Harold Meyerson dredges up a few numbers that should give Democrats hope for future elections. They include the percentage of young voters who voted Democratic, the number of newly elected senators who carried the youth vote, and this number:
Twenty-four – The gap, in percentage points, between the levels of support for Democrats and Republicans among white voters without college degrees who have union members in their household and white voters without college degrees who don’t. In Tuesday’s national exit poll on House voting, working-class whites voted overwhelmingly for Republicans – unless they lived with or were themselves union members, in which case they supported Democrats by a margin of 55 percent to 43 percent. Working-class voters from nonunion households backed Republican candidates 68 percent to 31 percent – a huge difference. It’s not because unionized UPS drivers and nonunion FedEx drivers, say, are two different species of human. It’s because the unions’ political education and mobilization programs are very effective.
Here’s another number he might think about: fifty-two. That’s the percentage of all union members who are public sector workers. And that number is growing fast.
Many of the largest states in the Union are in fiscal trouble because of the compensation that’s being given to public sector employees. That compensation might have been reasonable in a different era in which generous healthcare plans and defined benefit programs were the norm in the private sector but that era has been gone for decades, following in the path of buggy whip manufacturers and elevator operators.
If the Democratic Party’s great hope is to be the unionized public sector employees, how in the world will we ever escape the fiscal trainwreck that’s bearing down on us? Mr. Meyerson should consider two words: remember PATCO.
I’d add that 55-43 is not what I would call an overwhelming advantage for the Democrats. Assuming that public sector employees drove that ratio, it seems feasible that the Dems actually lost the private sector union members in this election. I’d call that a really bad sign.
Yes, that’s what I was trying to imply in singling it out. Too oblique perhaps.
I’ve said this before, though I can’t remember where, but the Dems (and in particular, the Blue Dogs) made a significant mistake by not passing card check – preferably weakened somewhat, imo – in exchange for the unions supporting complete elimination of the employer tax exemption. They would have genuinely strengthened their base while also passing a better policy.