America's Newest Racists: Union Members

Or at least, I'm sure that's what Chris Matthews and company will say if they ever report on this. (Actually, unions do have a long history of bad race relations, but that's another story.) In the interests of making us feel better at the end of a grueling week, here's another case of liberals turning on each other.

So when ObamaCare was passed three years ago, unions were among its loudest cheerleaders. And why wouldn't they? It was supposed to be the legislation that would ensure health care for all, make it affordable, lead America into a new Golden Era, blah blah blah. Besides, there's party loyalty to consider. So they backed TOTUS all the way.

Well, it's no secret to any of us that ObamaCare hasn't been delivering the flying unicorns it promised us. And the unions have slowly been figuring that out too. Even though many of the leaders spend their time ripping off the rank-and-file members, they still have to pay attention to those underlings' grievances. And what do a lot of union members see happening? Health insurance premiums continuing to go up, myriad other costs following suit--this is putting the squeeze on unions' own health plans, leading many to consider whether it wouldn't just be easier to go directly onto the government's plan. Which is not good--like any other organized group, the first law of a labor union is self-preservation, and one of their chief attractions has been their health insurance. If that's no longer a draw, then what?

So for the past few months or so, a lot of folks from Big Labor have been getting on the White House's case to adjust some of the requirements to make the legislation more palatable for unions. These haven't really gotten anywhere, and the frustration has risen to the point where one of them, at least, has decided to bolt. The United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers (I honestly didn't know waterproofing was its own profession) issued a press release this week announcing that, their prior support for Obama and friends notwithstanding, their concerns about the consequences of the health-care bill were completely ignored, their health insurance has now been endangered, etc., they are therefore "calling for repeal or complete reform of the Affordable Care Act to protect...our members and their families," plus puppies and kittens and so on.

Now, this is the only union which has as an organization abandoned ObamaCare (so far). But there are plenty of rumblings below the surface in others, too. Many local chapters have likewise demanded repeal, including those in the United Federation of Teachers, the Social Service Employees Union, the Teamsters, and even the SEIU (!). And it's not just the unions. Even Montana's Democratic Senator Max Baucus, who was crucial in writing this monstrosity in the first place, has begun voicing criticisms, complaining about delays in setting up the necessary programs and warning that it has the potential to become a "train wreck." Er, thanks for that news flash, Senator.

It would appear that the groundwork is in place for a large-scale defection from support of ObamaCare. Now, don't hold out any hope of Obama giving up and repealing or drastically reforming the legislation. We've already talked about how this may be practically the entirety of his legacy; that's even more true now, with the recent failure of the gun control legislation and immigration reform anything but a certainty. He's going to hang all his hopes on this one, that's for sure. But it does provide a little bit of Schadenfreude, at least, to see Obama's coalition falling apart, even if it won't have any concrete results in the near future.

Racial identity groups, class identity groups, gender identity groups--they're all at odds with each other, and then they all attack the government when they don't get what they want. If we didn't get caught in the political consequences so often, it would just be a barrel of laughs.