[credit: Chris Weyant, The Hill]
Unionism is at a historic low point in the United States. Just 45% of Americans viewed unions favorably in a 2011 Pew public opinion poll, and national union membership has dwindled to just 11.8% of the workforce. Nevertheless, unionism among public workers has been growing in recent years. Public unions have never been popular with the Americans who paradoxically view public service as something a person does only for altruistic reasons. The failed PATCO strike is a testament to that curiously quaint view. Reagan's firing of striking air traffic controllers made a national hero out of the former movie actor turned corporate hawker. Union defeat in the Wisconsin recall will have a similar impact on the upcoming national election even if the proletariat reaction is misguided. The source of their pain is sitting in corporate boardrooms and Wall Street corner offices.A recent poll on teacher unions showed only 21% of Americans have a positive view of those. Since Scott Walker limited collective bargaining and ended payroll dues deduction, AFSCME membership has dropped in half in Wisconsin. In the midst of the Second Great Depression, voters are loath to give public union members more pay and benefits they already consider generous by private sector standards. The Obamanator may think the "LGBT" brand is large and well-heeled enough to give him the edge in the November election, but US Person doubts that seriously. He needs union members to vote, and more importantly, campaign for him. Unions spent $400 million in the 2008 election to make 'Chuck Barry' the current occupant of the White House. Tweets to the "chardonnay set" do not get the job done.