Labor & Employment Law

Young Workers Can Help ?Restore Sanity? Vote by Vote

By Mike Hall

On Saturday, John Stewart and Steven Colbert will provide a comic break to the election campaign with their ?Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear? on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Tens of thousands of young voters are expected to attend what is being described as get out the youth vote rally just days before the Nov. 2 election.

That same day and through Election Day, thousands of young union members, also devotees of the faux journalists, will be getting out the vote by going door-to-door, worksite-to-worksite and staffing phone banks on across the country

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler says the union movement certainly backs the call to restore sanity in America after one of the most bizarre election seasons in memory. But she also asks young people to marry comedy with action over the next few days.

Eight years of George W. Bush provided comedians with plenty of ready-made material. The radical Tea Party candidates and Republican extremists undoubtedly lend themselves to comedy, but as we saw in the Bush years, that new material comes with a heavy dose of new problems for the real world.

Shuler, the AFL-CIO?s young worker outreach point person, says, ?In these tough economic times, we need to laugh, because otherwise we?d be crying.? But, she adds:

In reality, there?s nothing funny about the anti-worker policies of politicians like Sharron Angle, Christine O?Donnell and Rand Paul?that?s why young people and all union families are mobilizing to get out the vote for candidates who will stand up for working families.

This weekend, Shuler will rally with young workers to get out the vote  in Los Angeles and in Denver where Shuler will lead a  Halloween ?Trick or Vote? door-to-door canvass.

Meanwhile, our friends at Campus Progress and Vote Again 2010 have a new GOTV video swirling along the Internet. It spoofs Colbert?s recent report that bears are the biggest threat to his tongue-firmly-in-cheek, right-wing, ?Colbert Nation.?

In fact, says a young voter after she removes the head of her bear costume, it?s not bears, but young voters, who are the real threat to the real extremist right-wing.

On Nov. 2, I?m going to do what you?d do, and vote. You know, a lot of crazy sh** is happening, but I still believe we can change the f***ing world.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on October 28, 2010 (boomark / email).