Much as been posted lately about Obama’s unwillingness to fight back.  It has been very very discouraging for many of us.  It didn’t start with him, however.  I’ve been pondering the problems of the liberal class in America, which by and large is a sub-set of the comfortable class: whatever one’s feelings of generosity, empathy, do-unto-others exist, for a very large sector these expressions of liberalism are pulled back when one’s comfort begins to be impinged on.

Take perhaps the most significant moment in the turn-of-the tide from a waxing moon of strength to a waning mood of despair: President Ronald Reagan’s firing of the unionized air controllers  in 1981 — August 5 it so happens.  It was the biggest attempted firing of a unionized work force since the great auto lockouts and sitdowns of the 1930s.

And what did the other unions do in solidarity with their fired bretheren?  NADA

The biggest organization of unions in America told its members to cross the picket lines of the air traffic controllers and go to work. And that’s just what these union members did. Union pilots, flight attendants, delivery truck drivers, baggage handlers – they all crossed the line and helped to break the strike. Andunion members of all stripes crossed the picket linesand continued to fly.

For some very good reflections on this see Gaius Publius, with some help from Michael Moore, here. History alone won’t help, and isn’t the only guide to action. Understanding how action not taken can affect the future is worth understanding — and then acting on.

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