Bob Dingethal is running as a Democrat in the race for the 3rd Congressional District seat.
Bob Dingethal is running as a Democrat in the race for the 3rd Congressional District seat. [Image: Bob Digenthal for Congress Facebook page.]
While the left-wing media feeds and prunes the divide among Republicans on the subject of Common Core curriculum in public schools – like a bonsai artist, they diligently manage development of controversy to produce small and distinct political coalitions – one Democrat running for Congress in Washington State has voiced his own bad idea for education that most Republicans can find common ground opposing.

Bob Dingethal, who is running as a Democrat for U.S. House in Southwest Washington’s third congressional district, believes that a doctrinal education in the history of American unions can’t begin early enough.

Speaking Saturday at the Washington State Labor Council/AFL-CIO candidate endorsement conference in Seattle, Dingethal said that teaching our children about union leaders was as important as educating them about our great presidents and civil rights leaders.

Digenthal voiced his strong belief that “the [educational system] must change to represent unions from the beginning of a child’s education. Every child should know who Samuel Gompers, the Reuther Brothers, people like Phil Parker are as well as they know who Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. are.”

Dinge went on, singing loud and proud from the hymnal of big labor.

“[W]e need to stand steadfastly together, and we need to rebuild America’s economy by doubling, tripling – hopefully even quadrupling – the number of union members in America.”

But not all union jobs are created equal, at least according to Dingethal’s position on the expansion of coal exports from terminals in Washington state. A good portion of the economic activity and jobs created (a large number of them union) would be associated with the proposed terminal near Longview, Wash. Longview is in the third congressional district, but Dingethal has publicly opposed the project. In a statement dated March 26 and posted to his campaign website, Dingethal makes his opposition clear.

Watch the video and judge for yourself whether it was pandering or audience appreciation that compelled Dingethal.

Dingethal is running to unseat Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler and currently appears to be the only Democrat in the race. Michael Delavar is also running in the primary as a Republican.