Shelton: Why Working People Need the Working Families Party

In a new op-ed in The American Prospect, CWA President Chris Shelton calls on labor and progressive leaders to join in expanding the Working Families Party across the country.

He writes:

It's not news that the Republican Party has lunged far to the right, and is now fully controlled by the robber barons of the financial elite. The Republican presidential primary has become a terrifying contest of who can exhibit greater cruelty toward working people, immigrants, women, and people of color. Donald Trump has risen to the top of the Republican polls by seeming to almost drip with contempt for anyone who isn't a millionaire.

But the Democratic Party is conflicted. Many of our best champions run as Democrats, but the Democratic Party as a whole is also distressingly dependent on funding from corporate elites and Wall Street. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is just one of several Republicans who have built their careers by eviscerating workers' rights. How many Democrats have proposed dramatically expanding them? When Democrats are in control, they slow the pain, but they don't reverse the trend.

So yes, a new party. A Working Families Party.

Read his full op-ed here.