Here is a Wall Street Journal column that contains a statement by Virginia’s newly elected Senator Jim Webb who defeated old what’s his name. We encourage you to read this carefully and fully.
It says a lot and Webb had guts enough to put it in writing.  One would think that a worker or her/his Union Rep wrote this column instead of a Senator.
The proof is in the pudding, but hopefully he will live up to his statements.

WALL STREET JOURNAL -- Nov. 15, 2006 

ELECTION 2006 

Class Struggle:

American workers have a chance to be heard.

 BY JIM WEBB

Wednesday, November 15, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST

 The most important--and unfortunately the least debated--issue in politics

today is our society's steady drift toward a class-based system, the likes

of which we have not seen since the 19th century. America's top tier has

grown infinitely richer and more removed over the past 25 years. It is not

unfair to say that they are literally living in a different country.

    Few among them send their children to public schools; fewer still send their

loved ones to fight our wars. They own most of our stocks, making the stock

market an unreliable indicator of the economic health of working people. The

top 1% now takes in an astounding 16% of national income, up from 8% in

1980. The tax codes protect them, just as they protect corporate America,

through a vast system of loopholes. 

    Incestuous corporate boards regularly approve compensation packages for

chief executives and others that are out of logic's range. As this newspaper

has reported, the average CEO of a sizeable corporation makes more than $10

million a year, while the minimum wage for workers amounts to about $10,000

a year, and has not been raised in nearly a decade. When I graduated from

college in the 1960s, the average CEO made 20 times what the average worker

made. Today, that CEO makes 400 times as much. 

    In the age of globalization and outsourcing, and with a vast underground

labor pool from illegal immigration, the average American worker is seeing a

different life and a troubling future. Trickle-down economics didn't happen. 

    Despite the vaunted all-time highs of the stock market, wages and salaries

are at all-time lows as a percentage of the national wealth. At the same

time, medical costs have risen 73% in the last six years alone. Half of that

increase comes from wage-earners' pockets rather than from insurance, and 47

million Americans have no medical insurance at all. 

    Manufacturing jobs are disappearing. Many earned pension programs have

collapsed in the wake of corporate "reorganization." And workers' ability to

negotiate their futures has been eviscerated by the twin threats of modern

corporate America: If they complain too loudly, their jobs might either be

outsourced overseas or given to illegal immigrants. 

    This ever-widening divide is too often ignored or downplayed by its

beneficiaries. A sense of entitlement has set in among elites, bordering on

hubris. When I raised this issue with corporate leaders during the recent

political campaign, I was met repeatedly with denials, and, from some, an

overt lack of concern for those who are falling behind. A troubling

arrogance is in the air among the nation's most fortunate. Some shrug off

large-scale economic and social dislocations as the inevitable byproducts of

the "rough road of capitalism." Others claim that it's the fault of the

worker or the public education system, that the average American is simply

not up to the international challenge, that our education system fails us,

or that our workers have become spoiled by old notions of corporate

paternalism. 

    Still others have gone so far as to argue that these divisions are the

natural results of a competitive society. Furthermore, an unspoken

insinuation seems to be inundating our national debate: Certain immigrant

groups have the "right genetics" and thus are natural entrants to the

"overclass," while others, as well as those who come from stock that has

been here for 200 years and have not made it to the top, simply don't

possess the necessary attributes. 

    Most Americans reject such notions. But the true challenge is for everyone

to understand that the current economic divisions in society are harmful to

our future. It should be the first order of business for the new Congress to

begin addressing these divisions, and to work to bring true fairness back to

economic life. Workers already understand this, as they see stagnant wages

and disappearing jobs. 

    America's elites need to understand this reality in terms of their own

self-interest. A recent survey in the Economist warned that globalization

was affecting the U.S. differently than other "First World" nations, and

that white-collar jobs were in as much danger as the blue-collar positions

which have thus far been ravaged by outsourcing and illegal immigration.

That survey then warned that "unless a solution is found to sluggish real

wages and rising inequality, there is a serious risk of a protectionist

backlash" in America that would take us away from what they view to be the

"biggest economic stimulus in world history." 

    More troubling is this: If it remains unchecked, this bifurcation of

opportunities and advantages along class lines has the potential to bring a

period of political unrest. Up to now, most American workers have simply

been worried about their job prospects. Once they understand that there are

(and were) clear alternatives to the policies that have dislocated careers

and altered futures, they will demand more accountability from the leaders

who have failed to protect their interests. The "Wal-Marting" of cheap

consumer products brought in from places like China, and the easy money from

low-interest home mortgage refinancing, have softened the blows in recent

years. But the balance point is tipping in both cases, away from the

consumer and away from our national interest. 

    The politics of the Karl Rove era were designed to distract and divide the

very people who would ordinarily be rebelling against the deterioration of

their way of life. Working Americans have been repeatedly seduced at the

polls by emotional issues such as the predictable mantra of "God, guns,

gays, abortion and the flag" while their way of life shifted ineluctably

beneath their feet. But this election cycle showed an electorate that

intends to hold government leaders accountable for allowing every American a

fair opportunity to succeed. 

    With this new Congress, and heading into an important presidential election

in 2008, American workers have a chance to be heard in ways that have eluded

them for more than a decade. Nothing is more important for the health of our

society than to grant them the validity of their concerns. And our

government leaders have no greater duty than to confront the growing

unfairness in this age of globalization.

Mr. Webb is the Democratic senator-elect from Virginia.