Labor Day Was. . . and Is

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Today is Labor Day, an annual holiday that celebrates the dignity of being a member of the working class. A response to the socialistic celebration of Mayday, the holiday's origins reach back into the 19th century.

During the mid-1800s, after continued abuses by manufacturers, labor unions rose up. The inspiration for the first American Labor Day came from an alliance between the American Federation of Labor (AFL), craft unions, and local central labor federations in 1882. Waves of strikes followed lasting through the middle of the 1890s, reaching a crescendo that called out the police, and ultimately the army, to control the situation. The Pullman Strike, led by future Socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs in 1894, was crushed, and Debs was imprisoned for his involvement. The problem was being pushed to a breaking point.

In the Northeast the unions and federations had traditions of summer holidays, and the government decided a day for labor, where beer drinking and family fun was the plan of the day, would help quell the unrest. Shortly after the end of the Pullman Strike, Democrat President Grover Cleveland rushed a bill recognizing Labor Day through Congress. The Democrats had been bruised by the fact that they were largely behind calling in the police and army, and needed a way to mend fences.

Not a single elected official in Congress voted against this measure.

President Cleveland chose the September date in order to set the American holiday off from European Mayday. An AFL resolution of 1909 declared the first Sunday to be the proper Labor Day, and eventually all states and the District of Columbia affirmed the holiday status for their residents. In 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. The act moved several federal holidays, including Labor Day, to Mondays, and Labor Day has been celebrated on the first Monday of September ever since.

Labor Day, now on Monday, is supposed to be a celebration of the worker, and in that celebration the laborer is rewarded with a special day off for his labors. Tradition has added cook-outs, trips to vacation spots, and just about anything else you can throw in the mix, added to the long celebrated federal holiday. For some, Labor Day even marks the end of summer. For socialism, Labor Day is the one day of the year that Marx's wage slavery is recognized in America.

Labor Unions, being a part of the mix when it came to bringing about laws to protect the workers, existed for the purpose of collectively representing the interests of the workforce, bargaining with employers in order to improve the rates of pay and other conditions of employment. The right of workers to form unions has been an important part of our history.  But these unions have abandoned their original intent, and have become political entities, money laundering operations for the Democrat Party.  They are too liberal, too corrupt, or too authoritarian over their members.  It is evident that the labor union has overstayed its welcome in our free society.

Today's unions are aggressively supported by the liberal left, and the politicians use their influence with labor leaders to force rank-and-file union members to support liberal causes and candidates financially, despite the fact that those members may strongly and unequivocally oppose those causes and candidates.

In addition to the liberal impact that unions wield, they have also adversely affected our economic system, demanding rates of pay, benefit packages, and lifetime pensions from corporations that are ultimately unsustainable when it comes to maintaining such demands over the long run. These benefits for the workers force companies into financial difficulty.  Rather than recognize the problem as being of their own doing, unions push for more pay and more benefits, until finally the host collapses under the weight of the persistent attacks by the parasitic labor unions.

Government labor unions, like SEIU, have even become thuggish strong-arms of the liberal Democrat Party, using their muscle to influence the vote, and to bully any opposition to progressive policies.

Now, as the liberal policies of a sub-prime mortgage culture has collapsed our economy, and as heavy spending in Washington is counted in the trillions of dollars rather than the billions, wrecking our economy, Labor Day has a bittersweet aura about it. The high unemployment rate is the new normal, according to the liberal left creeps.  Corporations are finding themselves in deep trouble under the onslaught of the collective bargaining agreements forced upon them by the liberal labor unions.

Socialism on Labor Day is being celebrated, as the nation continues its collapse under the back-breaking weight of the labor unions, and the progressive policies of the Democrat Party.  And yet there are people out there celebrating the madness.  Celebrating the rise of big government socialism in this country.

Historically, liberalism, wherever and whenever it is tried, fails.

Labor Day, however, is more than some socialism-influenced day for the workers.  Because we are a great nation, and we can even turn what was intended to destroy us into a patriotic asset, Labor Day can also be a day to celebrate America's greatness.  To celebrate that our history is filled with hard-working folks that have been self-reliant - a hard working culture seeking a better life through their labors, and opportunities.

We have come to the point of fully accepting Labor Day as an American Holiday. Also, it is the last big weekend before the end of summer. On Labor Day we devote our time to eating too much, taking a trip to the beach, or throwing the ball around with our kids or grandkids.

After a year of hard labor, the holiday presents the opportunity to take a break from the daily grind, and get a little back for the hard work. We spent the entire year working for a fair day's pay for a good day's work, while expecting to keep most of what we produce. Then, on Labor Day, we get a quick thank you, and a full belly at a bar-b-que.

Every working day of every year I get up early to go out and make a living. It is up to me to make sure I produce enough wages for my family to survive. Taking care of my family is one of my ways of exercising my individualism. Despite the economic dire we seemed to be surrounded by I do whatever it takes to produce good wages. I have been a military man, a banker, a salesman, a financial adviser, a city government worker, a construction worker, and I am now a truck driver and constitutionalist. Each job I have had was not my dream job (except maybe the radio program and classes I teach regarding the Constitution). It was not the living I hoped for as a child. But each of those jobs were the best job for taking care of my family at the time.

As a fierce individual, I was willing to change careers often, in search of the highest paid living.

Americans throughout history have proven over and over that hard work, and self-motivation results in a successful life. It is because I live in a free nation I have been able to pursue the various vocations I have held. When times were good, we lived better, and my savings account grew. When times got tough I pulled myself up by the bootstraps, did side jobs if necessary, and my savings shrank in order to compliment my income. Even in recession I have been willing to do whatever it takes to keep my family fed and housed.

The Democrats, in regards to some aspects of what my opinion is, disagree with me. President Barack Obama once said, "What if the person has no bootstraps to pull on?"

And how could it be that someone like me is able to survive, refusing assistance from the government?

The Left does not understand this mentality. They believe that nothing ought to occur without the government's consent, or administration. They believe government alone can create jobs out of thin air, and that our jobs should be performed not because we desire to make a better life, but because our contribution to the collective is good for the common good.

Government doesn't create jobs that does anything positive for the economy. The liberal left claims we must increase consumption to get us out of the recession. We must get people to buy things. But what good is increased consumption without an increase in production? Business owners create jobs, and goods. Sometimes individuals create their own jobs with an entrepreneurial spirit. Large corporations also create jobs. Government simply regulates, and collects money for redistribution from people who perform tasks.

The private sector is what encourages economic growth. The free market makes an economy healthy and wealthy by encouraging profit, and innovation. That is how America became the richest nation in the world in the first place. We did it with free market capitalism.

As the economy suffers under the socialist grip of the Obama administration, and his Democrat Party minions, we are seeing raises and benefit increases in the government sector while the unemployment rate continues to rise and a drop in wages continues in the private sector. There is something wrong when government is rewarded for making more rules, and raising taxes, while private enterprise, which is where the real wealth of the nation comes from, is punished, especially if they make too much money.

Labor Day celebrates the hard worker because it is the individuals like me laboring in the private sector that makes the economy grow, not some faceless bureaucrat somewhere on Capitol Hill. It is the taxpayer, not the tax collector, that makes our nation great. It has never been government. It has never been bureaucracy. The U.S. Constitution was designed to limit the powers of the federal government for a reason. The founding fathers knew if too much power was obtained by the government, people like Obama would take possession of the government and try to change the American Form of Government.

On Labor Day we celebrate individualism, hard work, and the real America. That is what I celebrated today, despite the socialist roots of the holiday that the liberal left democrats are celebrating.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary