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John McCain: Four More Years of Being Dead-Wrong on the Economy

Monday, September 1, 2008

We've suffered through eight years of George Bush. Where to begin in outlining his failures as a president and of this country (and the world)? There's no convenient place. There are just too many of them.

But one place where it's crystal-clear where he's been dead-wrong is on the economy. From pursuing a right-wing corporatist agenda that leaves workers struggling and corporations profiteering off the misery of the broader population, Bush's tenure has consolidated the abject disaster that is conservatism's low road economics. We need to get on the high road, where we all come together for a shared prosperity economy. An economy that works for working people. An economy that rewards work, and just just wealth. From the professional to the low-wage immigrant, workers need a president that puts the broader needs of our economy and the common good ahead of corporate power and wealth.

But John McCain wants for more years of George Bush's failed policies. He wants four more years to showcase the conservative vision for an America that fails its peoples. They don't call him McSame for nothing. If it's four more years of an economy in the dumps, John McCain is your man.

George Bush has been dead-wrong on the economy (and pretty much everything else). John McCain is four more years of more of the same.

We need to stop that in its tracks. We need to get on the high road. We need a pro-worker president. We need Barack Obama.

But right now, John McCain enjoys the advantage of having his "base" be that of the media. Entirely subservient for most of the Bush years, the media is the lapdog John McCain needs to con his way into the White House. They aren't telling the real story. And they're not going to.

That's why we need to take the message of change - especially on the economy - directly to the people. We need to speak with them directly, bypassing the filters of the corporate media and of the Republican spin machine.

So that's why we're mobilizing for a day of action. A National Day of Action at that. We're going to head out into the neighborhoods of Madison to speak directly with union members and their families about how John McCain, like George Bush, is dead-wrong on the economy. We need to spread the message about McCain - and the good news about Barack Obama.

Labor is a swing vote in Wisconsin this year. The spectres of racism and bigotry still loom over a country, even with Barack Obama giving his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, 45 years to the day Martin Luther King gave his historic "I Have A Dream" address. And in a state like Wisconsin, a must-win set of electoral votes for Obama, we cannot ignore that it might exist, even in the justice-minded homes of union members.

We need to make sure that fellow union families know that John McCain is wrong on the most critical issue of the day, our economy. And they need to know that even while Barack Obama is the candidate for labor and for workers, it's not just his policy positions versus McCain's that matter. It's that we are electing a president to lead this nation in a time of economic crisis - and that the strength of solidarity exists upon the base of banding together for our common interests and the common good of our country. Union members should be voting for a president that will stand with them, black, brown, white, yellow or red.

Let's make sure that they all get the good news about Obama. So come on out Thursday for our AFL-CIO National Day of Action here in Madison. It's just down the street at the Madison Labor Temple on Park Street. A few hours of your time can have a big impact. We're two months out - the time to activate and mobilize is now!

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posted by Peter

 

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