I saw this diary by
Tula Connell on the role of union members in our successes on Tuesday. I noticed it when it first went up and also again in
SusanG's frontpage open thread and diary rescue last night. Of course, all of the performers in the big tent (clowns, trapeze artists, strong men, lion tamers, heck even the elephants!) helped with this win.
AND DON'T IT FEEL GOOD!!!!
Regardless of who played what specific part, it is certain that union members were an important component of both GOTV and vote counts. One of the commenters on
Tula's diary pointed that Rendell specifically acknowledged the role of union GOTV in PA.
And of course unions have long been a major component of the Democratic Party. Union membership in the US is at a long-time low, thanks in large part to the labor laws in this country that benefit corporations. If you know much about union organizing drives in the US, you know that the anti-union campaigns run by corporations look suspiciously like the voter supression tactics employed by various GOP candidates this week (Allen, Steele, others). But historically most working Americans were union members and the labor movement in the US has been a major factor in the maintenance of the middle class in our society.
So I am curious to know how many current or former union members do we have out there? How many of you are children of union members? How many of you want to be in unions but have been frustrated by your bosses?
Answer the poll and tell your story in the comments. This is not about who won the election but about who we are and how do we keep winning elections of all sorts!