Randi Weingarten Touts Access To Voting

AFT President Weingarten on Twitter:

Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy. Elected officials shld encourage, not block access to the ballot #NCVotingRights #ThisIsOurSelma

— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) July 14, 2015

Voting is the cornerstone of democracy says Randi - oh, the irony, coming after the furor of the last few days.

She's right, of course.

Voting is the cornerstone of democracy - it's the way we get to have a say in how we are governed.

Would have been nice to get some say in the AFT endorsement process for the 2016 election.

Instead, like everything that the AFT and/or UFT does, the process was tightly controlled and kept in the hands of a select few beholden to Randi Weingarten.

If Weingarten were honest, she'd tweet something along the lines of "Loyalty oaths are the cornerstone of AFT democracy - we control everything via the loyalty oath and patronage system."

Because that's how this endorsement went down, despite the leadership protests to the contrary about polling members.

Thing is, the curtain was pulled back a little with the Clinton endorsement and the backlash - many people were able to see how the union is run by the leadership with little regard for what the rank and file members think, feel or want.

The counterattack from the leadership to the backlash - which amounts to, too bad if you don't like the Clinton endorsement - has only underscored how little the leadership thinks or cares about the rank and file.

But reckoning is coming, you can be sure of that.

The Supreme Court has taken up the Friedrichs case and is widely expected to rule that people cannot be forced to pay union dues.

Let's see how well the AFT leadership strategy of "You don't like what we do, too bad!" works in a post-Friedrichs world where union dues can no longer be compelled.

You'd think the AFT leadership would be concerned about this and be adjusting their strategy now, treating the rank and file with courtesy and concern instead of with their customary disdain and contempt.

But you'd be wrong if you think that they might adjust pre-Friedrichs.

Instead it's same old same old, with Weingarten talking democracy and voting rights and all that good stuff on the Internet and in speeches while continuing to run the AFT like a Stalinist.

Perhaps Weingarten and the cronies and yes people around her are incapable of adjustment.

Perhaps the arrogance they suffer from does not allow for adjustment.

Whatever the case, they're simply doubling down on how they run the union, calling all the shots, insulting and/or shouting down anybody who doesn't agree with them, and continuing down the road to extinction.

Like I wrote earlier this week, I'll continue paying my dues because I think it's the right thing to do - but you can bet a whole bunch of other people will quit paying the minute they can.

Let's see how "powerful" the AFT leadership is when the dues money these parasites live off of gets cut in half.