We all know that rich old men, let loose by the Supreme Court’s cavalier and supposedly intellectual exercise in constitutional masturbation, Citizens United, are busy buying themselves a Presidency.
Received from friend Ed today, this is Frank Rich, that elegant and terse practitioner of the English language, in New York Magazine:
. . . 2012 may be seen as the election in which the geezer empire struck back.
Who has ever said it better?
You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy. But you cannot have both.
Whatever Works 
Heeeey! Not all geezers are rich, and I can prove it!
😆 😆 😆
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I’m sure I’ve got you beat JIm. (can we women be geezers too?)
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Geezettes?
But seriously, now corporations and the freaking unions are on something closer to equal terms and, to date, the unions have always spent more to buy the government than the normal corporations.
The corporations still can’t force their employees to make specific political donations though, whereas the unions can and do on a regular basis, as well as “forcing” to vote for specific candidates.
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Last I heard, jonolan, we still have a secret ballot in this country.
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Some of the unions make it very clear to their members how they should vote and what’ll happen to them if they don’t do it. Sure, it’s a secret ballot, but the pressure is there and the member better keep hushed up if he voted “wrong” – especially after the union stopped work and bussed him to the polls with all his coworkers.
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Thus you have the primary force behind how people vote, in my opinion. It’s not that some spy might reveal the secrets of the voting booth but peer pressure. It simply takes too much effort to be independent in a social crowd, too much effort to not be open about one’s allegiance. It’s easier to simply convert to the other side. I reckon that’s why my own little metro area here in SW Missouri, despite being one of the poorest in the country, traditionally votes Republican and has for decades. Around here, “Democrat” is a term of opprobrium.
I would like to point out that in my experience this kind of peer pressure works just as effectively among the steel and mortar canyons of Wall Street as it does on the shop floor.
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Peer pressure is a lesser problem than implied threats against ones’ livelihood – or worse – that the unions have used and continue to use.
As for your example – it’s predicate upon the GOP being only a rich man’s party and that personal gain through government hand-outs is the only metric by which to choose a political party. Hence, I cannot see where there’s a prima facie case for peer pressure or intimidation.
As for Wall St. – There’s little or no political peer pressure there from what I can see and I work literally on Wall St., specifically at the NYSE. (Yep, I’m one of them) I’m surrounded by people of both political leanings, myriad agendas, and all levels of political involvement and they all get along because they’ve more important concerns during the day.
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I rather imagine you are too busy, too young or too wise to talk politics in the workplace. I refrained from it when I was working, but if you were to try engaging in it I think you might be surprised at the ferocity of the reactions.
Since beginning blogging two years ago I have gotten a whole new perspective on people and politics. In any case, I’ve still heard nothing to back up your implication that unions have some sinister method of determining how any individual worker votes. That notion just doesn’t hold water.
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Here’s a quick anecdotal sample: http://www.chicagonow.com/publius-forum/2010/11/nevada-union-illegally-coordinating-with-reid-campaign-for-votes/
And I’m not young, may or may not be wise, and conversation manages to happen even though we’re busy. I’ve a general gist of my coworkers’ politics and they’re too varied for their to be any sort of Wall St. peer pressure going on.
Then again, this is NYC and we’re a lot different than anyone else when it comes to what we let interfere with getting the job done so we can pay our bills.
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