A teeny crack in the wall

This morning Mr. Bookworm offered me something:  “Hey!  You want to blog about something Obama’s doing that I don’t like?”

I was curious.  “What?”

“This Employee Free Choice Act.  What’s up with that?”

“That’s been around for a while,” I said.  “It’s one of the platforms on which Obama ran.”

He asked, “What do you mean?  I’ve never heard of it.”  I forebore to point out that this might be an indictment about the NY Times, NPR and The New Yorker, which are Mr. Bookworm’s only news sources.

“Anyway,” I said, “it’s kind of old news.  Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Obama promised to enact it as one of their first pieces of legislation.”

Another why question:  “Why would they do that?  This is a piece of crap?”

“They’re doing it because it’s payback time to the union bosses.”

A blank look:  “What do you mean?  This is a piece of crap legislation.”

I explain:  “This isn’t about the legislation’s merits.  This is payback.  The union bosses deliver the vote; the politicians deliver an Orwellian act that’s aimed at turning every workplace into a union shop.”

The last plaintive words I heard drifting down the hall as I headed off to work were, “But I don’t understand….”

It saddens me a great deal that a bright person caught in the NY Times web managed to vote for someone when he had no idea what that someone was promising to do.  It also saddens me a great deal that a bright person is so naive that he can’t understand that a dangerous and crappy piece of legislation is on the table as part of political dirty dealing.  On the other hand, I’m pleased to see a little crack in the wall.  That, at least, might lead to bigger and better things.