The 2016 Presidential Election: My Thoughts; How About Yours?

(This article first appeared in the September-October 2015 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)

It’s amazing that presidential campaigns have become such big business that they never seem to cease. As soon as one ends, the next one begins, unleashing megabucks of corporate cash and contributions from super-wealthy donors, endless campaigning, TV ads that jam our screens, election-time campaign promises, and politicians of all stripes proclaiming that they are champions of the people.

Then, if events proceed as “normal,” no matter who wins the election, the promises remain unfulfilled. Wall Street representatives once again dominate the new administration, a starvation-level minimum wage remains along with an ever-increasing number of low-wage jobs, pensions continue to disappear, voting rights are further suppressed, endless wars for profits are waged, while attacks on the “public good” intensify, and public postal services advance toward privatization.

So what do you think as we head into the 2016 presidential primaries and election? Are you tired of the same old “politics as usual” and the same old two-party, corporate-controlled political system? Would you like to see our union and the AFL-CIO chart a more independent political course, including helping to build a new labor-based third party? Do you think Democratic Party politicians take union support for granted? Do you wonder why even when “our” candidates win, we lose? Do you believe, like gyrocopter pilot and postal worker Doug Hughes, that big money must be removed from politics? Would you like to see unions focus more on issue-based referendums that allow voters themselves to cast ballots on issues such as raising the minimum wage?

In my view, the answer to all the above is “yes.” When I travel to various conferences and conventions, I find many voicing similar concerns.  Everywhere we turn, and no matter which party is in power, Corporate America is having their way at the expense of the rest of us, the 99%. Wall Street dominates the policies of our government and the corporate overlords laugh all the way to the bank.

Now don’t misunderstand me. I am not talking about abstaining from elections and politics. On the contrary! Politics are important to workers and we should be fully engaged and involved. Legislation, good or bad, will have a huge impact on us. And there are many strong supporters of postal workers in Congress – mostly Democrats, but certainly some Republicans as well.

But let me give two examples that underscore that we are stuck in “tweedle-dum, tweedle-dee” politics.

1. In 2008, Democrats won the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate had a veto-proof majority. Yet legislation to raise the minimum wage to a living wage was not passed. Legislation guaranteeing paid sick leave was not passed. The Employee Free Choice Act, which was promised and which would have helped level the playing field for workers trying to organize unions, was not passed. Legislation to end the congressionally-manufactured pre-funding crisis that is strangling the Postal Service was not passed.
2. Six years into the Obama Administration, the Postal Board of Governors is made up of all appointees of former President George W. Bush, despite numerous vacancies since 2008.  How can that be justified? This Board of Governors has led the charge in undermining and degrading public postal services.

Interestingly, this 2016 presidential election process already has a new wrinkle that creates some potential to break away from “business as usual.” Independent “democratic socialist” Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, now running in the Democratic Party primary, is generating real excitement among union members.  While I personally prefer that Senator Sanders was running as an independent so as to help “Main Street” break from the two parties of Wall Street, nevertheless, his campaign is taking the country by storm.

In July, I was asked by the Sanders campaign to help host a “meet and greet” with other labor leaders. Sen. Sanders has been a real champion of postal workers and postal customers, and on that basis alone I was happy to host the event, along with APWU Secretary-Treasurer Liz Powell, Larry Cohen, the former president of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), and current CWA President Chris Shelton. (I also attended a meeting for Hillary Clinton the next day.)

While I have not personally endorsed Sen. Sanders at this point, and neither has the APWU, his voice is important and he is a serious candidate. The fact that 20 unions sent representatives to the Sanders meet-and-greet underscores this fact.

No other candidate has his record of standing with workers on picket lines, fighting to keep mail processing plants open, advocating for a $15 per hour living wage, for free public college tuition, and “Medicare for all.” No other candidate has his record of exposing the rule of the billionaire class and fighting against the rotten “fast track authority” and trade deals like the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Sen. Sanders is refusing all corporate money; he does not have a “super-PAC,” and does not hire polling firms to see which way the wind is blowing to draft election-time promises.

At the very least, the labor movement should seriously weigh the candidacy of Bernie Sanders. If we are to endorse anyone, we should start with those who have stood with us.

During the 2016 election cycle, postal workers should certainly look to elect and re-elect pro-worker candidates no matter which party they’re from. The APWU can also promote issue-based ballot initiatives, such as living-wage provisions that uplift workers, our families and our communities.

But we should also help find a way out of the “lesser-of-two evils” choices we are continually offered and build an independent political movement where we are not taken for granted by politicians, where elections are not bought and sold, and where our elected representatives are truly accountable to the people.

I have set up a special email account to hear your views on the 2016 election. I welcome your thoughts at APWU2016@apwu.org.