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Price of victory? It’s listen up, Obama! By Dominique Paul Noth, Editor, Milwaukee Labor Press here were contrary feelings but determined action -- dominated by organized labor and progressive coalitions -- immediately in the wake of November 6. They were spurred by a clear recognition that the election had validated Tmuch of their agenda, if not all their methods, in the re-election of Barack Obama as president, the surprising majority gains of Democratic allies in the Senate and even the improvements in the House where the GOP retain a weakened control. "Though the election confetti is still on the street, working families are already mobilizing to hold their elected leaders accountable," noted AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka November 7. "With working families across the country still struggling, we can't afford to pay for any more tax breaks for those who need them the least." That was the most prominent prong of the immediate reaction - a cry from thou- sands of activists to tax the top 2%, which means simply to revert to their Clinton era rates and return billions in revenue to the federal coffers. Among those mobilizations -- more than 100 around the country and in D.C. - was a big one covered by TV media crowded into the hallway outside newly re-elected US Rep. Gwen Moore's office the morning of November 9, organized by the machinists and Newly elected Sen. Tammy Baldwin was virtually mobbed with congratulations Nov. 9 by steelworkers, attended by Citizen Action and other groups and featuring state AFL-CIO Washington Park Senior Center supporters who were simultaneously demanding that President Phil Neuenfeldt and one of the national AFL-CIO's three top leaders, President Obama protect Social Security and Medicare while taxing the top 2%. Executive Vice-President Arlene Holt Baker, who had been in Wisconsin all week and Showdown continued Page 8 Vol. 72, No. 11 Friday, November 23, 2012 White guys can’t jump voting lines again By Dominique Paul Noth have gone back in time - but to Editor, Labor Press Comment that forgotten time when princi- omparisons to the raw dying down. Older whites are pled compromise and pragmatic emotion Barack Obama now another minority - the one belief in small government and Cdrew in 2008 are some- that inherited a lot of advantages staying out of the bedroom dom- what misleading because even a and social freedom, to be sure, inated the party, rather than those married couple renewing vows the one reflecting a lot of anger extreme eras of exaggerated prej- after four years doesn't flash the about affirmative action and udice falsely associated with true same passion as the first time immigrants, both situations they conservatism. around but ideally maintain a once benefited from. They still or the left there is also a deeper, mature, quieter commit- have the advantages in acquiring new reality about moving ment. Time changes things. money and position but are in Fwith the times. Organized So let me point out that, in their death throes in terms of labor in its street smarts and gen- the 2012 election, after 30 years having the numbers to control eral principles clearly still has - finally! -- the march of inevita- the electorate - and they sure the public's ear and will for quite ble demographics and society's can't control their wives -- a while, but it also has to reach own dynamic reconstructions though certainly can be counted out with new techniques and atti- sounded the death knell for the on for a few more decades of tudes to a non-union world full of citizens that actually honor its Reagan myth, the fantasy of a dominating the economic wealth ket statements that you are "pro- power and the money to try to core beliefs and want to work "Reagan Democrat" that the and responding to fund-raising life" spares you from providing impose things. The new public alongside in political terms. Republicans still imagine over pitches. details that expose your own majority doesn't like this "behave Of the nine battleground and over as racing to their rescue omney and the GOP mis- medical ignorance. like whites" tactic and the new states that early on were deter- and especially the embrace of judged on many fronts. Never again will older media is eager to expose it, even mined to decide the election - a white Southern roots as a path to Their disdain of clear whites have the numbers to even when the establishment media R mere 21% of the nation's voters - electoral dominance. opportunities to speak to women think this way, or be thought of owned and controlled by conser- the Obama machine told the I speak about my own breed, or to immigrants cost them dear- as the GOP strategists did, vative whites resisted speaking truth from the start and carried older white males. Politically and ly. And they grasped for a fading though they will for several gen- out. realistically (realism never hav- group of older whites, ignoring erations have the positions of The GOP actually should Finale continued Page 4 ing dominated right-wing think how the true varied majority in tanks) that's a rather mixed bag America now speaks up for and Unions exemplary in Sandy response of guys rightly tired of being ste- welcomes diverse opportunity, nderstandably, a publication called Labor Perhaps Hurricane Sandy will help adjust reotyped by these politicians. cannot be stampeded or buffa- Press is outraged at all the demeaning of things. As horrible as its destructive path was in the But stereotyping has been the loed by appeals to an evangelical organized labor during the recent political lives of East Coast residents, indiscriminate of GOP strategy, a blunt appeal to minority's view of family and U gridlock. But whatever your name or ideological whether they were rich or poor, knocking out power white America's worst and most values. Such constant appeals beliefs, you, too, should be horrified at intellectual in lavish condos and suburban communities as well jaded side. have become the simple-minded dishonesty becoming the calling card of the right as working class neighborhoods, the enormous storm Most of us seem to have feeble-minded approach to vot- wing. may provide a necessary social corrective. grown up and accepted we are ers, as suspect as thinking blan- Our pages would be the first to welcome an Its major effect on the November 6 election was honest discussion of the dangers of bigness and con- the cold slap of reality. The first two years of centration of power. But to blame as all those right- Obama's administration is actually a litany of wing ads do the least powerful next to the poor -- accomplishments not just because of a Democratic the working class - and not discuss the biggest and majority in the House but because of citizens in both least scrutinized centers of bigness -- the lobbyists, parties who wanted to get things done - until the corporate leaders and cabals of concentrated money- election of 2010 froze all cooperation. Will Sandy - as the most corrupt abusers of power is truly ridic- ulous. Sandy continued Page 12 Page 2 — AFL-CIO MILWAUKEE LABOR PRESS, Friday, November 23, 2012 www.milwaukeelabor.org Ballot referendum gains passed Wisconsin by By Dominique Paul Noth to have learned its lesson. maintained more narrowly in law, which used minor drug con- Editor, Labor Press It was the Republicans who 2012 via redistricting and contin- victions for lifetime incarcera- isconsin was not a tried this referendum road back ued lack of attention down the tion. It imposed rules that the part of the $1 billion in 2004 and won the battle but ballot. new third felony conviction must Win ad spending for lost the war. Does anyone In fact, there is little ques- be for a "serious or violent" nearly 150 ballot initiatives remember? They spent large tion among political analysts that offense. Yet the state voters also around the nation. Our local bal- money to reverse Wisconsin's without redistricting the rejected ending the death penalty lots were pretty free of advisory progressive image and pass what Democrats would have kept the and defeated another measure or mandatory questions while a mere eight years ago was wide- state senate in 2012 and may that sounded so California fruity elsewhere the results supporting spread distaste for gay marriages even have taken the Assembly. on paper. marriage equality, marijuana and and unions outside marriage, Many political observers in The state's health food restraints on right-wing power which now seems the road for both parties now believe that the movement succumbed to the big made big news -- largely pro- most young people in America. changing electorate could make money grocery and food industry gressive news even in states not The right tirelessly promoted that GOP control short-lived when voters turned down requir- considered unrepentantly left- and passed an amendment to the John Kerry in 2004 may explain unless the party also changes its ing most genetically engineered wing. state constitution that still stands why our state avoids referen- policies and image. food and produce sold in super- There are diverse ways of and reads: dums. The GOP tried to defeat Another curious sign came in markets and other outlets to be looking at that. One is that "Only a marriage between him with one to see it backfire. the states that legalized marijuana labeled. Wisconsin in local terms, except one man and one woman shall be marry, bringing to one-fifth the - mainly small amounts for per- In Maryland, voters for electing Tammy Baldwin, valid or recognized as a marriage states in line with the issue sonal use.

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