Will Anger Over Offshoring, Free-Trade Deals, Cost Obama Re-election in 2012?

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6820/obamas_weak_narrative_on_job_loss_2_could_have_huge_impact_on_labor_20/

Friday Jan 7, 2011 3:29 pm

By Roger Bybee

With nearly 9 out of 10 Americans convinced that the "offshoring" of jobs to Mexico, China, and India was a top reason for job loss and America's struggling economy, how did the Democrats manage to turn November 2 into such a massacre for their candidates?

This is a crucial question for labor, because the Republican gains not only destroyed labor's chances for moving forward on issues like the Employee Free Choice Act on easier union recognition, but also opened the gates for radical attacks on public employees and perhaps the biggest concerted push for "right-to-work" laws banning the union shop since the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947.

Essentially, President Obama and the Democrats failed to offer a credible narrative on the continued economic slump that directly blamed Corporate America for offshoring jobs. The consequences could be huge: Both a loss of faith in the Democrats among working people, and a loss of union membership due to the huge increase in Republican power.

ANTI-OFFSHORING SENTIMENT NOT TOUCHED BY NARRATIVE

When unemployment is high, the party in power is normally punished in midterm elections. But this was no normal year: Voters were widely and deeply convinced that corporate offshoring of jobs—not just government policy—plays a role in decimating jobs and their communities.

The public is unified as never before across class, educational, and partisan lines about the destructive effects of "free trade" agreements and the offshoring of jobs that it such FTAs promote.

An October Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll reported on by the Wall Street Journal showed the remarkably strong and widespread public anxiety—86% overall—over the export of jobs: “In the recent WSJ/NBC poll, 83 percent of blue-collar workers agreed that outsourcing of manufacturing to foreign countries with lower wages was a reason the U.S. economy was struggling and more people weren't being hired; no other factor was so often cited for current economic ills."

FULL story at link.

[msongs]

1. when all the presidential candidates are corporate sponsored, there is little choice nt

[mommalegga]

2. No not on these issues

ALL the viable candidates on both sides are Free traders. Its a wash... and the middle class keeps on circlng he drain...