43 percent of union members in Ohio support Romney?

[ForgoTheConsequence]

Andrea Mitchell just said this and I can't find a poll backing it up. Anyone know where this statistic is coming from? Sounds like a load of shit.

[BeyondGeography]

1. The polite phrasing is cultural conservatives who vote against their economic interests

[Alekei_Firebird]

4. Must maintain feudal superiority over them Blacks!

[meadowlark5]

2. Out of her ass?

That's what most of these polls and intrade seem to be coming from - just pulling numbers out of their ass

Honestly, I ignore most of the polls and only pay attention to the swing state polls right now.

[Coyotl]

12. LOL. Romney: "and the teachers union is gonna have to be left behind"

He actually said that during the third debate. He realized how badly he screwed up and had to flip-flop at the end of the debate to sandwich in how he loves teachers.

Unions are going to crush Romney in Ohio!

[Tarheel_Dem]

3. We saw this same phenomenon play out in the WI recall election. Union members voting against....

their own interests.

[dtom67]

5. I've seen this myself...

I'm a proud UAW member who works for Ford Motor and I work with a guy http://workplacechoice.org/terry-bowman/] who is actually wants michigan to be a " right to work ( for less )" state.

One guy I work with " can't " vote for Obama because he's " for the Gays ".

We have many hunters who just blindly follow NRA endorsments.

and , even in the North, we have people who just wont vote for a black guy...

and for most of them, there just is no talking to them.

because fear and hatred are unreasonable...

[MadBadger]

6. Survey USA Poll has Romney at 42%

http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=86d85b21-8b9a-4661-99ab-3b88b2335cf2

[ForgoTheConsequence]

7. I refuse to believe that its as high as 43 percent.

Maybe 20-25 would be my best guess.

Too often, unions drive up costs and introduce rigidities that harm competitiveness and frustrate innovation.

The statistics tell an unkind story. Studies conducted by non-partisan scholars have shown that labor unions reduce investment and slow job growth. Right-to-Work states have added millions of jobs over the past decade while states with pro-union policies have shed nearly a million jobs. In a recent Gallup poll, a majority of Americans said that labor unions “mostly hurt” the American economy.

This is taken directly from Romney's site.

[arthritisR_US]

8. could be the coal industry, I think they are unionized and have been

actively threatening their workers with layoffs if the President wins.

[byeya]

10. Even in West Virginia, most miners are not organized anymore.

So these miners have no say in pay, safety, or anything else relating to their work life.

[arthritisR_US]

33. Absolutely sickening ! n/t

[byeya]

9. Labor unions mostly hurt the out of control CEO pay packages and profits of

the corporations by trying to get the workers' share of productivity increases.
The Right To Starve states get more investment because those who control the political economy keep the workers poor. The politicians are paid off and allow the workers to have NO say in their professional lives.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

11. I agree with you.

But those labor unions become a lot less important when half the people are just in it for their own pension and benefits. I think its part of the whole "i've got mine, fuck you" mentality. Solidarity has become less important and most of these "union" members who vote Republican couldn't give two shits about the people who got their asses kicked and arrested and put it all on the line so they could have the good pay and benefits they get today.

[leftyohiolib]

13. i work in a union shop and l believe it - stupidity knows no boundries

[BigDemVoter]

14. If true. . . .

IDIOTS! Makes me think of the Gay Log Cabin group supporting the Repigs. Same issue-- voting against their own best interests.

[Arkana]

15. Their happiness over keeping their jobs is trumped

by their hatred of the nig--er, person in the Oval Office.

That's all it is. A combination of just not knowing shit (that Romney hates unions) and good old-fashioned racism.

[SoapBox]

16. Ditto...you said exactly how I feel.

Amazing stuff, isn't it?

Shooting yourself in both feet, even though it hurts and may injure you forever, but anything that can
be done against that Black guy that is in THEIR WHITE House.

[Media Lies]

17. In the last debate didn't Romney say his father owned an element of anti-union car manufacturing?

Being from Detroit, that would make Romney the Hell-spawn of anti-union activity wouldn't it?

[backscatter712]

18. I wonder how these people remember how to tie their own shoelaces.

Some people are too fucking stupid to live.

Another case of Chickens for Colonel Sanders.

[limpyhobbler]

19. not everyone in a union really cares about that. They also go to church, hunt & fish, etc.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

20. OK?

People who hunt,fish and go to church can be liberal democrats too. I'm one of them. Doesn't excuse the stupidity of voting against your own financial interest and selling out your fellow union members.

[limpyhobbler]

24. I'm kind of sick of posts that call working class people or rural people stupid.

The Democrats really don't promote a clear message of economic populism.

Stupidity is part of it, but the failure by the Democrats to really represent working class interests is also part of the problem.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

31. I agree.

The Democrats need to restore their lunch bucket image and phase out the celebrity and urban intellectual image.

[Bandit]

34. The Democrats really don't promote a clear message of economic populism.

And the Republicans do? I mean come on..... Just because they can't be everything for everybody does not mean they are not the best Party for the working class...

[ForgoTheConsequence]

40. Who said otherwise?

If you think I'm wrong you have your head in the sand. I agree we're the best party, that's why I made this thread. Image is a huge part of politics. We need more people like Jon Tester in the party. The Republicans have successfully painted us as the party of snobbish intellectuals and Hollywood elites. As much as I don't want to muddy myself in a culture war, it needs to be done.

Restore the lunch bucket image, restore the image of labor unions, restore the image of the Republican party being the party of the rich.

[leftyohiolib]

23. if they get screwed by the repubs turning ohio into right-to-work state the 2 or 3

jobs needed to make the same wage will wipe all other concerns away. stupid, stupid people.

[limpyhobbler]

26. Oh yeah SB-5 was a real dog.

I was happy to see the way people rose up against it in a big way.

Instead of calling people stupid I would rather ask how can the Democratic Party change its policies to appeal to working class people more.

[leftyohiolib]

41. do you mean more than the republicans appeal to working class-the democartic party

Last edited Thu Oct 25, 2012, 03:12 PM - Edit history (1)

already appeals to the middle class MORE THAN ANY REPUBLICAN yet they still vote republican. if it's name calling so be it but they are stupid, stupid people.
on edit: i was happy that people voted down sb5 but these are people who will vote against their own best intrest so i dont trust them to always do the correct thing

[BumRushDaShow]

27. Actually I think you hit on it

For that group, "Union" is not their "single issue". There is something else that they are fixating on where they would be willing to let the "union" go for something else they care about more strongly.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of them are in locals with useless office-holders.

[krawhitham]

21. sound about right

fucking unreal, and if mostly a gun issue for them


And yes i know Obama has nothing to stop guns, they believe the NRA spin

[Firebirds01]

22. Im from Ohio

Know a guy who was the back up Union rep at his work. He was a diehard republican.


I know a gal who was soooo excited because she just got a union job and it would mean the family could afford braces, new car, so forth...She is a diehard republican who canvases for romney and has a donkey pinata every year for her daughters b-day (because the donkey is the Dem logo and they can smash it).


I think its part religion, part because of the lie that dems hate the troops, part peer pressure.


I really, really think it's because they are not where they want to be in life and it's easier to blame those other groups who 'get welfare for nothing" than it is to recognize and accept your own failures.

[edhopper]

25. Because they

cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

[Beowulf]

28. If read some of the retrospectives on George McGovern that came out this past week

you can see some of the historical causes of this. Big labor led by George Meany either sat out the 1972 election or actively supported Nixon. And the Teamsters have been Republican ever since the Kennedy brothers went after Hoffa. Meany was never very friendly with public worker unions or service employee unions. Reagan was able to exploit this split between old and new labor well, so there have been a couple of generations of workers now who see the Republican Party as protecting their interests (mostly social concerns rather than economic ones). What Reagan did to PATCO should have galvanized labor for generations against the Republican Party, but PATCO represented government workers and solidarity never existed between the AFL-CIO and them.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

32. Great analysis.

Reminds me of Phil Ochs "Links on a Chain".

[Teamster Jeff]

37. Teamsters have been republican since Kennedy?

I understand your points about division amongst labor but come on.

[JI7]

38. Teamsters have come back to Democrats since Clinton

[WCGreen]

29. Knowing quite a bit about Ohio....

I can tell you that is probably a little high, not much but probably by about 6 points too high.

How do I know this? I was the treasurer of the Democratic Party here in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) for the better part of a decade and was involved with a lot of fund-raising for statewide candidates as well as locals. And Fund-raising for democrats means talking and meeting with Unions.

The Ohio House and The Ohio Senate have been in control of the GOP for at least 20 years now with only a two year break when the House went Blue.

Remember, the police are a huge backer of the GOP because the idea that trial attorney, a big ally to the Democrats, are against them, they have taken up with the GOP.

It is very rare that any of the statewide FOP's and other organized Unions related to Law enforcement donate or even endorse a democrat. Of course there are always examples, but that is the rule. And they represent a large chunk of unionized workers in Ohio.

Also, the there are a lot of Union folks living down in the southern part of the state that vote GOP because of fear that democrats are going to take their guns. And, there are a lot of Catholics in the Building Trades who vote against democrats for pro-life issues.

Now the Teamsters here in Ohio are huge Democrats and SEIU is also overwhelmingly democrat. The SEIU has a great GOTV team that turns out over 90% of their members.

So I believe that the 43% could be right but I think it a little high.

[ncav53]

30. Yeah vote for the party that wants to see unions destroyed

Makes a lot of sense.

[fugop]

35. Right up there with Log Cabin Repubs N/T

[Teamster Jeff]

36. There is no good reason for union members to vote republican

As mentioned above racism has a lot to do with it. Also, the repugs have been very successful in driving a wedge between working people with social issues. God, guns, gays, abortion etc. These are the same low information voters that get all there news from Fox, they just happen to work at a job that is union. Unions should do better educating there own members.

Also, Democrats and Obama are not blameless. The Employee Free Choice Act was important to unions yet it never was pushed at all.
Both Dems and Repugs have backed job killing trade deals from NAFTA to the Trans Pacific Partnership. Minimum wage increase? The Democrats can go a long way to differentiate themselves from Repugs on ecomomic issues.

That said, 42% is hard to believe.

[JI7]

39. They vote on things like Guns, Abortion, other Social Issues , they are actually the ones Romney

had trouble with in the Primary.