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Populism, Progressives
and Public Unions
The divide in the Disunited States
of America opened wider with the concerted effort of progressives and teacher union’s latest escape from reality. When
people lament that there is little civility left in this country, they mostly refuse to face facts. There is a pitch battle
for the hearts and minds of citizens. So far the public education lobby has been winning the war. Their victory is self-evident
with the sorry state of literacy much less rational ability that passes for the collective consciousness of the public. The
prime directive and accomplishment of the government school system is the development of a society of fools and idiots. Here,
here to the union of public thugs and sophists, who work diligently to destroy the American Nation. The Wisconsin firmament
has a fine tradition of populism. Robert M. "Fighting Bob" La Follette, Sr. is a heroic figure in state and national politics. His advocacy for some admirers would claim he was a progressive,
but those who understand the distinction, know he was really a populist. Jeff Taylor writes in First Principles. "The link between La Follette-Johnson and Taft-Goldwater
can be discerned when thinking of the transitional figures in the late ’30s/early ’40s when internationalists
and the mainstream press were confusing people by adopting the then-popular "liberal" and "progressive"
labels. Consider the fact that new "conservatives" attorney Amos Pinchot, publisher Frank Gannett, publisher Robert
McCormick, businessman Robert Wood, socialite Alice Roosevelt Longworth, aviator Charles Lindbergh, and Congressman Hamilton
Fish all came out of the Bull Moose-La Follette-Borah tradition of liberal Jeffersonianism within the party".
Fighting
Bob was an inspiration battling the railroads and opposing American involvement in World War I. This iconic agrarian populist
was a proponent of using government on behalf of the common people. Mr. Taylor continues with a comparison between La Follette
and Robert Taft. "Robert La Follette and Robert Taft shared hostility toward statism, plutocracy, and
imperialism. Although La Follette did not earn his fame as an exponent of literal interpretation of the Constitution, during
his years in the Senate he was a strict constructionist who repeatedly challenged actions on constitutional grounds".
Just
short of a century has passed from the heyday of this Wisconsin hero, but he would be turning in his grave by the conduct
of the Bolshevik’s who rally in Madison to defy the public interest. The best lesson taught about teacher unions is
that any absence of teaching in government schools is a good day for the children who deserve a quality education.
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The difference, of course, is that in Egypt the protesters were marching to get rid of a public-sector
kleptocracy, while in Wisconsin they are marching to preserve one.
Marc Thiessen
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"When school children start paying union
dues, that 's when I'll start representing
the interests of school children.”
"It's time to admit that public education operates like a planned economy, a
bureaucratic system in which everybody's role is spelled out in advance and there are few incentives for innovation and productivity.
It's no surprise that our school system doesn't improve; it more resembles the communist economy than our own market economy.”
Albert Shanker
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The Washington Examiner makes a valid point. "The Left has misread the postbailout populist sentiment all along, assuming public
anger was directed at the rich. But American anger, I suspect, is directed not at some people who have money or success, but
at those who profit through cronyism and their connections to power". The fundamental
distinction between a progressive and a conservative populist is their view on government. As the current dispute spreads
to Indiana and Ohio, the public employment unions are altogether oblivious to the meaning of "using government on
behalf of the common people". The patron saint of progressive liberalism warned of the danger in, "The process
of Collective Bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service," Roosevelt wrote in
1937 to the National Federation of Federal Employees. Cited in the essay, Public Employee Unions Guarantee National Bankruptcy "In 1959, the state of Wisconsin enacted the first state statute permitting
municipal employees the right to form, join, and be represented by labor organizations. Three years later, President John
F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10988, which granted federal employees the right to join and form unions and to bargain
collectively. The order established a framework for collective bargaining and encouraged the expansion of collective bargaining
rights to state and local government employees. The Supreme Court held in Smith v. Arkansas State Highway Employees,
Local 1315 (1979), (3) however, that nothing in the U.S. Constitution requires public employers to either recognize or collectively
bargain with public employee unions".
Jim O’Sullivan writes in the National Journal. "Wisconsin has done more than polarize and excite the true believers in both parties; it has served
to galvanize already amped conservative populists who have increasingly discussed a "new class" of workers being
forged among public employees enjoying union-rigged perks, and liberal populists who see in Madison a conservative conspiracy
to end decades of hard-won rights for the working man". What escapes the marginal intellectual
integrity of so many public employees is that government never creates wealth. All taxation is theft. Mandating government
schools, paid for with public funds, teaching subversive doctrines and socialist redistribution, is a primary cause of producing
the walking zombies that populate this country. The most deprived and underclass in society would be better served with a
copy of the McGuffey Readers.
Results matter, even in the public sector.
A substitute replacement for pampered teachers is needed. View the videos Waiting for Superman and THE LOTTERY for the real story. The conclusion in, Teachers Unions are morally illegitimate, is to the point. "That moral claim is being turned on its head
as more Americans come to understand that teachers unions and the public bureaucracy are the main obstacles to reform. Movies
such as "Waiting for ‘Superman’" and "The Lottery" are exposing this to the larger American
public, leaving the monopolists to the hapless recourse of suggesting that reformers are merely the tools of hedge fund philanthropists".
With
a dismal record of performance and a pattern of taxpayer extortion, the progressive sisterhood reaches out to their brothers
of sleaze, who use the tactics of street hoods collecting juice for a loan shark enterprise. No wonder that when courageous
politicians challenge the status quo, crazed public union fantastic’s go into full damage control mode. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is one such hero and has experience with public unions. "Christie
said in a Wednesday speech at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington that he is "reforming an education system
that costs too much and does too little for our society today and our children’s future." The state’s
unions "think I’m attacking them," Christie said. But he said he’s not targeting their rank-and-file
members. "I’m attacking the leadership of the unions because they’re greedy, they’re selfish."
 This pattern of teacher employee abuse
is not unique. This next example out of Allentown, Pennsylvania is a public union outrage beyond the pale. "In pursuit of
an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours hours over several weeks to clear a walking path
in an east Allentown park. Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union, told Allentown
City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing Anderson to clear a 1,000-foot
walking and biking path at Kimmets Lock Park. Balzano said Saturday he isn't targeting Boy Scouts. But given the city's
decision in July to lay off 39 SEIU members, Balzano said "there's to be no volunteers." No one except union members
may pick up a hoe or shovel, plant a flower or clear a walking path".
Warner Todd Huston sums up the economic reality that many "so called" civil servants still refuse to face. "It
must be quite a shock to government employees all across the country that are actually losing their cushy jobs, those positions
that they imagined were theirs forever. With the reality of the massive overspending by Democrats spurred by union leaders
the consequences of which are finally coming home to roost, these union members that for so many decades felt entitled to
their jobs are losing them".
Public employee unions are a threat to
the very foundation of the Republic. The Hill reports that Rep. Michael Capuano (D-MA) fired up a group of union members in Boston with a speech urging
them to work down in the trenches to fend off limits to workers' rights like those proposed in Wisconsin. "Every once
and awhile you need to get out on the streets and get a little bloody when necessary." He is a disgrace and his words
border on subversion. You can support trade unions
if you are so inclined, but a public union that is taxpayer funded is an abomination. Progressives need to search their souls.
The alliance that should bond all populists together is the fight against the global corporatist
economy that has caused the outsourcing of living wage employment overseas. Expanding government is not the answer in reversing
this betrayal. True populism must be rooted in sound economic principles, based in a wealth creation private sector. Substantially scaling back public employee jobs is a necessary
step because the private sector taxpayer is broke to a large degree because of government policies. A civil service employee
is, by nature, a secondary citizen. The taxes they pay come from the earnings of those who are the producers of prosperity.
The La Follette tradition opposes the centralization of economic control. Woefully, governments lavish excessive pay and benefits
on the public sector at the cost of the real main street economy. SARTRE – February 27, 2011 |
