Labor’s Liberals Vs. Steyer’s Progressives

May 19, 2016

As greens demanded the administration keep federal coal in the ground this week, the biggest difference between yesterday’s “liberals” and today’s “progressives” was on buck-naked display.

In a sulfurous letter to AFL-CIO boss Richard Trumka, Laborers International Union President Terry O’Sullivan denounced Trumka’s decision to accept Tom Steyer’s green super PAC money. O’Sullivan was “appalled by the decision to pool union funds with job-killing environmental extremists.”

For those not yet familiar with Steyer, O’Sullivan helpfully described the “hedge fund billionaire” as the purveyor of “self-righteous, patronizing, unrealistic, and damaging policies.”

By the way, those job-killing environmental policies, said O’Sullivan, include the anti-coal “leave-it-in-the-ground” which, he reminded Trumka, is “not a viable energy policy; its political bullshit.”

A plain speaking man. Just what is needed to underscore the defining difference between the old card-carrying Liberals and the new platinum card-carrying version. “Liberals” stood by the blue collar worker and stood up to the rich; green “progressives” stand by the rich as they destroy blue collar jobs with political BS.

Here’s O’Sullivan’s point in a graph.