Excellent piece, you’re exactly right. Years ago when I went on a large department the Union would have had a hard time enlisting members had it not been for a good health care plan (which we payed for) because like you say, the majority of firefighters are and were conservative.
It’s very unfortunate. I don’t excuse their ignorance, but most fire fighters couldn’t tell you the names of the leadership past the local level much less the issues.
It’s a bit pathetic.
We’ve got radicals leftists using conservative money to push their agenda.