People flocking to the megachurches are Joe Sixpack regular guys who are the children and grandchildren of New Deal Democrats and the greatgrandchildren of Williams Jenning Bryan Populists. They are not at all laissez faire libertarian types.
They are very open to an economic populist appeal.
And those whooping the decline of organized labor should take note that NAFTA and CAFTA and H1Bs are direct results of the diminished power of organized labor to fight for American workers. Would these things happen in the days of Reuther and Meany and Hoffa ?
"Harvard professor Robert Putnam, author of ''Bowling Alone,'' said labor's membership declines coincided with the steep drop in all community and civic activities starting in the 1960s. Once part of a worker's social network - with crowded union halls and other activities - organized labor now has a purely transactional relationship with workers. ''They're merely bargaining agents,'' Putnam said.
He suggests that union leaders look at fast-growing churches, where leaders give worshippers a higher purpose and small-group communities - valued commodities in exurbia, where virtually everybody is new to the neighborhood. Labor needs to fill that social capital void, too, he said."
No, because those guys were not progressive socialists and they could have kept the moral values people on the boat.
It's rather unfortunate what's happened with organized labor. In principle, I believe that unions are part of the free market and should be allowed to flourish. But in practice, all they do is help elect socialists, so I say "kill 'em all." The Department of Labor is really starting to crack down on these guys by actualy enforcing the laws that regulate unions, and they're only going to become weaker from here on in.