OT..I used to be a Union member..hated it..it disgusted me that they held "dues" out of my paycheck, and then supported liberal causes and candidates that I abhorred. Of course, the leaders of the Union were making 7 figures..and that was at a time when $10,000 annual salary was a princely sum...
One of the reasons Pres. Reagan is a hero of mine is his standing up to the Air Controllers Union.....and that seemed to accelerate the decline in unionism that had probably reached their peak power in the 50's. Good riddance, in my view.
I had no choice but to pay the union fees, but I went to night school,...became an engineer...and never worked for an employer that was unionized again.
The liberals hate it that unions are declining..they used them as their base of power, to control people for several decades...but they (the liberals) are moving against the tide of history..their day, just as the day of the union, has come and gone..freedom is on the march around the world...and once oppressed people get a taste of freedom, and the right to choose for themselves, the world will be all the better.
Of course it is messy in the Middle East now...social and structural change is never clean or orderly. The revolt from English rule, and the years through now, in America, have not been easy or without messiness. But, I do have faith in freedom rather than tyranny, and as that spreads in the Middle East, and elsewhere, the tyrants will be deposed, and the people will govern. I fully believe that freedom and a representative type government will also replace modified communism in China...at least, I pray that it will.