With gay marriage decided, what will be the next big left-led social change?

One day in May, operatives from a Washington-based super PAC gathered New Hampshire mayors, state representatives and local politicos at St. Anselm College for a day of training.

They rehearsed their personal tales of how they met Hillary Rodham Clinton and why they support her for president. They sharpened their defenses of her record as secretary of state. They scripted their arguments for why the Democratic front-runner has been “a lifetime champion of income opportunity.” And they polished their on-camera presentations in a series of mock interviews.

The making of a Hillary Clinton echo chamber - The Washington Post

Has Hillary ever addressed the issue of diversification of the building trade unions?

Income opportunity has to include the opportunity to work in these fields. These are the middle class jobs that we always hear about, and Democrat aligned trade unions have locked out African-Americans from membership.

 

For many years, Wigglesworth said, the building trades worked to exclude women and minorities. “As one business manager told me, our idea of diversity was hiring the second son of a member.”

Despite pledges to diversify, building trades still mostly white males | AxisPhilly

 

It's one of the best paying union jobs out there, and it's been run like a family business since at least 1937:

Sandhogs are among the nation's best-paid laborers, earning as much as $100,000 per year. Many are second-and third-generation, and among those at the 10th Avenue site are several cousins and brothers.

''It's a father-son business,'' said Jim Ryan, president of Local 147, whose father helped dig the Queens-Midtown Tunnel in 1937. ''I was just getting out of school, working in a factory, and he said, 'Come with me.'''

The Third Water Tunnel has been so long in the making that it has employed fathers and, decades later, their sons.

''My father started out on this job in 1972,'' said Eamon O'Donnell, who entered the tunnels in 1977 and has been digging the Third Water Tunnel on and off for 20 years. ''You want to see to the finish of it.''

The Underground Men - NYTimes.com

 

Care to venture a guess, then, as to why black people almost exclusively vote for Democrats and have done so for decades?

I'm asking seriously. Seems weird to me that an entire race of people would vote against their own interests and for their own repression over and over and over again.

 

Are you quite finished patting yourself on the back for quoting the Cato Institute in an attempt to distract the lot of us from the ongoing GOP/conservative problems with racial equality in this country? What aren't more inner-city kids in the trades? Probably for the same reason more inner-city minorities aren't going to college and getting into good paying jobs: because their schools are shit. I wouldn't call wanting Americans working for minimum wage to have a boost to live in this country "throwing them (our) scraps." It's called being a decent American. You want people off of social services, a start will be to pay them so they can actually buy food on their own. Want more minorities from inner-cities to go into the trades? Let's start funding vocational programs instead of cutting the shit out of our schools. And guess what, that might mean raising taxes! Oh, heaven forbid! Or—you really need to sit down for this one—how about actually considering spending more on education and a little less on defense. Maybe, just maybe, if we have more money available to schools we can start giving inner-youth an opportunity to do something with their lives and move into middle class suburbs—which I think bothers you more than it would bother me.

And get off your comparison of country clubs and trade unions. First, Baron seems to have done a pretty good job of showing you how those numbers you keep spouting off with aren't what you say they are. Second, I have zero sympathy for the rich white man having to integrate his precious country club. Boo-freaking-who. You know what else the rich white man can integrate? Management jobs for women and minorities.

Finally, if I'm reading these numbers right, there is actually a higher percentage of African-Americans represented by a union than whites, based on total numbers in unions vs. total number in the work force. Something like 22 percent of employed whites are in a union or represented by one vs 27 percent of employed African Americans. Table 1. Union affiliation of employed wage and salary workers by selected characteristics

 

Maybe it's because the news is all about Donald Trump saying something mean about Mexicans, instead of the inherent racism in the Dem affiliated building trade unions.

Ace, Cran, and Baron didn't even know this was an issue. Do you think most African-Americans know it's a problem?

And, their leaders like Jackson and Sharpton get bought off to get along, and go along. And local African-American leaders get walking around money -- in cash -- on election day to turn out the vote.

It's not just white liberals that are playing poor blacks for fools.

 

What has the Republican Party done in the last 20 years to help African-Americans to join the building trades?

 

Another guy who didn't know it was an issue, who's suddenly an expert.

We're talking about specific building trade unions. Please don't come back to me with all union membership numbers.

And, I'm not drying for the country clubs that had to let in African-American members either. I just wonder why you don't think it's important to integrate good paying building trade unions.

But, hey, you go ahead and pat yourself on the back for supporting a higher minimum wage. That'll get folks out of poverty, and into the middle class, right?

 

These are Dem house organs.

This is a Dem issue -- which is why it isn't an issue.

 

July 7th, 2015...

This is how you spent your day.

 

Just a guess . . .

Because the Democrats promise small, tangible things that --- superficially --- gives blacks reason to believe they will have it better. Without actually doing anything. "We'll just give it to you." Pretty tempting.

Republicans promise intangible things that likely won't help anybody who doesn't go the extra mile to put himself in a position where he can better himself. "It's out there, but you'll have to earn it." Not as tempting.

 

Does it also seem weird to you that "an entire race of people" would continue to vote for a party that never delivers on its promises?

And, related, the answer to your first question is that it has been big business for the "leaders."

The GOP has certainly struggled in its approach to broadening its appeal, but the Democratic Party has built itself through the consolidation of power that comes through having votes delivered without having to do much, if anything, for them. Pandering and demonizing don't help anyone, but they sure do help win and keep power. And why put yourself out if you know you'll get the votes regardless.

Modern American liberalism is both genius and insidious.