Washington, D.C.
The 2010 elections are now in the history books. Democrats have suffered losses of historic proportions, losing control of the U.S. House of Representatives and seeing their majority in the Senate narrowed to just a handful of seats. Losses of equal proportions were suffered by many Democrats at the state level across the country, with numerous gubernatorial and legislative races lost. The most disastrous losses for Democrats were among their Congressional delegation, as voters punished them in part for the failure of Senate Democrats to move legislation which House members had acted upon.
Millions of working people sat out the election fracas, and millions more tragically cast ballots for the most anti-labor set of Republican Party candidates in living memory. Those working people who voted to prop up many Democrats did succeed, but the task was too great, the motivation too little, and the tidal wave of corporate money which poured into the elections was impossible to overcome in many regions of the country. Many of the most progressive Democrats did win re-election, with the worst losses not surprisingly found among those who frequently tried to find common ground with Republicans
"The election results clearly indicate that big business and big money succeeded in buying majority control of the most dangerous Congress in our lifetimes. It's far from the best Congress money can buy, but it surely is the most expensive Congress they could buy."" commented UE General Secretary-Treasurer Bruce Klipple. "Working people must begin immediately to prepare the defenses. The attack will come as soon as the lame duck Congressional session convenes in just a few weeks. Corporate Republicans have told us point blank what they intend to do; they intend to raise the Social Security retirement age to 70 years of age; renew the budget busting Bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires; expand the offshoring of jobs and the wrecking of unions; and kill off the meritorious aspects of the Democrats health reform plan. Those are just the first few items on their menu. Their real attacks will begin to unroll in January, and by then the Republicans will have found the weak and corrupt Senate Democrats who they think they will be able to recruit to support their schemes. We will be holding all these politicians to account, no matter which party they belong to," said Klipple.
UE Political Action Director Chris Townsend thanked the UE members who did their best in the difficult elections. "Thanks go to all the UE members and activists who did what you could do. This was the most frustrating election experience in living memory. But, unlike some others in the labor movement we are not surprised that we now face such a situation. In fact, more than two years ago we warned that this day would come unless Democrats got busy and took the gloves off. From the minute President Obama was elected the Republican Congressional delegation signaled that it's entire plan was to block everything the Democrats were trying to accomplish, lure the Democrats into their trap, and then destroy as many of them as possible on Election Day. As working people we had better demand that the Democrats admit this failure, and begin to plan real resistance to the attacks which are coming. We need firm resolve and unity, not more excuses for why we should accept bipartisan surrender. We reject working until we are 70. We reject more tax cuts for the rich. We reject more corporate job slashing. We reject more attacks on hard working public sector workers." said Townsend.
The so-called "lame duck Congressional session" is scheduled to begin on November 15th. This will be convened by the outgoing Members of the current Congress, and will not include any of the newly elected members. The new Congress will not convene until January. These sessions have become very dangerous for working people in recent decades, as that corrupt wheeling-and-dealing has won passage of numerous schemes to benefit big business and the rich. Our union will be keeping a close eye on the coming session with an eye towards mobilizing resistance to any such anti-worker attacks which materialize in the final hours of the outgoing Congress.