"Homeland Security means Unionizing Wal-Mart"

[Bill McBlueState]

I heard an excellent rant on Unfiltered on my way in to work this morning. (It's being broadcast in my locale now!)

Rachel said that, if people answer "no" to the rather condescending question "Do you feel safer?" it's because they lack economic security, not because of external terrorist threats. This was in the context of the sex-discrimination suit against Wal-Mart.

Speaking from my own experience -- and ask this question of yourself -- what are you more likely to wake up in the middle of the night worrying about? Whether your place of work is going to be attacked by terrorists? (Sure, if you work in an important building in a major city, or if you're in the military.) But for most of us, the more pressing matters are things like where we'll get the money for rent, or for day care, or for a doctor's visit.

If all those Wal-Mart workers were unionized -- it's the largest private employer in the US -- their wages would go up almost overnight, they'd get a fair health plan and other benefits, and most fundamentally, individual workers would have an advocate in their day-to-day dealings with the company.

That type of security, job security, is just a much a part of homeland security as airline security.

Talking economic security and meaning it, as opposed to cute sound bites, is the only way the Democrats are going to get real power back.