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Politics : The American Spirit Vs. The Rightwing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Doug R who wrote (241)	9/6/2004 12:56:36 PM
From: ChinuSFO	Respond to of 1904

Editorial: Labor's vote / This election is about the American worker <font size=3> Monday, September 06, 2004 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Labor Day 2004 comes on the heels of the Republican Party convention in New York, five weeks after the Democratic affair in Boston, and a short two months before the national elections that will determine which party will control the White House and the two houses of Congress starting in January. It isn't true anymore to say that labor votes will determine the outcome of the elections, although organized labor still does play an important role in that process. What is true is that the votes of working Americans will determine the outcome of all the contests, whether those people working are part of organized labor, or whether they are just workers who vote. President Bush's comments in his acceptance speech Thursday cast light both on the current situation of working Americans and on what the Republican Party has planned for them if it wins in November. Mr. Bush said that workers of a previous generation, mostly men, normally had one job, one skill and one career -- frequently with one company, which provided health care and a pension. He then portrayed the current scene -- in which workers change jobs and careers often and two-thirds of all mothers hold jobs outside the home -- as "a time of great opportunity for all Americans." He said that America's most fundamental systems "were created for the world of yesterday, not tomorrow" and he promised to transform them. On this Labor Day we wonder if the president's picture of the current situation does correspond to the reality of the modern working person, or whether Mr. Bush is a 2004 version of his father who, as president and candidate for a second term, once demonstrated a lack of understanding of even how to check out at a supermarket. Isn't an accurate picture of today's American worker more likely to be someone holding more than one job to try to make ends meet, worried that he might lose it or see it outsourced to China or India, scared to death that he and his family don't have medical insurance and losing sleep over debt up to his ears? His wife may be working because she wants and needs a satisfying career. Or, she may be employed, instead of staying home to take care of young children, because she has to supplement her spouse's income -- not for luxuries, but to feed the family and pay the rent, the mortgage or meet the car payments. So do Mr. Bush or the Democratic candidate, Sen. John F. Kerry, both of them wealthy, really understand the situation of working people? Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards, the son of a textile mill worker, might remember what it was like; Republican vice presidential pick Dick Cheney has no greater firsthand experience than Mr. Bush or Mr. Kerry. What we all need to do this Labor Day is think of and honor the working people of this country, and when we decide to whom we will give our votes, think of which candidates are most likely to understand and do the most to improve the circumstances of working people. This question is not one more piece of rhetorical piety, no mere lip service to working people. Medicare and Medicaid can be funded. Medical insurance coverage can be expanded. Social Security can be supported adequately, so we don't have to worry that one day the government will say that the money for it has run out and we should have saved more for our old age or a medical catastrophe. Take the opportunity to find out what the candidates asking for your vote have to say about these issues. It's your life they are talking about. post-gazette.com