IN RETROSPECT, 40% SHOULD HAVE BEEN 0%

Republicans are in the process of turning Michigan into a right-to-work state. The union movement has been going downhill for decades, and Ronald Reagan gave unions one of the bigger shoves when he took on the air traffic controllers in his first term -- but I suppose the fact that Republicans haven't tried to flip strong union states to right-to-work until recently, combined with the fact that Democrats have been all talk and no action with regard to strengthening labor, has led some union workers to be unsure which party best represented their interests.

And now it's clear what a mistake that was. Assaults on unions since 2010 have all come from the GOP. And yet according to the 2012 exit polls, 40% of voters who have a union member in the household voted for Mitt Romney. In House votes in 2010, 37% of voters from union households voted GOP. In the 2008 election, 39% of voters from union households voted for McCain.

These aren't trivial numbers. I assume union households include households with unionized retirees, because this year union-household voters were 18% of the electorate; they were 17% in 2010, and 21% in 2008.

So approximately 40% of union-household voters vote GOP every year, and they're about 18% of the electorate? That's about 7% of the electorate picking the Republicans despite the presence of a union worker in the household. If that's going on at the state level, how many GOP governors and state legislators are winning based on union-household support?

Well, this has to stop. Union-household support for the GOP should be zero. It's not individual Republicans who are literally trying to destroy what's left of the union movement in America -- it's essentially the entire party.

Maybe that wasn't clear until now, but it's got to be clear from now on. Members of union households, these people hate you. Never give them another vote.