A post by Maynard
The conflict in Wisconsin sheds light on a major double standard. If we can frame the debate is honest terms, then we’ll win it. Our challenge is to sweep aside the hypocrisy of the Democrat position.
Here’s the proper outlook: Everyone that gets a check from the government must be looked upon as a special interest. This is true whether you’re a welfare queen or you’re feeding the army. When your livelihood depends upon the flow of government money, you’ve got a vested interest in priming the pump. Whether your service is vital or useless, you’re painfully aware that, if the money ever stops, you’ve got big trouble.
The general theory of America, and this is part of our heritage, is that the government was created to represent and serve “we the people”. So you can see why it’s a problem when the government’s own infrastructure becomes a powerful political force. When the government exists largely to serve its infrastructure, then the traditional dynamic has reversed itself. We’ve replaced a government that serves the people with a people that serves the government.
The Founders were aware that governments are inclined to grow and serve their own ends. In order to keep this predisposition in check, they created a Constitution that severely limited the scope of government (although our citizens, who ought to know better, have been allowing those limits to gradually fall by the wayside during the last century).
One interesting detail of the rules by which government power is limited is that the residents of the District of Columbia are, under the Constitution, not given the vote. Isn’t this undemocratic? No, because the District of Columbia is the government; therefore it’s wrong that the District of Columbia should choose the government. Have you got a problem with that? If you don’t like living in the nation’s only recession-proof city, which exists by sucking money from the rest of us…well, I’ll echo the generous offer of Gov. Christie to help you pack.
The mainstream media encourages us to look with suspicion upon some of the entities that feed at the taxpayer’s trough. Do you remember how “Halliburton” became a swear word of the Bush years? Nobody really knew what Halliburton was, but everyone knew it was bad. We went to war for Halliburton. We gave no-bid contracts to Halliburton. Dick Cheney ran Halliburton.
Part of the reason ours is an uphill battle is because, in the public eye, not all cronies are regarded as bad cronies. The Democrats project a confident façade of being connected to good cronies. “Look,” they proudly announce, “we’re helping teachers. We’re giving workers a living wage. We’re protecting people.”
No you’re not. You’re paying off your powerful special interests, who reward you with big bucks. Why are SEIU members any more representative of “the people” than are employees of Halliburton? “The people” are the taxpayers and voters of the private sector, and the people are struggling. The Democrats are fighting against the people, and for their victories over the people they are handsomely rewarded.
On the specific issue of union representation and collective bargaining, the problems inherent in the current manner of doing business are obvious. In private industry, there are two parties to negotiate, each with the inclination and ability to defend its own interests. In the public sector, when the politically powerful unions negotiate with the government, that balance is gone. The unions represent the unions, and the government also represents the unions. “The people” are a minority partner, and go severely underrepresented if not entirely unrepresented. Obviously the situation is indefensible, and is only defended in terms of a fraudulent framework…that is, the claim that a triumph for the SEIU is a triumph for an ordinary working Joe. Like so many liberal memes, this is complete nonsense. But it sounds good when spoken through a megaphone in a glow of righteous wrath.
We need to remind the people that a special interest is a special interest, and a crony is a crony. And the people must demand that our representative government minimize, rather than maximize, the power of special interests and cronies.
Another meme the Democrats put out is that the corporations are somehow a foreign entity. They are not American, and they are not the American people. The government is American, and (I’ve heard this a hundred times now) is the American people. I found pouring cold water on this argument pretty easy: “Oh really? So I can build a road through your house, because I claim it’s for the public good, I can arrest you, I can tax you, and I can go to war with another country, right? How absurd. The government can do that. I can’t. The government is not the American people!”
The truth is the reverse. American branches of corporations are more like the American people than our government. Can we attract investors to fund our enterprise? Yes. Can we make products and provide services to others for a price? Yes. Can we tell others about our product or service so they’ll consider buying it? Yes. Can we make a profit at it? Yes. Can we hire employees to work for our enterprise? Yes. The only major differences between us and corporations is that they have liability protection, and they can exist for longer than a human lifetime. We don’t. Then again, our government has the same qualities in this regard.
Very well put!!!! The only thing the people can do besides vote out the pro-union politicians is to GET OUT of the Public Schools.