Above is propaganda from the Fifites®/Eisenhower Era is my guess. Back when the GOP grudgingly supported union because they were thrilled to get the political money and the sad truth was, thanks to FDR’s triumphs, there was little difference between the parties. Now St. Reagan achieved the same thing in the wrong direction! The ol’ fart tricked many older Union voters via the Social Issues thinking, oh, he’s one of us remember, he used to be the president of SAG. Little did they recall or know, St. Reagan didn’t support unions who made his job possible, aka the craftspeople and techs. He also screwed over others by ratting on them to the FBI during the Red Scare; many were innocent, he just was pissed at them for beating him at roles because, well, they were talented, he never was. Finally, he squandered the residual bargain made for older movies being aired on TV. Sure, it accrued health insurance for many yet it was a bargain as shitty as Obummer’s AHA.
With the rise of Nukey Goldwater, the Republicans’ contempt for Organized Labor could come back out of the closet. Bob Taft already was doing it under FDR on. He was pushed aside by Golfing Ike over his isolation stance when we really know, the Republicans just wanted to win after fielding 20 years of losers. Nukey took the mantle thanks to Taft dying of cancer, a fitting death for him while is inbred family remains a power in Ohio.
Tricky Dick reversed the course a little through his law and order stance and Ford was the last of the New Deal Republicans. Once St. Reagan fired the air traffic controllers and made air travel unsafe as it remains 42 years later, I think Union members regretted their backing. Too late. Union membership declined horrifically to what we have today. In my opinion, based upon reading and other historians chiming in, the Boomers were another factor. Contrary to the stereotype of many being Hippies, anti-War and more Left-leaning, it’s mostly a lie. Most were like my parents, middle-of-the-road types just wanting to keep the comfy lives my grandparents gave them or better. Sadly, most favored expanding our commitment in Vietnam; vets from the last past three wars were more against it. Tricky Dick did win in 1968 with the older Americans disgusted over the riots, protests and what they thought was moral decline. However, he couldn’t of won completely without Boomer votes or the usual dilemma with most under 30, they stayed “home.”
What do they have to do with Unions declining? I’m getting to it. During the 1968 Chicago Convention, the generational split was underway. The old guard, New Dealers, admittedly were still very racist and sexist even with the loss of the Deep Solid South happening. But for better or worse, they stood by Unions who sadly reflected the party’s attitude. Boomers made the wrong choice. Instead of helping their ally be more inclusive like the Party, they decided Unions were the problem and with many landing White Collar gigs unlike their parents’ Blue ones, they helped purport the lie on how they weren’t really necessary any longer…today’s (and the future’s) employers are reasonable, thanks to the New Deal.
FUCKING HA!
As Professor Richard D. Wolff has said, the One Percenters initiated their counter coup long before FDR’s body was cold. (First came the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947.) The Boomers failed to see the many changes which have followed too. The rise of the Tertiary Economy with lower-paying Service jerbs. How quickly capital could be relocated across the oceans. Wealth transforming from tangible assets (resources, real estate, etc.) to funny money, pyramid schemes (Meta is built on sand, the rich dodge taxes through stock now). They continue to fail to comprehend how education costs alone have outpaced inflation for 60 years as many, including a judge my friend had to deal with who thought, oh, your child can earn 33% of the money need to attend U Penn with a Summer job!
I for one already saw the gap widening by the time I graduated from college in 1990. Today it’s bigger than the Grand Canyon. Oh, apologists like The Economist will blather on about productivity being higher than ever in Amerika. Funny, the EU is at parity there, they’re just not worked to death spending sleepless nights panicking over bankruptcy due to healthcare bills! It’s also why of 24 of the 25 Innovative (translation, mainly sociopathic) Corporations are not in the EU. The people have more say, they’re not against innovation as it’s defined correctly, they’re against screwing each other over for nickels. It’s why the younger generations are learning Kapitalism is a rigged game and there are unionization efforts being made everywhere.
I do hope they succeed. Too many of my fellow Gen Xers have consumed the Boomer Kool Aid lies. They fail to see how we squeaked through the Great Recession and the Boomers are going to hand us the bill for the retirement they didn’t contribute enough toward.
To those who think it’s too late to turn back the tide, I will close with the wisdom of author Ursula K. Le Guin:
We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.