I’ve often repeated the observation that government labor unions offer member services as a means of raising money and gaining influence, but their real reason for existing is progressive activism.  That seems like a reasonable explanation for this peculiar reaction to the Janus ruling, observed by Joanne Jacobs:

After the Janus ruling — public employees can’t be required to pay “agency fees” to unions — some thought that “unions might temper their left-wing politics” to keep members from quitting, write Rick Hess and Grant Addison on National Review. That’s not happening.

“We’re becoming more political, not less political,” American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten declared at the union’s annual convention, which featured speeches by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and an award for Hillary Clinton.

The NEA, at its convention, gave awards to former First Lady Michelle Obama and former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, note Hess and Addison.

An ordinary, run-of-the-mill organization constituted to provide a particular service will, upon some change that makes it easier for its customers to leave, take steps to ensure that it doesn’t give those customers reasons to do so.  Backsliding into partisan, ideological positions is contrary to that impulse, especially with indications that only about half of teachers voted for Hillary Clinton.

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Of course, the calculation is very different if moderating the organization’s politics is simply not an option.  In that case, it makes perfect sense that they would retrench, take the hit to their bottom lines, and hope that pulling even harder on the far-left side of the rope will turn government back in their favor.  Maybe — like cable news networks — they’re calculating that being more strident will make them more appealing to a narrower range of the potential customer base.

Or maybe it’s a last-ditch effort to win the political fight once and for all.  If even-greater political activism can help their allies take over government, the unions can have their status and largess written into our society for good by force of law.