Although I have been active in politics for most of my adult life, this is the first national convention I’ve attended. I am excited to participate because the choice for working families this election cycle couldn’t be clearer.
Watching the Republican National Convention last week, we received a very sharp vision of a past that working Americans can’t afford to return to. Mitt Romney embodies the forces wrecking the economy and a Romney presidency would constitute a massive threat to our already weakened middle class. Romney and Ryan didn’t talk about their plans much, and that is because tax breaks for the super-rich and tax incentives for companies that ship jobs overseas are exactly the kinds of policies that drove us into economic crisis over the past 30 years. The only new ideas they bring to the table involved slashing Social Security and ending Medicare by replacing it with an underfunded voucher system.
Four years ago working families chose a different direction — we chose to stand for fairness, a voice for all at work and in our economy, shared prosperity and opportunity for all, not just some. The working families of the Michigan State AFL-CIO are deeply committed to re-electing President Obama and Vice President Biden to continue the change we started. We’re committed to re-electing strong economic advocates like Senator Debbie Stabenow, and adding new voices, like Gary McDowell, to speak on behalf of workers in the House of Representatives.
This election the Michigan labor movement, together with our allies, is dedicated to registering and protecting voters and educating and mobilizing working men and women to stand up for themselves and their families and elect working family champions. The 2012 grassroots mobilization is our broadest, most ambitious and sophisticated program ever. We will register voters, knock on doors and fill the phone banks…and we will turn out the vote.
I am deeply honored to represent an ever-growing core of volunteer activists at the Democratic National Convention. This is not about party politics; this is about building a movement of working men and women to move our nation forward.
Let the convention begin!
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