-By Warner Todd Huston
Pat “the accidental governor” Quinn told a union crowd that Illinois GOP Gubernatorial nominee Bill Brady would somehow destroy the middle class by his anti-union stance. Quinn also made the essential claim that without unions there’d be no “middle class.”
“We’re not going to have a middle class if we allow a lot of anti-labor, anti-union operators to get in politics and tear to shreds fundamental things we all agree on,” Quinn said. “He doesn’t believe in the minimum wage. He wants to abolish it.”
There is, of course, a glaring error in Quinn’s wild-eyed union claim. As of 2009 union members accounted for only 12.4 percent of America’s workforce. With this fact one wonders how the middle class could be eliminated by anti-union forces when union workers make up such a tiny percentage of the total U.S. workforce already?
Is Quinn trying to claim that the entire middle class is made up of only 12.4 percent of the U.S. workforce?
On the contrary, just by the numbers it would seem that if unions wholly disappeared all at once there wouldn’t be that big a dent in the total middle class of the country. In fact, unions have been losing members steadily for quite a while now and there is still a thriving middle class. After all, nearly half of American households fit into the middle class. (incomes median $46,000 annually).
Is the economy bad right now? Sure it is. But one could effectively argue that some of this bad economy is because of unions and their production killing demands, not despite them.
On top of that, there is no evidence that Bill Brady ever said he wants to eliminate the minimum wage. So Quinn has tow for two in lies on this one, for sure.
Sadly, Quinn has drifted far from the man of the people he once was and is now a scaremonger, a demagogue, and a hypocrite.
____________
“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
Fair Use: This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of political, human rights, economic, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. I believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research, educational, or satirical purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site/blog for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.