McGovern's Sell Out of Working Families

(originally posted on my Facebook blog Oct. 10, 2008)

I was eleven and growing up in Yankton, South Dakota the year George McGovern ran for President of the United States. Though I was just eleven, I'd like to think that the person I have become was influenced in some measure by the McGovern of 1972 - a progressive democrat; proud to be called liberal; proud to support labor and working families; an outspoken critic of corporate greed and big business.


The McGovern of 2008 however is a stranger to me. His slippage into foggy dotage and the pocket of corporate America was made painfully clear this week as an anti-labor attack ad featuring the former South Dakota Senator made its national television debut.

In the video, McGovern lambastes supporters of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and wrongly calls the legislation undemocratic. The television ad is part of a $30 million attack campaign sponsored by the Employee Freedom Action Committee - a front organization funded by Big Business and out to destroy the Labor Movement in America today.

Big Business is running scared. The Employee Free Choice Act does not take away the ability of workers to hold a private vote for union representation as alleged, but rather returns that decision back to where it should be - into the hands of the workers.

George McGovern wrote the following in a 2002 Harper's magazine article: "Democracy does not guarantee wisdom or virtue; it guarantees only the principles of majority rule and freedom of choice."The Employee Free Choice Act would guarantee majority rule and the freedom of choice for workers wanting to organize and form a union. And that, according to George McGovern, is what Democracy is all about.