John McCain, Working Man

“Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.” John Stuart Mill

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have an important announcement. Are you ready? Hold onto your butts now because this is huge: Republican presidential hopeful John McCain has discovered -- the American worker!

Yes my friends, it’s true, I heard old man McCain singing the praises of the American worker with my own ears. There was McCain on one of the morning propaganda shows answering questions (well, sort of) about the Wall Street meltdown and what it means for the nation. Not only did McCain call for a blue-ribbon commission to investigate Wall Street’s abuses (why do politician’s always call for a blue-ribbon commission?), he also said he believes in the ingenuity of the American worker.

How rich is that? For twenty-five years, the Republican Party and John McCain have undermined American workers in every way possible, from relentless deregulation, to off-shoring American jobs to China, to busting unions, to supporting tax and trade policies that favor Capital over Labor.

Now, as Wall Street swan dives into the proverbial toilet, McCain wants to wrap himself in the tattered flag of the American worker, as if working Americans have had anything to do with the swindles that pass for business-as-usual on Wall Street.

The man has no shame whatsoever and must be exposed for the liar that he is.

The sad truth is that many voters believe McCain’s spiel, even when the facts of their own lives tell them that he is wrong. I happened to catch a TV interview with an unemployed Michigan autoworker the other day, and was flabbergasted when this poor man said that when it comes to the economy he trusts John McCain more than Barack Obama. Dear, suffering man, the problems of Michigan and the hardships faced by average working people all across America are directly related to a quarter century of Republican ideology: the “you’re-on-your-own, rugged individual, government-is-the-enemy, taxation-is-theft, and the Market-knows-best” bullshit that we’ve been force fed. Why any person with a pulse – particularly someone from a state as beleaguered as Michigan -- believes that the Republicans have an answer for our economic woes is beyond me.

Word up, Michigan: a vote for McCain is a vote to continue the disastrous policies that produced the economic suffering you’re experiencing.

How does John McCain explain the fact that the real wages of American workers fell or remained stagnant while productivity soared? How does he explain his staunch opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act – legislation that would make it easier for American workers to join unions and bargain collectively? How does he explain his steadfast support of a tax system that favors capital over labor, or the fact that his dear friend and former economic guru, Phil Gramm, authored the legislation that deregulated the financial services industry and ushered in an era of greed, excess and corruption? If McCain is so pro-worker, why is his campaign riddled with corporate lobbyists?

To hear John McCain extol the virtues of American workers is like listening to a street whore in Bangkok extol the virtues of abstinence-only sex education; it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t work, and it sure as hell doesn’t make a shred of sense.

John McCain and his Republican allies (does the name Alan Greenspan ring any bells?) are responsible for the collapse of our financial system. The facts are clear, the proof irrefutable; to lay the blame anywhere but at the feet of a failed ideology is to believe that that infamous bridge in Alaska leads somewhere.