Cross posted from CWA's Resistance Growing blog:
CWA President Larry Cohen went on The Ed Show to discuss the campaign in Ohio, what CWA activists are doing to overcome voter suppression and the fight to reelect President Obama to a second term.
Cohen said workers, whether they’re in telecommunications or manufacturing, understand that difference between “going backwards into fairy tale capitalism” and forward with the president.
“We will see Sherrod Brown, Barack Obama win on Election Day by significant margins in Ohio because working Americans won't be fooled, know the difference,” he said. “Nobody's going to keep them from voting, and those votes will count. Every vote will count. We need that enthusiasm going into Election Day.”
Here's Cohen's full remarks via MSNBC:
COHEN: It's intense. Between the Sherrod Brown campaign and the Obama campaign: 5,000 volunteers, not just knocking on doors and phone banks, but at work, folks on break rooms, talking up this election. Three years ago, Ohio had 10 percent unemployment. Now it's 7 percent. Between the auto, the auto bailout work that the president supported and Sherrod Brown supported and the attacks on jobs moving to China, there is rising employment in Ohio. It is related to the car industry. But everybody, whether they're in telecom or manufacturing, understands that difference between going backwards into fairy tale capitalism, as you just described it, and Jim did, from the 19th century, with everything deregulated, and workers just become another unit of production, or going forward in this 21st century, where we need partnerships between working Americans and government and management to figure out how we keep and build jobs in America. And build plants in America. And invest in America, so that we can bring back a higher standard of living. And that's what's going on in Ohio today. ...
SCHULTZ: Mr. Cohen, are you concerned about the integrity of the vote? We know that there have been shenanigans in the past in Ohio. You've got boots on the ground. How important is it from that standpoint, paying attention to the integrity of the vote?
COHEN: All of the volunteers as of Election Day, thousands will shift to that. And obviously, the other side has constantly tried to suppress voting in Ohio, by passing laws, et cetera. But, again, I think the enthusiasm will overcome the cynicism and the thousands of volunteers will overcome the $50 million that Mandel is spending alone. And we will see Sherrod Brown, Barack Obama win on Election Day by significant margins in Ohio because working Americans won't be fooled, know the difference. Nobody's going to keep them from voting, and those votes will count. Every vote will count. We need that enthusiasm going into Election Day.