Meet Bruce The Plumber, Joe's Employee

Meet Bruce the plumber, Joe's trusty non-union employee who makes a few bucks more than minimum wage, does side jobs on weekends after doing 40 for Joe and still barely makes the mortgage. Bruce only has health insurance because his wife works full time as a nurse at the hospital, which thank god is unionized. Bruce's lungs aren't doing so hot either and the medical bills are enormous even with the fancy HMO plan. His condition is likely due to breathing chemicals without a respirator for 15 years because his boss Joe says that OSHA is 'socialist bullshit' and 'the government shouldn't tell him how to run his business'.

Bruce hates unions, supports the war because he's 'patriotic' and will likely vote for McCain because he'll put 'country first'

Now say hello to Mike, Bruce's older uncle, who was smart enough to join the Carpenter's union 30 years ago. He earns a very good wage and has a great benefits package thanks to collective bargaining. He's been busting his ass putting up and tearing down concrete forms and scaffolding on construction sites since Carter was President. Mike was all set to retire in '09 but the market tanked last week and took half of his annuity with it. He now has to work for 12 more years (unless he dies first), but the construction industry has froze up due to the recession and it's lookin like he'll be facing a pretty long layoff instead.

Mike is pro-union, but doesn't understand the difference between a democratic union and a business union like his. He supported the war at first and slowly came around to ending it, not coincidentally at the same time that the media finally began to question it's merit. He'll begrudgingly vote for Obama because he has 'never voted Republican in his life' and his union has endorsed Obama as 'the best choice for carpenters'

It would seem evident that Bruce and Mike would both do slightly better with Obama than with McCain, but imagine if they could hear other candidates proposals. What if Brian Moore, Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader or Bob Barr were able to respond to those same questions on national TV every week? What if the media experts spent hours comparing any one of these candidates plans extensively with Obama and McCains? Imagine if the media even mentioned one of these candidates mere existence?

There are wonderful alternatives to the same old crap every election, but these choices are systematically excluded from the 'marketplace of ideas'


Thoughts from an angry union carpenter/public school teacher


Todd Vachon
www.votevachon.com

> Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2008 10:05:27 -0700

Some debate remarks:

1. Joe The Plumber
Joe the Plumber is not the average American... he is the average American's boss.
Joe the plumber is the Average Republican.

2. Class Warfare? Re-distributing wealth?
The capitalist class, Republican and Democrat alike, have been waging class warfare against workers for decades. This is witnessed by the deregulation of industry, tax breaks for the wealthiest individuals and corporations, declining real wages, skyrocketing CEO pay, attacks on organized labor, anti-worker free-trade agreements, profit hungry health insurance plans and perverse levels of inequality.

If anybody really wants change, they're going to have to stop voting for the same two parties.

Moore/Alexander- Socialist Party, USA www.votesocialist2008.org

Nader/Gonzalez- Independent www.votenader.org

McKinney/Clemente- Green Party
www.mckinney2008.com/PRESIDENT/

-Todd