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.