June 18, 2015
In a piece that attacks the AFL-CIO for opposing fast-track trade authority, Washington Post columnist Charles Lane told readers:
“President Obama, elected and reelected with significant majorities of the popular vote, believes that the American people would benefit if he gets authority from Congress to negotiate international trade agreements and then submit them to both houses for approval on an expedited basis.”
It’s interesting that Lane thinks he knows what President Obama believes. Most people only know what President Obama says. And sometimes politicians don’t say what they actually think.
For example, it is possible that President Obama thinks that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will be beneficial to the corporations who helped to negotiate the pact. He may also be expecting that these corporations will reward the Democrats with campaign contributions in 2016 if the TPP is approved. If this explained his actual motivations, it is unlikely that he would say so publicly, since it would not help to get fast-track or the TPP approved by Congress.
Lane continues:
“Labor is waging this counter-majoritarian battle [against fast-track] in the name of ‘working people,’ who, it says, would otherwise face another wave of low-wage foreign competition like the ones purportedly unleashed by previous ‘bad’ trade deals.
“Labor leaders consider their moral authority axiomatic in this matter, even though they represent just 11.1 percent of the labor force.”
The implication is that labor leaders should turn to people like Charles Lane to determine their stand on major issues since he believes they lack the moral authority to take a different position. It’s an interesting position, but understandable from someone who can read the president’s mind.
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