It appears that the unemployed are getting organized according toThe Washington Independent.
And this spells bad news for republicans.
From the Washington Independent:
"Even Republicans say they aren’t voting Republican anymore," the soft-spoken former technical writer says. "You have millions of unemployed people out there. If even half of them voted, they could swing a nationwide election."
or
"They’re all concerned about their re-election," King says. "We’re making sure the Republicans get blasted for their obstructionist behavior. ... We have tons of people calling, faxing, emailing."
People are angry at repubs calling them lazy or deficient in work ethic or skills even as they promote policies that benefit wealth over labor or create the conditions for arbitrage of labor. And they appear to be organizing on the net.
To me this is great. An awakening to the realization that the past 30 years of reactionary policy has sold out the American public. I hope it destroys the urban myth that low taxes will make them rich or that free trade floats all boats. 30 million people have sunk below notice of our government and what remains of the middle class is barely afloat. Perhaps people, thinking about low taxes and free trade are asking, in the words of a TV personality; "How is that working for ya?"
As long as repubs are blind and deaf to the people of this nation they appear to be in electoral trouble. But we'll see. I would like to think that this will result in the election of better Democrats and that will need to be seen. My thought is that right now the two parties are the "incumbents" and "Working Americans". I'd settle for removing incumbent repubs and electing Democrats this time, but hope that we may remove every incumbent who has not delivered on:
- job creation
- continued assistance for the unemployed
- EFCA
- regulated trade
- an industrial policy that promotes productive use of wealth
- higher taxes for the wealthy and multinational corporations and on unearned income (capital gains, etc.)
Well, you get my drift. I'd especially like to see a policy that acts to create import replacement, generating a new and modern manufacturing economy for our Nation. An economy that works for everybody is paramount and we need accountability from a government when it does nothing to repudiate the policies and programs that have crippled people's ability to earn a living.
But at least we gotta be happy about the unemployed organizing and understanding that repubs do not support their lives.
Update -
Rec List! That is nice, but I'm more a commenter. There are some excellent people doing econ. diaries that I think are Titans. That said, we need to take this opportunity to bring voters to the message that we need a government that is responsible to the lives of American working families.
Update 2 -
I've been trying to answer/comment on many commenters but the PC is acting up, so am resorting to this. I will try later if the thread is still alive.