Why State Government Elections Matter

AMERICAN THINKER, AUGUST 16. 2013

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the AFL-CIO is going to using the lion's share of its political resources in the 2014 midterm to elect Democrats at the state government level rather than in congressional elections.  Republicans, without ignoring federal elections, ought to be just as concerned about winning state government elections.

Washington is a mess -- perhaps an incurable mess.  Since George H. Bush was elected president twenty years ago, conservatives have found almost nothing encouraging at the federal level.  Himalayan federal debt, surreally stupid energy policies, Marx Brothers-like national security policies, deconstruction of the finest health care system in the world, and an endless stream of weary rhetoric connected to a campaign cycle which never stops -- all this means that the best we can hope for in winning federal elections is to stop or slow down leftist mischief.

State government is very different: actual reforms can be implemented -- and, under Republican governments, have been implemented.  The new voter ID law in North Carolina is an excellent example.  Because Republican Pat McCrory won the gubernatorial race last year and Republicans maintained control of both houses of the North Carolina Legislature, serious new provisions to reduce voter fraud are now state law.

Two years ago, Scott Walker, who was swept into office with Republican majorities in the Wisconsin Legislature, enacted public employee union reforms over the howls and hisses of established leftism.  The left tried everything to defeat this -- Democrat legislators fled to Chicago to prevent a quorum; public employee union operatives flooded the capitol; the left tried to defeat Judge Prosser in his retention election; and Democrats tried to recall the governor, the lieutenant governor, and several state senators. 

The reforms enacted by Walker and his Republicans worked, and the left faced humiliating defeats which extended even into November 2012.  Although Obama carried Wisconsin and Republicans lost the Senate election there, Republicans at the state level did just fine: they actually gained seats in both houses of the Wisconsin Legislature. 

What happened in Wisconsin happened in other states in which Republicans held enough power to move their agenda.  While Obama carried Ohio, for example, and Democrats won the Senate race, Republicans actually strengthened the hold of the Ohio Legislature.  Perhaps most interesting is what is happening in North Carolina right now.  Republicans in 2012 -- an "Obama" election year -- captured the governorship and strengthened their control of both houses of the North Carolina Legislature.

North Carolina Republicans are now showing just what Wisconsin Republicans showed two years ago: courage to make big changes and the will to do that very fast.  North Carolina has just adopted a voter fraud prevention law which is very easy to defend, and these Republicans are quite properly ignoring the threats and howls of establishment leftism.  Two weeks ago, North Carolina Republicans enacted sweeping education reforms which end teacher tenure, provide means-tested voucher programs, and deconstruct some of the education bureaucracy.  One week before that, North Carolina Republicans passed the first major overhaul of the state tax system in eighty years.

What has happened in Wisconsin and North Carolina has happened in other Republican-run sates since the 2010 landslide.  If Republicans are able to dominate state government elections again in 2014, then American government and politics could truly be transformed, for several reasons:

These reforms are enacted quickly, and the results of the reforms can be seen easily and soon.  One reason Scott Walker survived recall was that Wisconsin voters saw his reforms working. 

States also provide the chance to really experiment to see which of several paths leads to the best state education system, the optimum growth-generating tax system, and the most effective voter fraud measure.  Conservatives across America can show not only one or two ways to reform broken systems, but perhaps dozens of ways. 

CONTINUED:  Why State Government Elections Matter

AFL-CIO President Says Beck, Limbaugh ‘Pushed Open the Door to Hate’ After 9/11

THE BLAZE--September 9, 2011

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka released a statement Friday commemorating the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11 — and promptly turned it into a political opportunity to bash Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Karl Rove and other conservatives for opening “the door to hate” in the decade since the attacks:


Wealthy CEOs, anti-government extremist front groups and frothing talk show hosts—from the Rush Limbaughs and Glenn Becks to the Koch brothers, Karl Rove’s American Crossroads group, Americans for Prosperity, the Club for Growth, FreedomWorks and the American Legislative Exchange Council—also pushed open the door to hate.

Despite the unity Americans first felt in the wake of 9/11, that hate has led to “ill-thought wars,” the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and attacks on immigrants and members of the LGBT community, Trumka said. It is also responsible for a racist conspiracy against President Barack Obama:

CONTINUED:  http://www.theblaze.com/stories/afl-cio-president-says-beck-limbaugh-pushed-open-the-door-to-hate-after-911/

The ($50 Billion) Road to Serfdom by Ben Johnson

The cornerstone of Obama’s Labor Day speech before a union audience was a $50 billion transfer of wealth from taxpayers to Big Labor. Porkulus 3.0 will not create jobs for years (if at all), but it will raise gasoline prices

The cornerstone of Obama’s Labor Day speech before a union audience was a $50 billion transfer of wealth from taxpayers to Big Labor. Porkulus 3.0 will not create jobs for years (if at all), but it will raise gasoline prices


Aside from taking time to feel sorry for himself, Obama unveiled a proposal to spend $50 billion on roads and infrastructure, which he promised “will not only create jobs immediately, it’s also going to make our economy hum over the long haul.”

His administration immediately admitted he lied. A senior Obama official, who would speak only anonymously, said: “We’re not like trying to put out an idea today that in October 2010, this is going to create a lot of jobs. This is not what this is.”

The Washington Times added, “Senior administration officials said measures for economic progress will take effect mostly in the long run and likely will do little to lower the 9.6 percent unemployment rate anytime soon.” (Emphasis added.) Even if it is passed, “Congress might not authorize funding for the six-year plan until after November and that no more jobs will be created until 2011.”

Most of those jobs would be staffed by the people behind him on the stage: union thugs and Democratic Party donors. The AFL-CIO and SEIU together have devoted $88 million to the 2010 midterms, which is $20 million more than unions spent in 2008. They have already spent $14 million in California alone to support Democrat Jerry Brown. Obama’s payback to the unions is by no means coincidental.

However, the plan Obama is selling to cure unemployment today (“immediately”) will not be in effect fully until after his second term (or, we pray, his successor’s first).

Reading the fine print reveals something else: the price tag is not really $50 billion.

The Washington Times reported that administrations officials would not even reveal how much the full plan costs, only that they claimed $50 billion is “a large percentage” of it.

The New York Times for once has a more honest estimate. It figures the total cost will run closer to $400 million. The $50 million is the attempt to “frontload” the waste — err, “stimulus.”

The NYT also revealed how this will be paid for: by you, at the gas pumps. “The White House is proposing to offset the $50 billion by eliminating tax breaks and subsidies for the oil and gas industry,” it reports. Those industries will promptly pass those new costs onto consumers, raising gasoline prices higher yet. Coupled with a potential Mideastern war over Iran’s nuclear program, gasoline could hit catastrophic price levels. That idea makes Obama’s Green Left advisers smile uncontrollably, since they see human impoverishment as good for the environment.

There may be new costs to drivers, as well. Obama called for an “Infrastructure Bank” to regulate and finance these ventures. One such proposal, made by Rosa DeLauro, D-CT, states that any private company that helped finance roads and bridges should “expect a competitive return on their money, so many of the completed projects would have to charge fees, taxes or tolls.”

The program will have no discernible effect on unemployment, will cost much more than advertised, raise gasoline prices, and make driving over public roads a potentially costly experience. In return, Obama will transfer massive sums of taxpayer money from people who earned it to union bosses and their foot soldiers, the backbone of the Democratic Party. Most likely, government propaganda signs will dot every project, announcing that Barack Obama is “Putting Americans Back to Work.”

Obama is putting Americans to work — for generations, to repay the debt he is running up to bribe his thuggish allies and impose his radical agenda.

http://floydreports.com/?p=2036&utm_source=Expose+Obama&utm_campaign=abc3bd0c70-EO_09_07_20109_7_2010&utm_medium=email

Anthony G. Martin, Conservative Examiner

Behind the masks--how the radical Left intends to save elections for Obama


September 6th, 2010
 
When the most vicious attack dogs are backed into a corner, as they say, 'you ain't seen nothing yet.' The mongrels pull out all of the stops, barring none, in order to salvage what little is left of their viability.


This is certainly the case with the Obama minions who are increasingly showing signs of desperation with regard to their public approval...and their looming shellacking at the polls in November.

The radical Left has kicked up its efforts into high gear in a desperate attempt to salvage the November midterm elections this year and to somehow reelect Barack Obama in 2012.

Mainstream America continues to wake up to the fact that they have been duped, that the 'man behind the mask' in the White House is not who they thought, and that the plan for America as implemented by Democrats in Congress since 2006, when they took control of both Houses, is leading the country off the cliff.

The result? The Leftwing consortium of extremist groups has resorted to gutter tactics that one associates with the very worst of the Chicago thugs.

Saul Alinsly, the 1960s radical whom both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton describe as their 'mentor,' described the tactic best in rule number 13 in his book 'Rules for Radicals':

"Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."

Another way to describe it is 'Disrupt-Discredit-Destroy.'

No greater example of the tactic can be found than the Left's response to Dr. Alveda King's appearance at Glenn Beck's 'Restoring Honor' rally in Washington on 8/28. King, the niece of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., committed the ultimate faux pas in the view of the race-baiters such as Al Sharpton and the NAACP, and thus, a concerted effort was mounted to smear her.

Beck himself has been the subject of outrageous smears, closely akin to that of Sarah Palin. The Huffington Post even offered $100,000 bucks for a non-existent Glenn Beck 'sex tape.'

Meanwhile, the NAACP has joined with the far-Left extremist group Think Progress, arm of the Center for American Progress, to 'highlight' incidences of 'racism' within the Tea Party movement.

It should be remembered that in July it was Think Progress that was caught red-handed manufacturing a fake video depicting non-existent Tea Party racism.

A new website has even been launched, the sole purpose of which is to spout propaganda concerning the supposed racism that is 'rampant' in the Tea Party movement.

And who would be the sponsors of this website? Think Progress, Center for American Progress, Media Matters, and the NAACP.

A much broader consortium of Leftwing organizations is in on the smears, however. The large labor unions, SEIU, the AFL-CIO, and others, are notorious for their sometimes violent attacks against detractors.

Recently the AFL-CIO referred to Sarah Palin as 'McCarthyite,' which, in the view of Leftists, strikes fear in the heart when one remembers that official documents released by the Kremlin during the late 1990s confirmed that most of Joe McCarthy's charges of Communist infiltration of the American government and society during the 1940s and 50s were proved to be 100% correct. But the Left is still counting on the thorough smear-job it accomplished against McCarthy in order to negatively portray Palin.

The AFL-CIO has also joined up with Communists, La Raza, the ACLU, and other unions, for a massive 'voter registration drive' prior to the midterm elections in November.

And ACORN-like voter fraud has already been discovered in Houston, Texas.

The key to understanding the significant threat posed by these groups, and others, is to recognize that the main players are often members of multiple organizations that work behind the scenes toward the same subversive goals. The Tides Foundation, Media Matters, Moveon.org, the Apollo Alliance, Center for American Progress, ACORN (or whatever name du jour they happen to be using), SEIU, the AFL-CIO, and a host of others walk in tandem to target, smear, discredit, and destroy conservative voices.

According to private investigators and other sources, some of these groups often enlist volunteers or pay special operatives to scan conservative websites in order to implement the Alinsky strategy referenced above. And, as this explosive report shows, sometimes the perpetrators work for federal government itself.

Be sure to catch my blog The Liberty Sphere.

http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-national/behind-the-masks-how-the-radical-left-intends-to-save-elections-for-obama?cid=examiner-email

Michelle Malkin

Obama’s Big Labor Thugs Have a Legacy of Violence


By Michelle Malkin
 
To mark Labor Day 2010, President Obama will join hands with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in Milwaukee and pose as champions of the working class. Bad move. Trumka’s organizing record is a shameful reminder of the union movement’s violent and corrupt foundations.


The new Obama/AFL-CIO power alliance — underwritten with $40 million in hard-earned worker dues — is a midterm shotgun marriage of Beltway brass knuckles and Big Labor brawn. Trumka warmed up his rhetorical muscles this past week with full-frontal attacks on former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. He indignantly accused her of “getting close to calling for violence” and suggested that her criticism of Tea Party-bashing labor bosses amounted to “terrorizing” workers.

Trumka and Obama will cast Big Labor as an unassailable force for good in American history. But when it comes to terrorizing workers, Trumka knows whereof he speaks.

Meet Eddie York. He was a workingman whose story will never scroll across Obama’s teleprompter. A nonunion contractor who operated heavy equipment, York was shot to death....

Read More and Comment: 
http://www.impeachobamacampaign.com/obamas-big-labor-thugs-have-a-legacy-of-violence/?utm_source=Floyd+Reports&utm_campaign=0e28340f6d-FR_09_03_20109_3_2010&utm_medium=email