Union Busting Writ Large

As America enters what is feared to be a long and deep recession, one question is whether we save or let fade our auto industry.

The GOP has long been hostile to the auto industry's unions so any union-busting opportunity not used is a wasted opportunity, in their view: Let 'em crash, millions of jobs lost, so what?

House Republicans sitting in their fantasy world spouting free market bromides are capable of anything.

But does anyone believe that saving the millions of jobs that depend on the domestic auto industry is not in itself sufficient cause to act?

The new Congress and President will act, and Republicans as a Party opposing comprehensive measures will find themselves by the political wayside very quickly.

The economy will be geared toward establishing a middle class and raising families by this new administration.

Health care reform and the whole array of initiatives addressing the concerns of real people will become policy next year, and the Republicans will scream while they lose a generation or two of voters who will see the results.

The Wall Street crisis and recession of 2008 will become Barack Obama's 9/11, used to show Bush and the Republicans what the American people are capable of when challenged to act together for the common good and spoken with honestly as fellow citizens.

But unlike Bush, Obama will not lie to the American people and use crises to line the pockets of political allies in opposition to common efforts.

Now is not the time for orthodoxy and lies, and such a state of crisis that is now before us can open up and clarify much of the current social arrangements that is hidden or at least unacknowledged.

As a friend (an anti-bigotry type) puts it, "When the Republicans block saving jobs these 60 next days, this will show the blue collar workers who vote Republican what the Republicans really think of them."

So when Mitt Romney starts talking about excess labor costs and excess retiree costs, our rejoinder should be: Hey, fuck you Mitt, people died so working families can join the middle class, not that we think you're much on labor history.