Reply #8: Thank you for this information! What a great union history!

[Peace Patriot]

"Quality time," huh? You see, this is why we need workers in public office, because they are more likely to smell a corporate scam. Union workers, and workers who, though they may not be unionized yet, are on the side of workers, have often seen it all, heard it all, been cheated and robbed by it all, and understand what a loyal, productive work force is all about, and what human rights and civil rights are all about. You get too many lawyers, and administrators, and bureaucrats, and of course too many rich people, in public office, and government becomes more and more and more unreal, until we have the "Alice in Wonderland" government of today--that thinks the U.S./Peru "free trade" deal is good for workers and the environment (other than ON PAPER), or that a U.S./Colombia "free trade" deal will help reform Colombia, where thousands of union leaders have been murdered by rightwing death squads with close ties to the government and the military. Union workers, and other workers, grasp the underside of these "deals" quicker than anybody else.

The bar to workers running for public office, is, of course, the millions in startup money that aspirants to public office must possess, or have access to, to even think about running for election to anything. So, after we get rid of 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting, with the secret code owned and controlled by rightwing Bushwhack corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls, next we need to ban private money in political campaigns, bust the corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies, and reclaim some of our public airwaves for political debate. Our system is insane, all in all, and bound to produce endless looting of the poor, workers, the middle class and small business. We need to take it apart, piece by piece, and re-create democracy.

Think of the talent, the intelligence, the dedication, the creativity, the altruism, and the common sense that are being banned from our government, by workers being barred from public office, due to the filthy contribution system and costs of running a campaign, driven by corpo/fascist 'news' monopoly prices for air time. You want to ruin a country? Do this--keep the working people out of government with astronomical campaign costs.