Unions.
What American politics needs are unions. The reasons are complex. Let me introduce you to the way I think about this. Basically America is geography and infrastructure. Most importantly America is the winner of WW2 and the Cold War. Finally, America is the country of not just many immigrants but hella smart immigrants. Put those things together and you have a country that survives through all kinds of weather.
On the other hand, Americans themselves, as citizens and voters, do not pay attention to the lessons of WW2, the Cold War, smart immigrants and masters of geography and infrastructure. We pay attention to media, families and our jobs. Often in that order. When it comes to elections and political propaganda we kind of assume that the Dow changes or a recession happens because of who is President. But not much else. Our ignorance and dismissal of politicians is baked into the American democratic process. How bad could it be? Reagan did a decent job. Even Arnold Schwartzeneggar led California. Obama was the second coming of JFK, and so we like these telegenic pols in suits. We are concerned with ‘the dignity of the office’. We want somebody who ‘looks presidential’. The parties consequently need somebody who ‘polls well’. The whole circus trundles along like a pikey parade of caravans with no deep roots in the fundamental bedrock of geography, infrastructure, geopolitical dominance and internationalism. Very postmodern.
When it comes to influence in Congress and in the statehouses, we understand with arms raised in hapless frustration that various lobbies are actually running the staffs that make laws and policy. That has gone on for so long that we have no idea what it is like to be otherwise. We also know that all of the e-commerce providers from Silicon Valley had a 10 year vacation from collecting sales tax. So yeah we rather concede the primacy of their billionaires. And of course we know that ‘learn to code’ is the code word for the postmodern sensibilities of the coastal bros and their trophy partners who eat enough farm-to-table to ignore whatever’s going on in flyover country. After all, my cousin Earl got the tax break in Jersey because he grows a few dirty beets on 5 acres. They go for 4 bucks a pound in the farmer’s market on the Upper West Side. The more dirt left on them, the more ‘organic’ they appear.
True American Homeboys
Obviously working class people are left high and dry with little to no serious consideration. They don’t code. They weld. They pour cement. They repair material things. They prepare meals. They dig in the dirt for ores and minerals and for growing plants. They tend animals. They have no such people like them in Congress. They are forgotten, belittled, besmirched. They depend on complete fool outsiders like Trump because they are desperate. The slightest amount of patriotic sentimentality gets them in their guts. Why? Because in their hearts they know that their grip on the wheels of commerce is what makes America function.
They know the geography. They know the infrastructure. They know the pipes and wires. They know the arteries and veins. They know the currents and tides. They know the woods and watersheds. They hump furniture up and down stairs. They peel potatoes by hand. They birth babies. They coach kids. They know that they are critical and they carry out their duties with all the care and dedication required. In silence. We pay them lip service as ‘the heart and soul of America’ and all the truck vendors and country singers give them a bit of glory. But they have all of the political influence of a homecoming queen.
The subtleties of the kind of respect I think these people are owed are not exactly paid in the kind of currency that flows through our capitols. That currency is the power of union bosses capable of killing legislative bills with a grunt. Those are the people who run public employee unions and teachers unions and police unions. I think every voter who cries out in frustration at the fine print of the commercial ads for the never ending parade of ballot initiatives knows what I mean. The season is upon us in California and this time it’s Indian Gaming. Again.
State Government Incompetence
Rumor has it that California is in possession of a $100 billion budget surplus. Yet my cellphone interrupts me:
CalEOS. Conserve energy now to protect public health and safety. Extreme heat is straining the state energy grid. Power interruptions may occur unless you take action. Turn off or reduce nonessential power if health allows, now until 9pm.
Bite me.
We’ve been through this before. It has been 100 degrees in Los Angeles before. The sophomore class of electrical engineering students at Cal Poly could come up with an energy budget for the state. It would be ignored of course because politics > infrastructure until the moment of catastrophe. We schlep from crisis to crisis because such engineering students don’t get to be union bosses, or in any position where their sound expertise is generative of sound political judgement and strategic planning. For electricity.
The Spousal Unit is currently in Detroit which just suffered a small but fierce windstorm that lasted a couple hours. My cousins there went without power for four days and internet for six. The power company did not have the legal right of way to cut down certain trees. The city was taken off the grid because trees fell over in a storm. Who could possibly predict such an occurrence? Cousin Max had to throw out a deep freezer and a refrigerator full of food. They were reimbursed by the city in the amount of $25.
It is not unreasonable for me to suggest that we elect some engineers and yet I consider myself. Would I, in my age and whatever wisdom I have elect to teach math and science in a public highschool? Probably not. I wonder if am alone in my skepticism that I could put up with the bureaucratic malarky I expect would frustrate me into quitting. After all, we know that public schools are failing to educate our kids. Honestly, I think church schools and homeschool networks would be necessary. I sent my kids to Kumon. Some of America’s infrastructure is crumbling and we haven’t found the power to do what ought to be done. I bet unions would have it. I wouldn’t be surprised if perhaps union work rules were part of the prohibition against cutting those trees.
Union power may be what’s necessary to bring political power back to working people. I think we’d be a better country if the current set of Rulers had to deal with the specific aggregated Peasant power of unions.
A Romantic View
I cannot remember the name of the movie that recounted the murder of RFK in Los Angeles on that fateful day. But I do remember how the black waitstaff at the Ambassador Hotel were portrayed as a strong coherent and competent team. It brings me to mind of the power and influence of A. Phillip Randolph.
One of my standard black power arguments that I used when people would complain about the lack of black economic clout has Randolph as a keystone. What if Negro America when Randolph as the man he was ‘cast down their buckets where they were’ and insured their absolute monopoly on all of the labor force they comprised? What if America, under black union bosses, would never see a non-black cook, bottle washer, babysitter, house cleaner, janitor, maid, gardener or waiter? How long would it have been before Hilton and Howard Johnsons had been overwhelmed by that power? It made sense to me, given the strident beliefs in black capitalism, that the American hospitality sector would have inevitably been black owned and operated with few exceptions. Of course black America’s ambitions went far beyond such dreams of what has eventually come to be called pink-collar labor. But when trains ruled American passenger transportation, African Americans were all of the Maitres D.
I find American economic discussions extraordinarily complex. After all this is the largest, most diversified economy in human history. I tend to believe its inefficiencies are useful given how much we are money-driven rather than culturally sophisticated. We’d burn through every social convention to get paid if regulation didn’t slow us down. Just like gangta rappers do. So there are probably a dozen ways in which the re-establishment of union power in America might be stifled such that the above talk could be rendered useless and even wishful. Still, it is the most legitimate kind of power I can think of that would be directly beneficial to the ordinary Joe. If you’re political, ask what the right unions might do for all of us.
What do you know? Why don’t we have good, powerful unions?