His name is George McGovern. He was a war hero, who earned the Distinguished Flying Cross in World War II. He also ran for President once upon a time. And has been a liberal icon for decades due to his opposition to the Vietnam War.
He’s 87 years old, and he’s still speaking out against injustice. This time it’s the deceptively-named Employee Free Choice Act, which is big labor’s holy grail. McGovern’s opposition to EFCA has earned him the anger of organized labor:
The liberal icon’s public break with the left has produced from his old allies anger, confusion and a failed campaign to persuade him to change his mind on the legislation, which would give workers the option of joining a union by signing cards rather than by voting in a secret ballot.
Instead, McGovern has stuck to his guns in an unlikely campaign that began in the pages of The Wall Street Journal , where he wrote that, for Democrats, abandoning the secret ballot would be “a betrayal of what we have always championed.”
Flirting with sacrilege, he compared his opposition to the bill to “my early and lonely opposition to the Vietnam War.”
I wonder if there are any McGovern Democrats around. And I don’t mean people who voted or campaigned for him. I mean Democrats willing to take on their own party and union establishment out of conscience.
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Comments
A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, there was this concept called ‘having prinicples.’ Apparently, Mr. McGovern is a remnant of that civilization. Wow.
“Democrats willing to take on their own party and union establishment out of conscience.”
There’s always some in both parties. I think the more pressing question is how many are willing to take on their party leaders and Obama for their own self-interests? As Obama proposes a few cuts (more will have to follow) that negatively affect constituencies (sometimes devestatingly so) and raises taxes on lower and lower income brackets, how many will disagree in a meaningful way? I’m thinking a lot.