Monday open thread: Why vote for Democrats? The railroad deal.
People often ask: WHY SHOULD I VOTE FOR DIMMYCRATS?!
Well. What if I told you that President Joe Biden avoided a catastrophic railroad strike?
This strike would have hobbled our economy. And how did he do it? Well, here you go: The workers weren't striking over pay, but over sick time:
What was missing from these headlines? The actual reason for the conflict between railroad workers and their employers. The potential strike or lockout was not because of any dispute over pay, but because of inhumane attendance policies that currently mean railroad engineers and conductors are either working or “on call” 90 percent of the time. When they’re on call, they can be summoned to work on two hours’ notice or less, and then may be away from home for days at a time. Workers report that they have no sick days, paid or unpaid. If they have to take time off unexpectedly, even because of illness, they lose points in a convoluted, points-based attendance system. That means workers are at risk of being disciplined or fired for getting sick, going to a doctor’s appointment or a family funeral, or for any other absence that can’t be planned far in advance.
Rail workers get paid a pretty penny. But heaven forbid if they're sick. Pres. Biden asked the rail owners why they couldn't give their workers guaranteed sick time. They had no answer, and folded.
Democrats aren't perfect. No human is. But more often than not, they will have workers' backs. Which makes it all the more infuriating that Republicans con low-wage workers into thinking that Democrats want to take their jobs and give them to "illegals".
The fact of the matter is that if Donald Trump were still in office, he would have imposed a deal on the workers, which would have led to a disastrous strike. Republicans don't care about workers. They just use them to score cheap political points, like they have tried to do with the student loan forgiveness program. Which is ridiculous, since a lot of these workers have children who have gone to university to better their lives. And too many blue collar workers fall for this folderol because that's what they're fed. And they fall for this because of various cultural reasons.
The most inane thing about the student loan debate is Republicans trying to position themselves as champions of the working class against educated elites. Many of those educated elites are children of the working class. I know I am. And I remember my sainted mother wanting better for me than what she had. Do they think these blue collar workers want their children vilified for having an education? Well, they do. But they might find that as ash in their mouths.
Why vote for Democrats? Because in the aggregate they have the interests of the broad commonwealth at heart. The GOP is merely interested in power for its own sake, like the Party in "Nineteen Eighty-Four". Know who is on your side.