Union Sheep

(Sketch artist rendition of my Neighbor)

As I went off to work this morning and as I was loading my day’s sustenance and work related items in my Tahoe I noticed that my neighbor had put up a Kerry~Edwards sign in his front yard. Dismayed by this I found myself instantly perturbed. I was not angered over his right to support his candidate, as I have an even more liberal neighbor who lives on the corner and had Dean bumper stickers over all three of his compact cars, that is until Dean lost and he changed them to Kerry~Edwards stickers. I have written him off as he is a teacher and a union member funded by the giant government monopoly that is our school system but, I had such high hopes for my neighbor.

I think a little background might be applicable here. I live in a community of about 30,000 people in a Downriver suburb of Detroit. We are primarily a blue collar union suburb so I know right off the bat what kind of ignorance I have to face everyday. I have no illusions and know that me being a conservative am in the minority in my neighborhood despite the recent development of seeing many more Bush~Cheney stickers on cars. Our homes are modest and price out between 150K-210K and were all built between the 1930’s and the 1960’s. All of the houses are somewhat similar as are lot sizes. With the exception of an occasional Cadillac no one drives luxury cars or has a summer home in the Hampton’s. Just your typical hardworking community you’ll find in Anytown U.S.A.

Now that you understand the setting I know you will not be shocked to find out that my neighbor is a union member of the United Steel Workers of America. Despite this employment handicap we get along very well and are very good friends. All of this begs the question why would any union sheep vote for Bush to begin with or why would I think that my neighbor would be any different? Because after 8 years of Clinton in office the US steel industry was failing. Many countries such as Russia and China were dumping steel here at below market prices to drive American companies out of business. All under the Clinton watch I may add. But what do union sheep do best, they vote Democrat out of habit and the onslaught continues.

Now in steps President Bush, who lost Michigan by around 8 to 10 Points, and he puts a massive tariff on imported Steel to allow the US Steel industry to get back on its feet and consolidate where possible. This went against every free market principle that he holds but he did it to try to stem the tide after 8 years of Clinton negligence. A sort of noble protectionism of sorts you may say. Now during this time the US steel industry does just that, it consolidates. The company that he works at is bought out by a bigger steel company with more bargaining power and a greater chance of survival in a global market. But even with all the help the Steel industry through years of mismanagement and illegal dumping is still reeling from legacy costs such as retirement funds and health insurance. So they now ask the government to foot the bill of the retirees of the bankrupt companies. To which the government declines. Either way the Steel industry is better off than it was under the Clinton years by far.  With all this going on the EU and other steel producing countries were suing the US to get rid of the tariffs. And to top if off it increased the cost of steel for small businesses and cut into their razor thin profits as it was. All of this was done for the benefit of the Steel worker. And how does Bush get thanked you may ask? With the tariffs still in place and massive pressure to get rid of them the Steel workers union and the Steel industry asked him to leave them in place and then endorsed Dick Gephardt for President. What stones the Steel industry must have. Needless to say Bush dropped the protectionist tariffs and the Union people had more fodder to hate Bush because after all if he cared about the steel workers he would have kept the tariffs in place right? Forget the fact he instituted the tariffs in the first place, and that the Democrat they put into office twice did not help them and let the conditions happen that jeopardized the Steel industry to begin with. You have to look past that and say but the next Democrat will be different. So they choose Gephardt, and Gephardt lost. So they next choose a Looney northeast liberal in Kerry who like most liberals wants to see the end of American industry with its high pollution and big trucks made of Steel. The union sheep are so blinded by the party it is leading to their own demise. A demise that will ultimately get blamed on someone else.

So back to my neighbor, he’s voting for Kerry because Bush didn’t help the Steel workers. Forget the fact the Kerry has never done anything to help the Steel workers and Bush has, just put that out of your mind. My neighbor is also sold on the fact that Bush is also killing overtime. A fallacy if I’ve ever heard one. The union leadership got together and used this as more fodder, pointing out that some people will lose the protection of overtime benefits. They conveniently ignored that many more low income people will gain from this. What they also leave out is that any negotiated union contract will not be affected ever! And that most of the people that that changes apply to make in excess of $100,000 a year already and are not laborers or mechanics or steel workers but are in High tech jobs and clinical workers. So what you have is the union saying Bush is against the Steel industry because he eliminated the tariffs and he is getting rid of overtime protection. And the average union member just buys it hook, line and sinker. They don’t question it they don’t do any research they just accept what the union says and vote accordingly.

I’m not sure what I was getting at when I started this little rant but the fact that he put the sign up just irritates me. His sign is cardboard and is the typical 1 ft by 1 ½ foot design, which let me to put up my 2 ft by 3 ft plastic Bush~Cheney sign a bit earlier than I wanted. I will now also have to get more Bush~Cheney signs to cover the inevitable neighborhood kids who will damage and steal or burn them. It’s great to see America’s youth get involved in the political process like that isn’t it? I guess I should just have realized that union sheep don’t change despite logic working against them. This lonely conservative will just have to be the beacon of reason in a union stronghold, fighting the good fight for freedom and country.

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