Sunday, February 22, 2015

Governor Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Republican Legislature Are Enacting Right to Work Legislation in Wisconsin. The Media is Focusing on the Governor As a College Dropout

Scott Walker is Not a College Grad! So What! Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin announced that he will sign a fast track Right to Work bill if the Republican Legislature sends it to his desk. The Wisconsin Senate is expected to approve it this week and the Assembly next week. A Right to Work State means employees can neither be forced to join a union as a condition of employment nor otherwise pay dues to a union. Such an act will be revolutionary in the Progressive State of Wisconsin. The traditional industrial heartland of the United States, the upper Midwest, has been highly unionized led by the autoworkers, steelworkers, and teamsters. One of President Obama’s legacies is that he Republicanized the industrial heartland in the 2010 and 2014 midterm elections. Indiana and Michigan went Right to Work in 2012. Governor Walker crippled the public employee unions, except for police and fire, but left the private sector unions alone. That is about to change. Recent elections and declining union membership show the unions lack the power they once had. Union membership dropped to 11.7% of the Wisconsin workforce in 2014, down from 12.3% in 2013, and 14.2% in 2010. Union membership ranks have been sustained only by the large public sector unions One by one, state by state, Right to Work cripples the political fundraising powers of unions and decimates their ranks. The unions tried to defeat Governor Walker, even unsuccessfully mounting a recall campaign. They lost. Elections have consequences. Yet, the media is ignoring the Right to Work battle, focusing on the Governor dropping out of Marquette 34 credits short of graduating. If it spreads to other states, such as Ohio, then the once powerful industrial unions, the CIO unions, one of the building blocks of the middle class, may well shrink to political insignificance. Red State power will rise and Blue states continue their decline.Florida and Texas will continue to rapidly grow. One rule of politics is to narrow the field by knocking out opponents early. Governor Scott Walker has become a front runner for the 2016 Republican nomination. He has won election twice as a conservative Republican in the traditionally Progressive State of Wisconsin. He survived a recall election and a politically motivated criminal investigation. He defeated the public employee unions in Wisconsin. He survived the worse they could throw at him. The unions made Governor Walker a national hero to conservatives. Governor Walker comes across as a straight shooter who gets things done, a seemingly rare act in today’s political atmosphere. He doesn’t abandon his campaign pledges after winning elections. He presents compelling speeches. He now faces a new attack, designed to destroy his Presidential prospects. He is accused of not graduating from college. Reporters are flyspecking his college career. Did he leave because of drugs? An honor code violation? Trashing the student newspaper during an election campaign? Or was college just not the right route for him? The record shows that even in his college years he was a consummate politician. He has achieved great success in his given profession. The Constitution specifies the President must be at least 35 years old and a citizen born in the United States. This attack line will backfire. The nation deserves a substantive debate on Right to Work, ISIS, foreign policy, immigration, the economy, and ObamaCare. Instead we are getting major elements of the media and Howard Dean claiming you need a college degree to be President, a claim verging on elitism. He will win that debate

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