WASHINGTON -- Gov. Rick Snyder (R) officially made Michigan a "right-to-work" state on Tuesday, signing into law two bills that significantly diminish the power of unions.
"I have signed these bills into law. ... We are moving forward on the topic of workplace fairness and equality," he said at a press conference on Tuesday evening, just hours after the state House passed the bills. Right-to-work laws forbid contracts between companies and unions that require all workers to pay the union for bargaining on their behalf.
Although business groups and conservatives cast the issue in terms of workplace freedom, unions note that the laws allow workers to opt out of supporting the union although they reap the benefits of the collective bargaining …
Michigan, however, has one of the highest rates of unionization in the country, is the birthplace of the modern automotive industry, and is consistently a swing state in elections and went for Obama in 2012.Let’s put this assault on unions into perspective: Citizens United. In 2010, the Supreme Court removed the ban on corporations that prevented them in the past from using treasury funds for direct advocacy. Overnight, the decision created a new era of dark money, secret money, and super PACs to endorse candidates and push legislation that had previously been closed to them.
If Citizens United opened corporate treasuries, the intent of a so-called Right-to-Work bill is to dry up union coffers – creating an unprecedented imbalance in public advocacy financing.
In his dissenting opinion, Justice Stevens argued: "[Citizens United] threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the Nation. The path it has taken to reach its outcome will, I fear, do damage to this institution. A democracy cannot function effectively when its constituent members believe laws are being bought and sold."
Justice Stevens could not possibly anticipate how Citizens United in combination with Right-to-Work would alter the political landscape. On March 19, 2011, I posted this commentary, Wisconsin is where Chicken Little crossed the road:
Consider the asymmetry between union busting and the Citizens United decision. If Citizens United opened the door to unlimited corporate funding of political speech, events in Wisconsin have closed the door on union funding for Democrats. All told, union busting, Gonzo Gate, voter caging, voter ID cards, and the smear of Acorn are manifestations of a GOP master plan to eliminate traditional bases of Democratic support.
In theory, true democracy is predicated on choice, and choice connotes a policy debate between rivals. If one party, however, employs ruthless tactics to cripple the opposition beyond viability, what we have left is essentially a one party system with only token opposition. In other words: Democracy in name only. Wisconsin is where the GOP changed the dynamics of democratic engagement from contest to conquest. Wisconsin is where Chicken Little crossed the road to fascism.This is no coincidence: The overwhelming majority of Right-to-Work states are Red States. This is no coincidence: The decision to pass a Right-to-Work bill in Michigan has nothing to do with job creation or alleged union abuses or overreach. What happened in Michigan is a ruthless response to a recent election loss that shocked the GOP, which they are determined not to repeat again. It is a direct assault against a traditional funding source for Democrats, against the middle class - against democracy itself.
The feeling of victory didn't last long, did it? This is so far from being over and I don't think it ever will be.
ReplyDeleteThe last election was by no means a victory; we merely dodged a bullet. Without doubt, the neo-fascists will be back - and more determined to win. However, if we keep exposing their master plan, the public will be less inclined to swallow their bullshit. At least, this is my hope.
ReplyDeleteEternal vigilance and all that, but I have insufficient confidence in the public's ability to see through the massive and ever growing lies and deceptions.
ReplyDeleteNot long ago I read on a pro gun website that the Supreme Court's overturn of Illinois' ban on concealed weapons was proof that Obama was out to get our guns. Yesterday I read about how high electricity costs were proof that Obama was responsible for the "government stranglehold" that was keeping mysterious "secrets" from the public about how they could get free electricity -- buy now before Obama shuts us down!
It's like the plague, this communicable madness. The paranoia, the anger the raging unreason.
It may be true that the big unions; the Teamsters, the UAW put such pressure on the Auto makers and others that they became uncompetitive, but they Unions have shrunk drastically in members and power. Like most Right Wing paranoid rages, they're screaming about things that no longer exist and this nation of Dumbfuckistan is too ignorant to notice.
Of course we leftist, commie pinko liberal Obaminators may, from a false sense of victory, slip back into bickering about our own irrationalities and blind dogmas and forget all about what this and other issues mean to the 98% who are still slipping into serfdom. I think the Jackals and hyenas are counting on it.
"The imbecile bourgeoisie of this country make themselves accomplices of the very people whose aim is to drive them out of their houses to starve in ditches."
ReplyDelete-Joseph Conrad-
"this communicable madness
ReplyDeleteCaptain,
The prevalence of Paranoid Personality Disorder in the general population has been estimated to be as high as 4.5%; it occurs more commonly in males and compromises the leading edge of the reactionary GOP. If it were properly labeled as a mental disorder, instead of a party affiliation, I believe the situation would come into sharper focus.
On a more serious note, the neo-conservative wing of the GOP needs to be exposed for their neo-fascist tendencies - for a political philosophy more akin to Plato, Hobbes, Machiavelli and Nietzsche - who regarded humanity as vulgar swine unfit for either truth or liberty. Furthermore, they regard the human condition as based, not on equality and freedom, but on subordination. With a natural order of domination and submission, they see themselves as occupying the top tier of this hierarchy, which they truly believe is their birthright.
About their penchant for engaging in "noble lies" and "pious deceptions," their goal is to keep their agenda secret because people are not likely to tolerate the fact that they are intended for subordination - and may very well turn their wrath against their overlords. Thus lies and deceptions are justified to protect the superior from the inferior. To accomplish their goals, neo-cons will manipulate public messages (through broadcast media, magazines, and newspapers) to turn the masses against their own liberty. As we know, there is no greater ally of tyranny than fear. Overall, neo-cons would have everyone believe they are the Defenders of God and Country; on the contrary, they have total contempt for liberalism and democracy.
No, the neo-fascists will not go away, but we dodged a bullet and can dodge it again by exposing this shit for all to see.
Of course you're right. Until the next election, they're going to be hiding behind smokescreens and fun house mirrors reinterpreting, redefining and reinventing the meaning of their loss. We need to keep rubbing their noses in it and it won't be easy unless they're stupid enough not to dial down the overconfidence. Any yes, the fear mongering. Of course we'll be seen or described as the real fear mongers in customary cover-up fashion. The next election -- and it's not to soon to be looking at it -- isn't going to be any easier.
DeleteBut I have to agree, as usual, with Nietzsche and see some form of power hierarchy as our biological heritage. Every attempt to reorder, to create a better order, seems to decay into the same old Lord and Serf or perhaps the Alpha Baboon and the obedient followers form. That's not to say it's inevitable, but rather presents an eternal need to limit the power of the big and wealthy and unscrupulous that has defined the old world order since we were monkeys.
That's what "conservatives" are hear to prevent and I have to see an attempt to create another ruling class, another specially privileged class in Rand (who is so much akin to Marx in that sense)
Feudalism being the natural order.
Captain,
DeleteOf course, I agree with you too. Human beings, in my view, are nothing more than language-enabled chimpanzees - which is why I regard cephalopods as a superior life form. Cephalopods, however, are solitary creatures that have no interest in holding dominion over others - which is precisely what makes cephalopods superior, IMHO.
As Theodore Lowi once was said: If the struggle to survive is the first problem, government is the second. As your intrepid (O)CT(O)PUS always says: Chicanery and corruption is the default condition condition of the human species; no matter how noble any experiment in government starts out, it always degenerates into some form of domination and elitism. What makes elitist capitalism different from elitist communism or elitist fascism? The question is meant to be rhetorical.
If I say that such things are a biological imperative, that some form of feudalism; the strong oppressing the weak, is a default position, I'm not hinting that we should just let it happen that way.
DeleteThe mark of being human is the very ability to depart from our inherited limitations, physical and mental; to substitute a fair and equitable society for our biological determination. After all, civilization requires that we give up many of our old ways and learn not to give in to some of our urges, like strangling certain TV personalities and media owners, and raiding our neighbor's possessions out of sheer greed and the love of conquest. Civilization is supposed to be a software upgrade, isn't it?
This is definitely part of a calculated scheme to gut one of the most loyal and effective parts of the Democratic base. But it's not just in reaction to the recent election. It's something the Kochs plotted and have laid the groundwork for for years through ALEC and the like.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans, with backing of the Kochs and other oligarchs, are also out to leverage their advantage in many state legislatures by jiggering how Electoral College votes are tallied. That way, through gerrymandering, they can win a majority of electoral votes in states where their candidate can't win a majority of the popular votes.
Democrats had better get to work in the states, to counter gerrymandering chicanery. Republicans are desperate to overcome the fact most Americans aren't with them on issues, and overcome the demographic changes that could make theirs a permanent minority party at the national level. They took over Texas through gerrymandering, and they want to take over more states that way.
I cannot agree more with SW! The movements to quash Unions in Michigan, Wisconsin and other places is NOT a grass roots effort. It is a concerted effort by Koch, Rove, Norquist and other radical-conservative organizations. Good comment, SW!
DeleteSWA,
ReplyDeleteThe Michigan "Right-to-Unwork" law and ALEC-supplied boilerplate are virtually word for word, confirming what you say.
To hedge their bets, the Koch brothers are known to purchase not merely one team in play but both teams.* In other words, the Kochroaches always attempt to buy the entire game. Meaning Democrats too - as was done during the Clinton years.
(*Please note: So-called Cap and Trade was a Koch-inspired invention. As a diversion, they funded the think tank that created it and spent even more money trying to sink it. Thats's the way they do business.)
Brilliant strategy actually. For people of little or no principle.
ReplyDeleteRN,
ReplyDeleteWhenever the Kochroach brothers are the subject of conversation, only 4-letter words should be used. Like the 'E' word: EVIL. Also the 'C" word, the 'H' word, and the 'K' word, among others.
People of little or no principle are very fond of using the word, but what they mean is profit and power.
ReplyDelete