liberals believe in ideology, not history.

It's not great man history, does not compute

Doncha hate it when you have a democracy? Fuck these ghouls.

They are not wrong about Gompers, but he didn't make the KOL irrelevant, they did that themselves. He stepped in and showed how exclusively "skilled" craft unions could succeed in his case. He was not populist to be sure, but he was a vital step in organizing and how unions approach strategy and collective bargaining. Racist classist prick, but important