Once upon a time North Carolina was considered the most anti-union state in the country; back then, nobody ever heard of a Democrat like Jim Hunt or Bob Scott supporting legislation to create more unions – but that’s exactly what Senator Kay Hagan is doing. So, what changed?

It’s simple: Today Democratic voters see corporations as the villains – not unions. Which means most of the folks who voted for Senator Hagan now believe unions are helping workers stand up to the greedy corporations – so, why should Hagan side with the corporations?

And, of course, beyond that Big Labor is one of the pillars of the Democratic Party – it spends, literally, millions to elect Democrats, including Hagan. It’s paid its dues and card check is the payback.

All this leaves North Carolina’s business leaders between a rock and a hard place – because there is just no reason for Hagan to worry about the political sequences of supporting a bill to create more unions. So business leaders trooping to Washington to try to convince her to change her mind probably won’t cut the mustard. Instead business leaders need to convince rank and file Democrats unions don’t help workers – which won’t be easy. It’s no picnic to mobilize public opinion. But changing it is ten times harder.

On top of that, while corporations are telling Democrats ‘card check’ is bad for workers – President Obama’s going to be telling them the opposite. Who do you think Democrats will believe?

The problem business leaders face isn’t figuring out how to lobby Hagan – it’s figuring out how to turn back the hands of the clock. And that’s a tall order.

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