Vote your job and your union

By BERRY CRAIG

AFT Local 1360

“On Nov. 6, we will be making what many are calling the most important vote in our lifetime,” wrote Marshall Ward of Murray, a frequent contributor to the website.

President of the Calloway County Retired Teachers Association, Ward neatly summarized the differences between Republican and Democratic candidates in bullet points that are worth sharing with your family, friends and union brothers and sisters.

Ward wrote that if you vote for a Republican for Congress you favor:

•  No restrictions on pollutants that cause can cancer and harm children

•  Huge tax cuts for the rich

•  Deep cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid

•  The right to work for less, other anti-union policies and tariffs that don’t promote fair trade

•   Family separation on our southern border and policies that discriminate on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation.

•  A return to "trickle down" economics of the 1920's and Jim Crow-like minority voter suppression. 

If you vote for a Democrat, you support:

•   Clean air, water, and land through regulations to protect us and the environment

•   A graduated income tax system where everybody pays their fair share 

•   A fully-funded “prepaid” safety net – Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and healthcare for all

•   Pro-union, pro-worker, pro-middle-class policies

•   Equality for all; diversity is our strength

•   Measures that help reduce climate change and educate people about its grave danger to our planet

The Kentucky State AFL-CIO unanimously endorsed the following candidates for Congress, all of them Democrats:

First District, Paul Walker

Second District, Hank Linderman

Third District, (incumbent) John Yarmuth

Fourth District, Seth Hall

Fifth District, Kenneth Stepp

Sixth District, Amy McGrath

As Ward points out, the choice could hardly be clearer. So, vote Tuesday like your job and your union depend on it, because they do.