Nationalizing Walker’s War on Unions

Scott Walker is desperate. He seems to think that his path to the nomination is highlighting his war on unions since that’s what made him famous. So his proposals:

The Republican presidential candidate’s proposal, which he plans to announce at an afternoon speech in Las Vegas, would eliminate the National Labor Relations Board, prohibit federal employee unions, institute right-to-work laws nationwide and repeal the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, which requires the payment of local prevailing wages to workers on federal construction projects, often boosting pay and project costs.

Here is the full proposal. A couple of thoughts. First, I am really skeptical that Republican primary voters actually care about unions. Very few Trump voters are going to move back to Walker because he wants to repeal Davis-Bacon. And, as Republican candidates are finding out through Trump’s right-wing populism, the economics beliefs of the party’s elite are not actually shared with any conviction by huge swaths of the base. So I am really skeptical that this will help Walker at all.

But the second point is perhaps more important, which is that no Republican candidates are likely to speak out against this either, meaning that the elimination of public sector unions, closure of the NLRN, national right to work, and the repeal of Davis-Bacon are probably on the agenda if the Republican Party controls the presidency and both houses of Congress. This is the position of a plutocrat class that doesn’t care what the public has to say anymore and while Walker might be their preferred choice, Rubio, Bush, and the rest outside maybe of Trump will follow along without too much fussing.