On some days, there must waves of nostalgia that wash over the SEIU rank and file for former-SEIU-boss-turned-corporate-insider Andy Stern and his cohort Anna Burger. At least, prior to Stern’s company doing questionable drug deals with the Obama administration, as a union boss, Stern was more creative than his successors.
Take, for example, the SEIU’s endorsement of Barack Obama for next year’s election. That, in and of itself, is not surprising (after all, as the hand in Obama’s puppet, Andy Stern had secured Obama’s allegiance to the SEIU before he was elected President).
No, the SEIU’s endorsement itself is not surprising. What is surprising about the SEIU’s endorsement, though, is the utter banality of the endorsement and its predictably easy setup to campaign against whomever the GOP nominee is.
Here is Andy Stern’s successor’s announcement of the SEIU endorsement [via CNN]
“As Americans we face stark choice,” Service Employees International Union president Mary Kay Henry said Wednesday. “Do we want leaders who side with rich corporations, the 1% who are prospering, or leaders who side with us, the 99 percent?”
“This is about our members being united in the belief that things are broken in this country, and we need to come together in numbers to help fix it,” Henry said. “That means joining forces with students, neighbors, the unemployed, and working people in the encampments. This is an act of solidarity with the 99% movement.”
Really? With the hundreds of millions of dues dollars pouring in every year, that’s the most creative the SEIU could get from its PR firms? Sure, it’s a simplistic enough message for some of her SEIU membership: A vote for [insert name here] is a vote for the 1%. However, most ordinary voters should see right through it.
Unfortunately, for Henry and her SEIU comrades, they also have another problem. They apparently stole the #OccupyWallSt slogan without getting permission from the #occupiers first.
But in an interview, Occupy DC spokesman Sam Jewler denied any alignment with the union.
“We certainly have not endorsed President Obama or any other politicians,” Jewler told CNN during an interview Wednesday at an impromptu tent city a few blocks from the White House.
In fact, according to the #OccupyDenver crowd, the #OccupyMovement is against Barack Obama [at 1:50 below]:
[Video courtesy of UnitedLiberty.org]
While the SEIU’s endorsement (regardless how ridiculous its messaging is) should certainly expected, the stealing of the #OWS movement’s slogan may just cause the dog to bite its owner.
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“Socialism has no place in the hearts of those who would secure the fight for freedom and preserve democracy.” Samuel Gompers, 1918
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