Rahm Emanuel is the leading union-buster of the Democratic party. How a man who served as President Obama’s chief-of-staff became so antagonistic to labor unions is a story that I don’t know. I will wait for a Chicagoan to explain it.
Behind the scenes, he has had a lot of help. In this post, Mike Klonsky introduces you to one of Rahm’s most important helpers, who is leaving to make money in the private sector. Not a pretty picture.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I see no evidence that Obama supports organized labor. He certainly is no friend to organized public workers like teachers for example.
Democrats are “agnostics” on labor unions, except at election time when they require rank and file labor union members to help them win elections in certain key cities and states.
If it’s any comfort to you they don’t do anything to support private sector unions either, so it’s not exclusively a public sector union thing. You shouldn’t feel picked on or singled out.
I’d settle for just enforcing existing labor laws on safety and wages, but there’s not a lot of interest in that either.
Bernie Sanders (noting that he is an independent who caucuses with Democrats), walks the picket lines with union members.
People in government know the revolving door makes voters incredibly cynical, right?
Apparently they don’t care, but I would think at some point they lose all credibility whatsoever. This can’t just get worse every year, forever. At some point it crashes.
I’d like to think voters follow the revolving door, but doubt that enough do. However there must be a certain ’tilt’ point where even the uninformed voters get it by osmosis. Today on news-article-comment threads, I note that even most regular folk are cynical. However, the conservative folk mirror-image progressive opinions, seeing the revolving door as all about Democrats & unions… they are beginning to include corp interests but only as union-backers or the odd Dem billionaire (I.e., Soros). The challenge for us is to reveal how the anti-govt, anti-public-goods elected reps participate equally in the revolving-door phenomenon & take home stolen middle-class tax $ to feather their nests.
So sad. What a legacy.
I saw a debate between Rahm and Chuy. I still can’t believe Chuy didn’t win the election.
Money.
I don’t think there is anything Rahm could do now to beat Chuy. Chuy needed a little more time; he came in too late. Not too late, however, to scare Rahm silly. With the time to run a full campaign, I think he could have won. I think we might have gotten a mayor we could trust. He might have made some decisions that would not have been popular, but he would have been up front about them and open to all suggestions before he made those decisions.
I would like to think what you say about Chuy’s possibilities is true. And jump in to correct me, as I live far from Chicago. But from this distance, it’s hard to imagine Chicago politics as anything but a corrupt machine operating on the take from its own citizens. Between 1955-76 & again 1989-2011 you had Richard Daleys (father & son) that’s 43 of 56 yrs. Emanuel seems to fill the same bill (corrupt Dem machine). To me, it’s a perspective on Obama we progressives chose to ignore, electing him twice.
Rahm came in this way. It’s important to remember that aside from his toddler years, Rahm never lived in Chicago. He’s a product of uber-wealthy Winnetka and a graduate of elite suburban New Trier High School. He and his brother were widely reported to have been bullies in their youth. He took up residence in Chicago only because he was hand-picked by Bill Clinton to take Rod Blagojevichs’s House seat when Blago won the Gov seat, prior to going prison. Blago won his house seat after Dan Rostenkowski…went to prison. After winning a House seat, Rahm immediately took up residence in DC, and stayed there through his Chief of Staff stint with BO. When he came back to Chicago after Daley retired he had to win a court battle to prove Chicago residency to run for Mayor. He still has no contact with non-elite Chicagoans, and no one has ever seen him on the streets in a non-political moment. He’s a political creature. That’s all. Breaking up unions is good for his business, and that’s all he cares about.
Side gossip is his neighbors say he doesn’t even really live there, and spends weekends in Barrington. That’s just neighborhood gossip – but they never see him. His neighbors. Never see him. I drive by his house often on the way to church on Sundays. We have a routine of flipping him the bird as we drive by. Good for the soul.