Michigan Poised To Become Nation's 24th Right To Work State

Bigger than Wisconsin, Mike Flynn says, given that Michigan is the home of the UAW.

This is a big step for worker freedom. No longer will workers be coerced into joining a union. No longer will they be forced to see their earnings go to political causes and goals with which they disagree.

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The fight against public sector unions in Wisconsin was important, in large part, because it was the first state to grant public sector unions collective bargaining rights. Michigan, home to the UAW, is almost a founding state for labor unions in this country. It has a higher percentage of unions members than almost any other state. If union power over individual liberty can be rolled back there, it can be rolled back in Ohio or Pennsylvania, where the GOP controls state government, as well.

President Permanent Campaign had something to say about that, of course.

What we shouldn’t be doing is trying to take away your rights to bargain for better wages and working conditions. … These so-called right-to-work laws, they don’t have to do with economics; they have everything to do with politics. What they are really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money. … We don’t want a race to the bottom. We want a race to the top. America’s not gonna’ compete based on low-skill, low-wage, no workers’ rights — that’s not our competitive advantage. … It’s also what allows our workers to then by the products that we make, ’cause they’ve got enough money in their pockets.

Just to note for Joe Scarborough -- this is the sort of winning "intellectual" message in America.

Again, I've got nothing against intellectualism. But I have got something against thoughtless puffery. And the sad fact -- fact -- is that it's not actually intellectual messages that win elections. It's stupid chains of nonsequitors like this.

I think the perfect candidate would be a man generally believed to be smart, who, while on the campaign trail, says lots of stupid things, but says these stupid things with "warmth."

Eh, I'm just being bitter (though I think I'm right). But honestly, Scarborough is just using "intellectual" as a synonym for "liberal," which is the whole problem in the first place.

posted by Ace at 05:54 PM

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