We Must be Talking

  A Toss-up Presidential Election          Gerry OShea The polls suggest that there is at least a 50 – 50 chance that the electorate will choose a woman for the first time as president on November 5 th . This history-making possibility is even more significant because the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, is also a black woman. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by close to three million but lost in the Electoral College, a remnant of a past era baked into the American constitution. The United States, alone among the world’s democracies, does not accept the popular vote as determinative of victory in national contests. Everybody, regardless of gender, is capable of both toughness and tenderness. However, for some people, women are associated with softness and with an aura of weakness in confrontational situations, which raises questions about a female’s ability to confront foreign bullies in a crisis situation in the Oval Office.   The Republicans released a brillia

  The Decline of Trade Unionism          Gerry OShea While defending the United Mine Workers in an arbitration dispute in 1903, Clarence Darrow, the renowned left-wing attorney, extolled unions as “ the greatest agency that the wit of man has ever devised for uplifting the lowly and the weak, for defending the poor and the oppressed, for bringing about a genuine democracy among men.” This grand and noble sentiment should be posted at the entrance of every union hall to remind members of earlier, more idealistic times when, under leaders like Cesar Chavez and Mike Quill, promoting a fairer society was an important part of their agenda. One of the main reasons for the Democratic Party's growth was that a sizable number of workers belonging to unions saw the need for a political party focused on their concerns, especially in the economic area. Nearly all the leaders of the labor movement – past and present - preach that the Democrats in Congress and in state legislatures best