sides to the White House and forced a compromise. The workers were given shorter hours and a raise but not recognition of their unions. In another instance, Roosevelt applied his plan when he passed the Elkins and Hepburn Acts in 1903 to give the Interstate Commerce Commission power to regulate railroads, prohibit better rates to ‘favorite’ customers, and allow the ICC to set ma...
...ancial Times stating, “The bottom line here is that Americans don't believe in President Obama's leadership. He has to find some way between now and November of demonstrating that he is a leader who can command confidence and, short of a 9/11 event or an Oklahoma City bombing, I can't think of how he could do that.” When the president is popular and integrity of the Executive branch is high, the President can lead public opinion on specific issues. When the factors are low, generating support can be a challenge to overcome and they may engage in strategies (major policy speeches, bold policy initiatives, raising public awareness on national security) to increase popularity, competence, and prestige. We see many of these strategies now as the President campaigns for a second term and also in his running mates as they try and sway public opinion during their bus tours.
To achieve these goals a good Marxist builds a totalitarian government using his strongest pillar, class warfare. Obama spends every waking moment in and out of the Oval Office injecting another dose of collectivism and government dependency. Not a day passes and not a speech airs that the President fails to spew his poisonous hatred toward the successful, financially secure members of American society. It is unimportant to Obama these people create the jobs that support the nation and the gove...
Hamermesh, Daniel S. “President Obama And The Minimum Wage—A Politico-Economic Bargain.” Intereconomics/Review Of European Economic Policy 48.2 (2013): 131-132. EconLit. Web. 24 Oct. 2013
Domhoff discusses the prevalence of labor unions in the New Deal era. In fact, by 1945, with the help of the liberal-labor alliances, union membership had increased five-fold to fifteen million in that past decade (pg. 172). However, after 1945, the liberal-labor alliances never saw a victory against corporate conservatives. Because of the corporate world’s domination of policy implementation, politicians rules time and again against labor unions because it works in corporate America’s favor. Labor unions serve as many working class Americans’ avenue into the political sphere; denying them a right to unionize is not only a fundamental violation of free speech but also morally and ethically wrong. Overall, Domhoff’s critique of wealthy politicians (primarily Republicans) is merited considering he argues empirically with statistics supporting extremely skewed voting trends against unions. Additionally, Domhoff’s argument exudes sympathy toward those less fortunate; I share Domhoff’s sentiment that is imperative we promote equality amongst classes, one way in which we should do so is through advocacy of labor
From the earliest days of the American colonies, when apprentice laborers in Charleston, S.C., went on strike for better pay in the 1700s to today’s world working people in America have come together to improve their lives on and off the job. Today, AFL-CIO represent 12.5 million working people including teachers, doctors, engineers, car-washers, nannies, plumbers, and many more. They brought workplace rights and protections like the eight-hour a day and laws protecting safety and health on the job. However, this can also results in deprived industrial development because of higher demands of AFL-CIO for labors, which can hurt the economy of the country. According to the Orlando Sentinel, the AFL-CIO group endorsed Barack Obama for president, uniting the nation's 15 million union workers behind the Illinois senator… its 56 unions can spend some of its $200 million war chest on his campaign (“AFL-CIO”). This represent that this type of groups can drifts members and public opinion towards presidential candidates, which can have a huge impact on
The efforts to undermine the collective bargaining rights of public sector workers in Wisconsin led by Republican Governor Scott Walker – and the widespread resistance of unions, workers, and supporters – represents, perhaps, the most important domestic issue in the United States at the moment. The Wisconsin protests have become the center of national media attention as tens of thousands of union workers and their employees crowd the State Capitol. The story certainly deserves the spotlight, as what happens in Wisconsin may very well spread too much of the rest of the nation. However, what is often lost in the storylines is what the protesters really are fighting for in their efforts. According to Governor Walker (R-WI) and many conservatives the protesters are simply trying to hold on to unsustainable wages and benefits that they have gained through collective bargaining negotiations in the past. The legislation Walker is attempting to push through would require public employees to contribute a much larger sum toward their pensions and health insurance plans, and therefore lessen the burden of the state. However, Walker's bill would also permanently strip the unions of their collective bargaining rights. It means that in the future public employee unions would not be able to negotiate benefits, and could only ask for pay raises at the rate of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Ten years from now if the economy is fully recovered and the state of Wisconsin is running a surplus the unions would still not be able to negotiate for better benefits or higher pay raises than the CPI because their rights to collectively bargain will be taken away. Then, maybe there is a different reason rather than economical hidden behind Walker’s ag...
It might be said to assume that a politician, lawyer or advocate for the people who has not studied economics and sociology is likely to become a public enemy. We elect our political officials because we are given the chance to have someone represent the area in which we live in, whether that be county, state or nationwide. It is up to our officials to represent our voices and demand the right to be heard, not ignored. Furthermore, the media has developed a ‘‘beat’’ to cover the president’s every word and action, and American citizens have become accustomed to looking to the president as the primary policy maker and representative of the