As the Democratic primary contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama dragged on, the other remaining Senator in the presidential race - Republican John McCain of Arizona - enjoyed valuable time to salve the wounded egos left over from the Republican's own bruising primary battle. His campaign handlers also had time to test different ways to "market" John McCain to voters in the general election. From now until November, the mission of his advertising consultants and campaign operatives will be to "sell" John McCain to the voters. They'll try to make it sound like he's the most flavorful and nutritious sandwich on the menu. They'll try to convince us that electing him is a great deal for the country. They'll put a great-looking wrapper around it. The trouble is, they are trying to sell us an awful sandwich that will make us sick.
The fact is that Sen. John McCain has a particularly toxic record when it comes to the things that really matter to working people. I have been stationed here in Washington, DC as UE's Political Action Director for the past 15 years. From this vantage point I have closely observed Sen. McCain in action, and it's not a pretty picture. Let's take a look at just a sample of his record. And remember, if people are not careful, this guy could be the next president.
A Dismal Record
During his tenure in the U.S. Senate, beginning in 1987, John McCain has:
· Tried to prevent passage of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act - a law requiring advance notice to workers before a plant closing - in 1987 and 1988.
· Fought to deny collective bargaining rights to public mass transit workers, in 1987.
· Opposed "strikers rights" legislation that would have banned permanent replacements, when it was voted on in 1992 and 1995.
· Supported NAFTA in 1993, the General Agreement on Tarriffs and Trade (GATT) in 1994, as well as CAFTA, free trade with China, and every major job-exporting trade deal that has come along.
· Supported the TEAM Act of 1996, which would have made it legal for employers to start company unions. These have been illegal since 1935.
· Supported, in 1996, a federal "right-to-work act" that would have banned union shop and agency shop contract provisions across the country.
· Supported, in 1998, the so-called "anti-salting" bill that would have made it legal to fire and blacklist workers who attempt to organize a union.
· In 2007, opposed the Employee Free Choice Act, which would restore workers' right to join unions.
· Supported the 2002 bill that created the Department of Homeland Security and stripped tens of thousands of federal workers of their right to union representation and bargaining.
· Supported a legislative attempt to rob workers of overtime pay and paid leave, in both 1997 and 2003.
· Attempted to raise the eligibility age for Medicare coverage from 65 to 67, in 1997.
· Supported a 2007 amendment requiring that the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) not cut into the profits of private insurance companies.
· Supported privatizing Social Security in 1999, and continues to do so.
· Supported the mislabeled "Pension Protection Act of 2006," which led to more employers eliminating pension plans.
· In 2004 he supported increasing the massive federal debt to subsidize Bush tax cuts for the rich and out-of-control military spending.
· Fought to prevent repeal of the Bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, in 2005.
· Supported legislation in 2001 and 2005, sponsored by the banks and credit card companies, to remove any trace of fairness from the bankruptcy laws. In Ralph Nader's words this bill, passed in 2005, traps "hard pressed consumers in what amounts to 'debtors prison' for years."
· Supported the misnamed "Patriot Act" of 2001, which enabled the Bush-Cheney regime to trample our Constitutional rights.
· Supported the Military Commissions Act of 2006. This law overturns habeas corpus, a basic human right in the U.S. Constitution, and allows the President to unilaterally declare anyone - including U.S. citizens - "unlawful enemy combatants" and to imprison them indefinitely, in secret, and torture them.
· Supported - in fact he led the charge - to give President Bush "use of force" authority to invade Iraq, in 2002.
· Enthusiastically supported the disastrous illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, from 2003 to the present day.
· Supported every Bush funding request for the endless war in Iraq, and opposed all attempts to withdraw our troops, in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008.
· Opposed the May 2008 bill to expand and improve the GI Bill of Rights. McCain is against providing more education benefits to veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Since no UE members live or work in Arizona, he has not been rated in the UE Congressional Scorecards. The above list of his votes was compiled by looking back at how McCain voted on issues covered by the UE Congressional Scorecards in past years. The U.S. Senate web site records all roll-call votes (www.senate.gov), as does Congressional Quarterly (CQ) magazine.
'Change?' ... Are You Kidding?!
Sen. McCain and his campaign staff will try hard to disassociate him from the ruins of the Bush-Cheney regime. But for him, that's really an impossible job. Over the entire seven and a half years of Bush-Cheney, John McCain has been there, again and again, as a reliable supporter of the White House agenda. Congressional Quarterly's compilation of McCain's voting record shows that he voted in lockstep with Bush 100 percent of the time in 2008 and 95 percent in 2007. From 2001 through 2006, McCain consistently voted for whatever Bush wanted an average of 88.3 percent of the time. Some in the corporate media have given McCain the label of "maverick." But a closer look at his record shows that a McCain presidency would mean a third term of Bush-Cheney policies, and that it is entirely reasonable to identify this candidate as "McSame" or "McBush."
As we near the November election, and as the McCain campaign finds it impossible to hide from his record as a rubber stamp for Bush, we can expect him to turn loose his Republican operatives in a gutter campaign to smear and slander Barack Obama. You can count on that. The goal - as in similar GOP negative campaigns of the past - will be to confuse and divide working people, and get them to forget about the abysmal record of John McCain, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and the Republicans in Congress. They will do everything they can to distract attention from all the harm their policies have done. But Election Day, November 4, will be the opportunity for working people to show them that we're a lot smarter than they give us credit for, and that we won't be fooled again.
After reviewing the above list, ask yourself a simple question: If the John McCain record was a sandwich, would you order one? Would you eat it, or let your kids eat it? Of course not.
So it's very important that every UE local implement a plan to register our members to vote. Visit the UE website for tools to help you - www.ueunion.org/ueaction.html
The union will be providing you more information as Election Day gets closer. We all have a lot of work to do to ensure that UE members are not lured by the deceptive advertising and don't order a "McBush" on Election Day. Because if they do, they'll be sorry. We'll all be sorry.