Alan Grayson on Dems willing to cut Social Security "Members like that deserve to be Disciplined!"

[jtuck004]

54. If you get a chance read the book "Them and Us" by James J. Matles. Obama reminds me of Gompers.

Matles experience with the Industrial Unions and how the AF of L sapped them of their power. The experience of those who sought to "change from within" by joining that larger union, written about in the book, found that impossible. It might be instructive.

Samual Gompers is a much better analogy to Obama than an ignorant putz like George Bush, if one insists on having an analogy. (I do think the few people I have heard hurl that one aren't thinking very much, or perhaps are just hurting from the seeming betrayal and the endless line of excuses). Gompers sided with business over the workers, let a lot of people get hurt that were working for worker independence by withholding resources or not asking for them, and, as the years have proved, set labour up to be decimated by the ownership class today.

Gompers was smart, but would rather sit at at a table with a rich man than a working person any day, and the writings of the era as well as the pictures provide plenty of evidence. He felt "for" them (perhaps), not "like" them (most definitely), and therein lies the difference.

Anyone that thinks they can work inside today's Democratic Party and change it should read that book and ask themselves why it would be any different this time.

It's a good book, but you will may have to find it at a university library.