No one can say how long this walkout will last, but even if it ends tomorrow it has already harmed poor minority children, upon whose education the future of Chicago, and the country, depends.
I cannot describe the moral repugnance of this strike by aggrieved middle-class “professionals” against the aspiring poor. Well, I could describe it, but only by plagiarizing Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s unprintable vocabulary.
So let’s just say events in Chicago illustrate rather dramatically the contradictions between public-sector unionism and the efficient delivery of vital public services.
They also heighten the contradiction between the Democratic Party’s need to show it can deliver sustainable good government and its dependence on public-sector unions for political funding and get-out-the-vote foot soldiers.
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