Everyone else is focusing fire on this article because, in it, AFL-CIO poobah Richard Trumka claims that unions just might withhold funds for Democrats next year. Yeah, sure they will. 95% of the article is a smokescreen for Trumka to try extorting even more out of Democrats than Big Labor already gets, and is a way to intimidate other Democrats into not doing what Democrats in Massachusetts are doing, namely, the same thing Republicans in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana have already done. All this has nothing to do with “enthusiasm,” it’s just more union thuggery from the biggest union thug of them all.
So I don’t care much about any of that. Read it if you want, but in my opinion it’s not to be taken at face value. It’s strategic bluster. This, however, is revealing.
Trumka said he’d like to see the U.S. become more like a European nation that provides pensions and health care for all its citizens. He said he is accustomed to criticism and doesn’t mind if conservatives call that socialism.
“Being called a socialist is a step up for me,” he said.
This is clearest statement I’ve ever seen of exactly what Big Labor wants to get from all the money it spends electing Democrats. Big Labor wants nothing less than the end of the American experiment.
Okay, if “socialist” would be a step up, what does that make him now? Wannabe-Stalin or Wannabe-Lenin, perhaps?
Jimmy Hoffa, but still breathing.
definitely a stalin— look at the picture– the two could be twins
His Polish forebearers are rolling in their graves…..just like the Old School Eastern European Jews are whilst looking down on their descendants still trying to make pogroms go away with mendacious, bankrupt”socialist” engineering….like Lenin and Trotsky attempted…we all know why they tried these desperate tricks, but- come on fellows, that was in the late 19th & early 20th centuries…..which is why we should be laughing out loud at Obama/Dorhn and Ayers- what pathetic 1960s wannabe re-treads they are. Consult YouTube and observe how whiny and adolescent Bernie Dorhn sounds- she’s still an undergraduate! And, given to seducing her professors for a better grade- what a slut.Intellectually and morally-full stop.
Somebody get him a ticket to Greece, pronto.
Look, “Socialism would be a step up for me” is not the same as “Being called a socialist is a step up for me.” I’ve got plenty of problems with parasitic union thugs and their corrupt bosses but for crying out loud, there’s no need to misquote the guy in your headline. It makes *you* look like a deceitful fool. He does a fine job of wedging his foot into his mouth all by himself.
Excellent point. This is the kind of despicable tactic that the lame-stream media and the radical left would employ. And I don’t think we need to imitate them. trying to be (almost) like them is the surest way to loose–see for example the results of trying to run John McCain and other moderate candidates.
Besides, it’s not like the message of the story is a surprise to any (even mildly) informed conservative. The only people this tactic might impress are the radicals who use similar tactics all the time in their reporting. And since they are so used to ignoring such logical inconsistencies… maybe it might even have some effect on them… So maybe it’s not such a bad idea after all.
Hum… lol.
While the “letter” of the headline (so to speak) is being abused here… the spirit is not. It is clear he is saying that he holds socialist ideas and doesn’t mind being called by that name.
By contrast, lame-stream headlines routinely abuse the spirit of the headline… using them to project messages that are entirely contrary to what the article itself says… albeit usually burried deep within the article, and only briefly mentioned–while the rest of the article interviews radical liberals who convey liberal talking points suggesting the opposite of the facts.
Trumka said he’d like to see the U.S. become more like a European nation that provides pensions and health care for all its citizens. He said he is accustomed to criticism and doesn’t mind if conservatives call that socialism.
“Being called a socialist is a step up for me,” he said.
So, we should abandon (which we already have really) the principals and economic system that made us the wealthiest nation on earth with the highest living standard and adopt European socialism which is bankrupting all these European countries? There you have it folks, these are the people driving our nation over the cliff. This guy talks, according to him anyway, to someone in the White House on a daily basis. Is there any wonder at the economic state of our nation?