Web Letters: Hillary's Labor Gambit

I am a new subscriber to The Nation. While I have generally been pleased with the magazine (I gave a gift subscription to my best friend as a present, too), this article causes me great concern.

Ari Berman shares what I generally believe are some insightful comments about Hillary's record on issues that are important to working families and unions. I have also been intrigued by some of his recent articles about Hillary, in previous issues. However, in this latest article, he twice used the slur "union bosses" when referring to union leadership. I expect this type of name calling from people not friendly to labor. Whether or not Mr. Berman intended to insult union members or is ignorant of the fact that he used this slur, I am surprised that The Nation's editors would allow this slur to appear, not once, but twice in their magazine.

I think an apology from both the writer and the magazine are in order.

Michael Weinberg

Napa, CA

On Meet the Press, Harold Ford Jr., chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, declared while mostly disparaging the Daily Kos founder, that if the Democratic Party wants to be successful in the next election, it has to prove to the American public it is strong on the national defense, it shares the American moral values and it will not waste the taxpayers money. Those statements have instantly told us why our country is in such a deep trouble. We are lead by two conservative parties, one called the Republican Party and other called the Democratic Party.

Unfortunately, the Democratic Party has lost its soul and substance few decades ago in an attempt to imitate the GOP. It embraced "either do nothing or do something bad" strategy as their political counterparts have done a long time ago. Harold Ford's statement implicitly accepts all the charges the Republicans have dumped on the Democrats for so long: being weak on the national defense, not sharing the American moral values and wasting the taxpayers' money. All aforementioned Ford's priorities are just a bunch of topics that are in good condition--a traditional "do nothing" Republican platform.

For decades we have been militarily the strongest power on the face of the earth and there is nobody even remotely close to us, so there is no need to be worried about that. Of course, Americans share the similar moral values. Certainly nobody has wasted taxpayers' money for centuries, until recently, otherwise we wouldn't be the most powerful nation.

Instead of declaring the obvious, Mr. Ford would do much better if he stated as Democratic Party priorities the things both parties have done wrong in the last few decades--invading the foreign countries without any results, giving federal tax money away to the richest, running enormous federal and budget trade deficits, exporting American jobs overseas, enabling overwhelming illegal immigration, nurturing a neck-breaking burden imposed upon the American economy by the skyrocketing cost of healthcare and drugs, ignoring the crumbling infrastructure, letting the big business brainwash the young generations by running the endless senseless commercials (eat, drink, spend, eat, drink, spend, eat, drink, spend and when you spend all your money--borrow, borrow, borrow...) et cetera.

But, Mr. Harold Ford Jr. did one great thing for our country during that interview. He made us visit the Democratic Leadership Council web site and check what kind of people is in that group of lunatics. Surprise, surprise. To the right from Mr. Ford, there is a photo of Hillary Rodham Clinton, listed as the member of the very leadership. At least we know now what we are getting into if we send Mrs. Clinton to the White House. Mrs. Clinton is just George W. Bush in a skirt. Nobody asks her to be friendly with organized labor or to attend any union gatherings.

All she has to do are the fundamentals essential for our country, and that will take care of American labor. Reinstate the previous tax rates and that will take care of crumbling national infrastructure, which will make the American labor busy. Annul or adjust any trade agreement instrumental in creation the enormous trade deficits and forget about the unions. Just make sure there is no trade deficit. Labor is willing to cope with any consequences.

Just punish any employer who hires illegal immigrants. People without any legal rights are not in position to fairly negotiate about their wages.

Senator Clinton, if you made sure that the current US laws were implemented and the US interests were protected, you shouldn't have to care at all about the American labor.

Senator Clinton, you have catastrophically failed to protect the US Constitution, which is something you swore to do when you become the US Senator. If you believe you didn't harm our country enough already, you are dead wrong. It is going to take a capable President to reverse the damages you and your colleagues have imposed upon our country. Please, leave us alone and stop fighting for us. We can not sustain it anymore.

Mrs. Clinton, you don't understand that the middle class always represents America's status the best. If the economic status of the middle class deteriorates, the whole of America is deteriorating. Trust us, middle America is not financially in a good shape right now.

Kenan Porobic

Charlotte, NC