I don't know what to think of Lou Dobbs, frankly. I used to pretty much detest the man. I still find him jingoistic in his immigrant bashing.
Perhaps he is worse than an idiiot, or perhaps he's just an idiot, or perhaps he's a useful idiot.
But while addressing the 37th International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers convention held in Cleveland, Ohio from Sept 11th to the 15th, CNN pundit Lou Dobbs called himself "a fool."
More below the fold.
For the record, I used to be employed by a large electric utility, and as such, was an IBEW member. I left the company several years ago, but still receive the monthly IBEW Journal.
Dobbs appeared before the convention as the first recipient of the IBEW's Voice of Working America Award.
If you go here, you'll find a link to a PDF press release about Dobb's speach to the convention, but I've excerpted a few portions of it here.
Proclaiming pride in being called a "protectionist" and a "populist" by corporate America, TV Anchor Lou Dobbs fired up delegates to the 37th convention of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, turning his speech into a townhall meeting on trade, jobs and the needs of working families.
“We are at a stage in our national life in which corporate America has come to dominate every major facet of our economy and our society. The minimum wage hasn't been raised in nine years in this country. The idea that this Congress could worry about an estate tax for the wealthiest two percent of this nation, could reform the bankruptcy law according to the exact details and instructions of the financial services industry should be repugnant to every American.”
Dobbs does not spare the Democrats in his assesment, nor himself:
Democrats voted along with Republicans on the bankruptcy law of 2005. Democrats are voting along with Republicans on free trade agreements whether it's CAFTA or it's NAFTA or, as so many of my viewers love to talk about, SHAFTA.” “I’m one of those fools who said we should go ahead with NAFTA in 1993"
And for all his immigrant Bashing, Dobbs is on the money with this:
Expressing anger at President Bush’s contention that immigrants are taking jobs that Americans don’t want, Dobbs said, “This president can’t finish a sentence. Americans don’t want jobs that pay slave wages.”
And to the cultural warriors and their use of social issues:
When social issues start clouding the political thinking of Americans, Dobbs suggested, change the subject to talk about the $5 trillion trade deficit, or the facts that 48 million people in the United States don’t have health care.
And I have to say I loved this from Dobbs, in response to the common suggestion that corporations be persuaded to do the right thing by the American public by dangling further tax breaks in front of them:
When a delegate asked Dobbs what he would think about providing tax breaks to companies that would bring manufacturing back to the United States, he said, “I guess I’d be all right with that.” But he also offered a different view. “How about this—a company that offshores American production, exports American jobs, and then exports back those goods and services to this country, how about we tax the bloody hell out of them?”
Like everyone on this site, I was excited and heartened to see the Democrats retake control of Congress. I have hope for the White House in '08.
But in my opinion, if the Democrats are ever going to retain permanent, or even long-term majority status, and if they are ever able to actually use that status to accomplish anything, the party must free itself from the false ideology of free trade, and once again become a champion of the working men and women of America.
And, if Democrats do so, they will discover a remarkable thing about our citizenry: When people are secure in their employment, when they are secure in their health care, when they are secure in the belief that they can provide a better life for their children, they can be a remarkably tolerant and progressive species.
The tempation to demonize people of a particular race, or a particular sexual orientation, or a particular religious belief or non-belief, becomes far less attractive when your economic needs are met. Tolerance and charity flower far more readily in a person who isn't worried about his job being sent to an overseas sweatshop.
If the Democratic party has any hope of providing substantive help to his nation's poor, it will first rediscover and endeavor to rebuild this nation's middle class.