Barack Obama was right; working Americans are bitter. "More than half of US workers say the American Dream is unattainable and nearly half blame the political system for the deterioration in their economic circumstances," according to a new Zogby International survey released last week.
The survey found that almost eight in ten workers say they feel "unrepresented by the political system on workplace issues," including health care, retirement security, fuel prices, and the economy. Women express these sentiments at a higher rate then men did.
Almost half of workers say they feel "bitter" as a result.
“While Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama took a lot of heat for his ‘bitter’ comment, this poll shows that workers clearly are in fact ‘bitter’ over the political system and the economy,” said Frank Kenna III, president of the Marlin Company, the global workplace communications firm that commissioned the survey.
“It sends a clear message to politicians that the average US worker is in pain. The question is, ‘Will our politicians go beyond talk to truly respond to the needs of US workers?’" he added.
The results of this survey do not bode well for Republican nominee John McCain, who has essentially refused to propose real solutions for the kinds of problems that drive workers to bitterness. Instead of an affordable, universal health care system, for example, McCain is calling for taxes on workers' health care benefits and turning taxpayer dollars over to insurance companies.
McCain has even made statements that suggest he doesn't quite grasp the real issues workers face. He recently claimed, for example, that the reason workers feel bitter is because Congress refused to vote for Bush's free trade agreement with Colombia. And the face of economic recession, McCain stated, "We've made great economic progress over the past eight years."
John McCain also announced earlier this year that he was giving up on keeping jobs in the US and on rebuilding the manufacturing sector. Touting his support for job-killing free trade deals like NAFTA, McCain, in lockstep with George W. Bush, said, "Have people lost jobs? Yes, they have, and they're gonna lose jobs."
McCain opposes laws that would strengthen the ability of women to seek redress when victimized by pay discrimination or improve the ability of workers to win representation on the job by joining unions. He supports gutting federal agencies that enforce safety and health rules that protect workers.
In order to secure the Republican nomination, McCain vowed to the extreme elements in his party to appoint federal judges, modeled after Bush appointees John Roberts and Samuel Alito, who will interpret the law to weaken workers' rights.
Additionally, working Americans want their fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters home from a war that should never have been started. While those people served courageously, it is time to bring them home and to reward their sacrifice with free higher education and adequate and accessible health care. John McCain has promised, however, to continue the war in Iraq for 100 years and refused to vote for the most recent GI Bill, admitting that generosity for veterans would harm his plans to extend the war. A recent non-partisan scorecard of his voting record on veterans issues shows he has voted for veterans issues only 30 percent of the time.
So far, John McCain has signaled that, like Bush, he misunderstands workers' issues, and simply doesn't care.
For Barack Obama, however, this survey's results do not predict smooth sailing for his campaign or his administration. To restore the confidence of workers, Obama will have to convince them that he can restore workplace rights and protections they have lost especially over the past 7-plus years. He will have to make signing the Employee Free Choice Act, the Fair Pay Act, the Employment Non-discrimination Act, and expelling anti-worker appointees from the National Labor Relations Board immediate aims of his administration.
On health care, he is going to have to work with a broad array of politicians and social movements that are calling for a national health care system that controls costs, makes care universal, subsidizes lower-income workers and the poor, and provides high-quality care for all kinds of ailments and needs. His administration and the new Congress will have to seriously debate the notion of a national system modeled on Medicare that provides universal coverage.
Economic issues such as rising unemployment, the housing crisis, and the need for alternatives to gasoline and oil are not just policy issues. They are intertwined emergencies that require immediate attention and comprehensive solutions.
For workers to regain a sense that they can again access the American Dream, we are going to have to feel empowered and have an ownership stake in our society. There is going to have to be real substance behind Obama's pledge to work with us to help our communities come together to lift all boats.
