If something were to happen to President Obama, Jo Biden would be the first labor class US President.
Labor in the US is increasingly irrelevant to the Democratic base. Look at what is happening in Wisconsin!
626,538 turned out in the primaries for the unopposed union busing governor, Walker. In contrast Barrett, the winning Dem, got 390,109 while his opponent, favored by labor, got to 228,940. Walker “won” the primary!
This seems weird, given the huge effort by Dems and by labor to recall Walker.
One explanation is money from the great Republican cash machine. Walker’s been running ads, and devouring out-of-state money since he began his anti-labor campaign. Union political resources in Wisconsin may not be enough to compete toe to toe with the resources of Koch, Rove and Murdoch.
I have a more disturbing thought. Wisconsin’s unions unions can generate grass roots workers BUT the union-gov worker population is not much more representative of today’s America than Mitt’s 1% represent the middle class. Labor, increasingly means government worker unions. This kind of labor may be irrelevant to American voters. The proportion of Americans now in unions, outside of government work, is less than 10%.
Dems need to remember that we have never elected a President who arose from the “laboring” classes. Historically, the great “progressive” democrats came from the privileged homes of the rich … Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Wilson. Even Hillary fits this mold! When self made men became President, they seemed to require death of a born rich predecessor .. Roosevelt begat Truman as Kennedy begat Johnson.
I think the Democrats need a new core … one amicable to labor but based more in what I call the business-Democrats. Clinton and Obama fill this mold .. both arose from the impoverished class and neither ever held a union job!