In Newt Gingrich's Real Change, I read three chapters:
"Chapter Three: The Unreformed Left: Why Democrats Can't Deliver Real
Change"; "Chapter Four: Katrina, Michigan, and Beyond: How the Old Order
Is Failing America"; and "Chapter Five: Failure in Education: Death
Knell of the Old Order".
Newt essentially criticizes public sector
unions because of the exorbitant and costly benefits that they bring to
public employees. This includes teachers' unions, which oppose merit
pay and school choice. Newt cites Detroit as an example of a place
where the presence of well-paid teachers does not entail positive
educational outcomes. While Newt acknowledges that unions have a valid
place in our economy, he also criticizes private-sector unions, for he
laments an attempt by unions and their congressional allies to take away
the right of workers to vote by secret ballot on whether or not they
want to organize, thereby leaving workers vulnerable to "intimidation
and extortion".
There is another side to these issues. Defenders
of public sector unions have questioned that the unions are to blame for
financial messes, attributing the messes to other causes (i.e., tax
cuts for corporations), and they have regarded union-busting as a step
in the wrong direction. Teachers' unions have argued and have attempted
to document that areas where teachers are paid well attract good
teachers and have positive educational outcomes. There is also an
argument that school choice allows private schools to cherry-pick the
richer or better students, while leaving the other students in
underfunded and inadequate public schools. And some have contended that
the claim that unions want to eliminate the secret ballot is merely
anti-union propaganda, for the goal of the Employee Free Choice Act is
to make it easier for unions to organize and to protect workers from
management (see here).
I
don't dispute that Newt may have a point in his critiques. As a voter,
I'm presented with options, and I have to pick the one that I think is
better, even though all of the options presented to me are imperfect.
Overall, I stick with the Left because I believe that it protects the
vulnerable. But a part of me is glad that the Right exists because it
points out abuses in the system, and that can encourage Democrats to try
to correct those things in an attempt to find common ground with the
other side.