Joe Klein has been writing about politics from a Democrat perspective since the days of Bill Clinton. He writes that his party has gone off into the tall weeds and left him behind, a man without a party. I would share with you some of his insights.
[Ruy Teixeira] just wrote an essay arguing that it’s time to throw the Democratic interest groups under the bus. I agree, but there’s a problem: they are the bus (emphasis in original).
There are two Democratic bus “drivers” that are inimical to the cause of good government, which supposedly is the root project of the party. They are lawyers and public employees unions, especially the teachers.
Now, I’d be grateful if someone could explain to me why federal employees, many of whom are over-protected as it is by the civil service system, need unions too. And then, there’s this eternal question: If industrial unions—which I favor—are organized against the power of capital, what are public employees unions organized against? The public? (italics in original)
There is no counter-vailing force to the power of the public unions in the Democratic Party.
The point is, these are the people driving the Democratic bus. They are forces of reaction, of profound sclerosis. And no one wants to talk about it.
So Joe Klein writes about it, as does Ruy Teixeira. Given civil service protections, public employees should not be allowed to strike or bargain collectively.
Public employee unions funding election campaigns is like criminal organizations paying the expenses of judges. I write this as a retired more-or-less-lifelong public employee.
