A Republican Holiday
"It's terrible! More Americans will be able to vote and volunteer on Election
Day this year." That's the position of Republican leaders upset that this
coming Election Day will be a paid holiday for 400,000 autoworkers. The
United Auto Workers, in contract negotiations, won the right for its members
to have a day off in order to participate in democracy. GOPers fear these
union workers will likely vote Democrat and do so throughout the industrial
mid-West, key states in the presidential contest. "It certainly puts us at a
competitive disadvantage for the volunteers needed for Election Day," Robert
Bennett, the Republican chairman of Ohio, told the Associated Press. A
spokesman for Michigan Governor John Engler, a Republican, griped that this
will be "the largest soft money contribution in American political history.
Companies will have to pay salary and benefits for the to go out and campaign
for Al Gore."
So far, the UAW has been cool toward Gore because of his support of President
Clinton's China trade bill. It has not joined the AFL-CIO endorsement of
Gore, and Stephen Yokich, the union president, threatened that the UAW might
look elsewhere for a candidate to support. He dropped Ralph Nader's name as
one potential endorsee. But whether or not this union contract provision aids
Gore, the Republicans are missing an opportunity. They should one-up the UAW
by proposing that everyone gets Election Day off. Why not make that day a
federal holiday, so that all workers and managers have the chance to be
involved and have more of an opportunity to make it to the polls? We take
time off to commemorate Christopher Columbus's arrival in this hemisphere.
Why not to engage in the most basic civic activity. Such a move could help
counter the trend of declining voter participation. It also could provide a
bounce for the party that pushes it, for voters might reward the party that
allowed them to skip one more day of work. But do you think Republicans might
be put off by studies that show they tend to do better when voter turnout is
depressed?
Naaah, the Grand Old Party would never put its own parochial interests ahead
of what was best for American democracy.
http://tompaine.com/opinion/2000/06/16/2.html
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