The American labor movement seems to have taken a page right out of Al Sharpton’s 2003-4 presidential campaign. Remember Al’s rallying call?
“Now you know the symbol of our party is the donkey. And my Momma always told me the donkey is a stubborn animal. You just can’t get him to do things easily. You can’t coax him and you can’t cajole him. Instead what you have to do to get that donkey to move is to slap him.
“Well I intend to slap this donkey all the way from New Hampshire to Iowa. I’m gonna slap this donkey all across the United States. I will keep slappin’ this donkey until this donkey gets up the courage to kick George Bush right out of office!”
Well, that didn’t work out as planned, but Bush did eventually leave the White House and the Democrats did take over both houses of Congress. And then a lot of progressives discovered that items on their agenda were either dropped, given a low priority, or stalled. And that is when you have to make some transition from slapping the elephant to slapping the donkey. In my opinion, the progressive movement as a whole has not been very discriminating or strategic or precise in their choice of slap targets, but some of them are obvious. Unions have gone all-in against Blanche Lincoln, who has benefited from labor’s help in her campaigns but who dropped her prior support for the Employee Free Choice Act once it actually had a chance to pass the filibuster hurdle. That behavior completely dictates support for a primary challenge. There is no way to look the other way on a betrayal of that magnitude, and no other way to discipline other members who might be thinking of doing the same thing on other issues. It looks like the labor movement will be getting involved in contested Democratic primaries in Colorado, Ohio, Kentucky, and elsewhere. This will be very controversial, as many see it is a waste of money that weakens the Democrats in a tough election cycle. That is why efforts like this must be done intelligently with a careful eye on what is realistic. Otherwise, we just eat our own.
Nate Silver has examined the Arkansas race and found the challenge to be a poor investment. His reasoning is sound. But sometimes you have to make a statement. Sometimes a statement is worth more than the money it costs to promulgate. Sometimes, you have to slap the donkey to move the donkey.
