Patriotism, Unions and The Middle Class

It is one of the great hypocritical aspects of the public debate in America--on the one hand, the politicians and talking heads who strut around bragging about how great our country is and, on the other hand, the complete thirst and glee so many of them seem to have for the weakening of unions. I mean, who exactly do these folks think created the American Dream--the mythical "self-made man" (or woman), or the hundreds of thousands of people who go to work each day, punch their time clocks and put in a hard day's work and make a decent wage thanks to the labor movement.

I thought of this today--and, actually, probably think about this every day--because of the a twin barrage of stories today in the mainstream press on the auto industry and the UAW. First up was a story in The New York Times:

It is mostly vacant land now, more than 200 acres surrounded by a barbed-wire fence that once was the site of the biggest General Motors manufacturing complex in the country.

In the 1980s, more than 27,000 workers passed through the gates every day into Buick City. But only one of its many factories is still standing, a run-down engine plant known as Flint North.

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http://www.workinglife.org/blogs/view_post.php?content_id=13678