Election retrospective:
If you voted, congratulations!

As we go to press, the results of the Florida presidential election have still not been certified. The election of the president hinges on one state, and that state’s results hinge on a handful of votes. Almost two weeks after the election, it’s still too close to call.

Do you know who I wouldn’t want to be right now? A Florida voter who didn’t go to the polls because “my vote doesn’t matter” or “the fix is in” or whatever lame excuse I had come up with for not voting. I would feel awful right now, knowing that my failure to fulfill this most basic obligation of citizenship was to have such massive ramifications.

Not that I would be alone. It has been estimated that 47-48% of voting age Americans didn’t vote on Nov. 7. We have lower voter participation than most Western democracies, and we should be ashamed of it. Non-voters are like bad workers, sleeping on the job, counting on others to pick up the slack. They are not doing their part.

Basic democratic rights, including the right to vote and the right to workplace representation, were not gained easily. People struggled and sometimes died to gain these rights. We must not take them for granted. We must cherish them and exercise them.

The slacker in the workplace doesn’t bring down the enterprise. Everyone else does a little more and the job gets done. But when everyone participates to his or her best ability, the work unit is that much stronger.

It’s the same with the elections. Decisions will be made, even if nearly half the people who should be making them decline to participate. But they are weakening the system, when they should be adding their strength.

BY THE TIME this Surge reaches you, I expect they will be done arguing about “pregnant chads” and someone will have been declared the winner of the presidential election. I hope I’m wrong, but I think it will be George Bush. This will be a big setback to working families, but one we will survive. In the long run, I have faith that democracy in America will thrive and grow, and that organized labor, constantly striving to define and protect workplace rights, will continue to be a part of it.

In California and local elections, we were a lot happier with the results. Labor’s positions on the initiatives were almost all endorsed by the voters. In particular, the public resoundingly defeated Prop. 38, a blatant frontal attack on public education, the hallmark of a free and just society.

Most local races for congress and the state legislature were also won by candidates with strong labor support. These are our friends who will fight for the interests of working people and hold the line against the onslaught of corporate privatizers. We were particularly pleased by Adam Schiff’s win over Jim Rogan in the 27th Congressional District. Schiff has been a proven ally in the state legislature, and we are sure that he will do a good job for us in Washington. The work and support of organized labor clearly contributed to his victory, and we are proud to have been a part of it.

HERE’S THE BOTTOM LINE: Politics affects us. Government affects us. In big ways, in small ways and in ways that will shape the kind of world our children and grandchildren live in. We can affect government through our participation in politics, flawed and imperfect though the system may be. It is up to each of us to vote. It’s a privilege and a responsibility. If you voted on Nov. 7, congratulations for that; if you didn’t shame on you. Remember, your next opportunity will be in April for LA city elections. Be there or be square!

In unity,