Public Sector Unions As Political Clubs

There isn’t anyone that doesn’t know that public sector unions are bankrupting nearly every major state and city in this country. What most people don’t know is how this happened.

Unless the American people figure it out, and quickly, bankruptcy is a foregone conclusion for California, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Michigan, perhaps New Jersey and any other state in this fair land whose budgets are busting due to extraordinary benefits provided to their government employees who are represented by public sector unions.

When I began practicing labor law 38 years ago 25% of the entire American workforce was represented by private sector unions. Today private sector unions represent only 6.9%, of the entire American workforce while public sector unions represent 30% of all public sector employees.
This is the result of 2 factors occurring simultaneously over the last 4 decades. During this period manufacturing, where private sector unions were concentrated, went to China and other low cost developing countries. At the same time the number of public sector employees increased in size exponentially and became the political force behind organized labor.

But here is the point that must be understood if we intend to avoid what is currently happening in Greece and will be happening very shortly to most of Europe. Public sector unions are not actually unions they are political clubs which support politicians through dues contributed by their members and 95% of such politicians are Socialist/Democrats. Socialist/Democrat politicians then pass legislation which increases wages and benefits to their public sector employees as payback.

There is only one way to stop this kleptocracy: Make contributions by public sector unions to political candidates unlawful. This will result in having Socialist/Democrat politicians return to representing the interests of the people that voted for them not the people who paid for them.

Joker’s Wild

In a recent interview with Shawn Hannity, Donald Trump informed viewers that if the Republican Party doesn’t nominate someone to his liking he will run as a third party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. The ultimate spoiled brat now becomes a spoiler.

Donald Trump, aka “The Donald” is a person with whom New Yorkers are quite familiar. For heaven’s sake his name in New York City is emblazoned on every building he has either built (very few) or to whom he has sold his name (a great many). He has never hidden the fact that, in effect, The Donald, is up for sale.

So let’s follow how this spoiler threat from The Donald will actually unfold. The first thing we must take into account is that one of The Donald’s modus operandi is that he will do everything and anything to avoid spending his own money. And there is a reason for this: In the universe of people who have lots of money The Donald is a piker, protestations to the contrary. As we all know running for the office of the President of the United States requires lots of money. President Obama says he needs a 1 billion for starters. If the The Donald is going to run for President as a third party candidate he’s not going to get his money from any Republicans, that’s for sure. Independents aren’t known to make campaign contributions unless they are committed. And I don’t see Independents committed to the likes of the The Donald. So the only viable place for The Donald to find lots of money is among Democrats who see in the The Donald the true spoiler that he is. “Hello, George Soros speaking. Yes Donald how are you.”

Stay At Home Democrats

The Democratic Party is experiencing today a similar implosion that it experienced in the 1960’s when both its southern wing and its Cold War Warriors moved over to the Republican Party.

The 1960’s were not kind to Democrats. The American people blamed them for starting a war in Indochina that was both unpopular and costly. By the end of the 60’s they were perceived as incompetent in dealing with our Cold War enemy the Soviet Union and uncommitted to winning it. Finally they were viewed by many Americans as morally profligate and holding values that were inconsistent with those in which most Americans held dear.

Today the leadership of the Democratic Party has adopted the alien philosophy of Socialism. And through a quirk in our political system whereby for a short period of 2 years, between 2008 and 2010, when the Executive and Legislative branches of our government were controlled by the Democratic Party it foisted upon the American people legislation and policies that can only be described as totalitarian. Today our government controls the delivery of health care from cradle to grave, the financial industry from banking to home ownership, owns and controls large portions of our auto industry and is limiting the production of fossil fuels for the unproven theory of what can only be described anthropomorphic global warming.
As in the 1960’s Democrats are leaving the party in droves. Voting Republican in 2012 may be too much to ask ….but stay home they will.

Flip Flop

Today’s Wall Street Journal’s front page is blazoned with the head line in bold: “Financiers Switch to GOP”.

Let see if I got this straight: Wall Street financiers, based upon the popular argot are Capitalists were supporting Socialists, otherwise known as Democrats? Say it isn’t so. But it is. In fact I knew this back in 1998 when I first ran for the New York State Assembly as a Republican on the Upper West Side, a district one could only describe as the last bastion of Socialism since the fall of the Soviet Union. The first thing I did to raise money was take the 1 train to Wall Street. I figured, naively, that here was a bunch of guys, some girls too, who would support my campaign, especially since I was running against a Democrat who had all the characteristics of Lenin who got on the train at 72nd Street rather than Finland station.

The article in the Journal describes these captains of the universe, having put millions of dollars into candidate Obama’s 2008 war chest as disappointed with him as president. What boggled my mind in 1998 was that when I approached these captains of the universe I interpreted their refusal to give me any money to challenge a socialist was a matter of principle. Well, now we know it’s not the principle of the thing but the fact that they bet on the wrong horse. And never underestimate a hedge fund manager’s ability to change course when the bet he made goes south.

Obama’s Socialism

Last week on my daily live show one of my callers took strong exception to the fact that I referred to President Obama as a Socialist. What the caller failed to appreciate is that by me referring to President Obama as a Socialist I was referring to him as something less sinister.

This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.

As I do not love humanity without knowing its vises, I do not love the truth without fearing it. If I were certain that President Obama was a Socialist I would breathe a lot easier. Allow me the drug of self-delusion. Allow me to believe that President Obama is a Socialist or a Statist; one who believes government is the panacea against alleged corporate greed or corporate villainy. Allow me to dream that President Obama is a Socialist rather than awake and know that behind that soaring rhetoric lay something a lot more menacing.

If the American people did not rise up last November and remove one chamber of Congress from the support of President Obama, namely the House of Representatives, do Americans, Republican or Democrat, actually believe that President Obama in his State of the Union speech would have been as contrite, willing to compromise with Republicans, speak about American exceptionalism with admiration or refer to the beauty of democracy? Would he have inferred in that speech that his craven desire for government control had been satiated? Not on your life.

And it’s not President Obama of whom I am concerned , who in truth may be only nothing more than a benign Socialist, but the groups and institutions with which he has been associated ever since his early days at Columbia University such as the Marxist Midwest Academy, Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ or the Marxist front group the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, otherwise known as ACORN. These are not benign institutions but rather anti-American, anti-capitalist and yes even perhaps anti-Semitic.

Over the next 2 years leading into the 2012 presidential election, as these associations become more widely known by the American people and known to be linked to President Obama he will have to do more than provide soaring and elegant rhetoric to persuade the American people that he is nothing more than a garden variety, benign, European Socialist.

This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.

John F. Kennedy’s Men

Last week Sargent Shriver died at age 95. Last week Senator Joseph Lieberman, current Independent but caucuses with Democrats, declared that he will not seek a fifth term as Senator of the State of Connecticut. Both remembered President John F. Kennedy as their political father. And so do I.

This is Roger Madon this is what I think.

Sargent Shriver was appointed by President Kennedy as the first director of the Peace Corps. Shriver set the standards and culture of what would come to be one of the most honorable governmental service organizations in the history of America. As one of the first Peace Corps volunteers I served under his directorship and benefited from his powerful belief that young and educated American men and women could go out into the world, serve as mentors in some of its most remote parts and provide a new pathway, a new way of thinking to the poor and oppressed populations. Even today, nearly 50 years later, with 20,000 Americans having served, the standards and culture of the Peace Corps still belong to Sargent Shriver. He was 45 when he was the Director, I was 26 when I served but we were both President Kennedy’s children.

Joe Lieberman’s political career was ignited when 50 years ago, almost to the day, he heard President Kennedy’s ringing statement at his inaugural in which he said,

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

And Joe Lieberman did. He supported a war, the war in Iraq, which his party was dead set against. And for this he paid the ultimate political price, his party abandoned him. We know the rest of the story. I find it hard to forget the vitriol, the accusations of treason, the insults that were thrown at Joe Lieberman. I also find it hard to forget that he was the 60th vote in the Senate that broke the filibuster against Obamacare which for me, if not repealed or reformed will bring this country to a crashing end. But throughout his political career he was a John F. Kennedy unfaltering, unshakable, intrepid patriot. And for that neither of us are Democrats today.

This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.

The Free Speech Debate

Fifty years ago I lived in a country where politicians carried side arms and had their political opponents killed more often than any American would find acceptable. However in that country martial political rhetoric, similar to what we use here in the United States, or any rhetoric for that matter which alluded to violence was completely absent from the vernacular.

This Roger Madon and this is what I think.

I know, you think I’m being sardonic. Well, I’m not. I did live in such a country. And from my perspective, since I was an American even then, I preferred this system of government and politics to the one I just described. You see, here in America, we’re free to say most anything we want to say. But we do have to be careful. For example, if we say something which borders on a physical threat and the target of that threat winds up dead, you can pretty much bet that you are going to get a knock on the door by a police officer who would like to have a conversation with you, downtown.

So where am I going with this? Well the fundamental flaw with those pinheads such as Nobel Prize winning Paul Krugman of the New York Times or Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Tucson, Arizona who seem to blame martial and vitriolic rhetoric for the violent attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords this weekend fail to appreciate the palliative effect that bearing arms has upon the population.

My point is that when it comes to the First Amendment, as we Americans understand it, we can’t have both ways. Either we have free speech or not. There is no middle ground. Under our system of government there is no such thing is prior restraint. That means that the government can’t shut somebody up even if it contends that that person is about to say something that the government thinks is unlawful. And then once having said it the government can’t do much about it. So the likes of Paul Krugman and Sheriff Dupnik and all those other Socialist/Democrats who are howling their heads off about the heated rhetoric of Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and Glen Bleck are probably suggesting that limiting speech will control the fruit cakes who populate our country, one of whom will be languishing in a Federal prison for the rest of his life. However the vast majority of Americans aren’t prepared to give up their right to free speech upon the sheer speculation that the psychotics will give up their violence or the surety that those who will be restrained from speaking will use other means of expression.

This Roger Madon and that’s what I think.

The Groucho Marx Tea Party Movement

When the husband barges into his bedroom and finds Groucho Marx in bed with his wife there is little to explain even as Groucho protests vehemently. Finally, knowing that his life may be at stake Groucho blurts out, “Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes!”

This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.

When the Tea Party came exploding on to the American political scene in April last year pundits from the left immediately marginalized it as a kooky, racist bunch of red necks with a large space between their 2 front teeth and with not an ounce of political sophistication. Fast forward today and what we have are numerous Tea Party candidates, having won positions on Republican tickets throughout the country running against Democrats, in some cases entrenched Democrats, either leading or neck and neck in campaigns in which incumbent Democrats can’t even get above 50% in the polls.

On January 3, 2011 President Obama will be running into the brick wall of the United States Constitution, the very Constitution about which he has expressed derision, accusing it of being defective by failing to include a provision which requires the distribution of wealth. During this fall campaign the President has been going around the country claiming that the Republican Party is the party of “No” and it was the “No” of the Republican congressional representatives that stopped the necessary legislation to cure the ailing American economy by spreading the family wealth to those poor Americans who have been adversely affected by capitalism. The American people haven’t been listening and will going to the polling booths throughout the country to express their idea of the Constitution that they love and wish to preserve.

This is the Constitution that Peter Berkowitz of the Hoover Institute recently said contains enumerated powers; a separation, balance, and blending of these powers among branches of the federal government; and a distribution of powers between the federal and state governments which operate to leave substantial authority to the states while both preventing abuses by the federal government and providing it with the energy needed to defend liberty. That may be a mouthful but that’s what the Tea Party movement is all about. And what’s so apparent is that it doesn’t take a pinheaded law school professor to figure it out.

So who are you going to believe the President of the United States or Groucho Marx? This is the one time I’ll pick Marx.

This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.

Get The Drunks Out Of Congress

It’s quite a sight isn’t it? Congressional Democrats who are running for office are saying to their home state voters, “Did I say that, did I do that?” as if they just woke up from a Saturday night binge and can’t remember a thing.

This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.

It really would be quite amusing if it weren’t so darn serious. Americans have always taken warmly to their town drunks. But the worst thing a town drunk does is that he scares the cats and turns over the garbage cans. By the next morning everything is back to normal. In the case of the Congressional Democrats however, they’re not going back to the town folks asking for forgiveness but rather demanding another chance to besot themselves and no requirement of redemption. With trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see and by last count if you add Social Security, Medicare and military benefits into the mix 67 trillion dollars in debt the American people are not in the mood for forgiveness. In fact the American people are itching to throw the town drunk, out of town.

To this day I still don’t quite get it. When this Congress took control of the House and Senate the Democrats had everything going for them including a real economic crisis to address. This would be a rare opportunity to show the American people that their progressive philosophy of redistribution was what this country really needed and that Wall Street greed had to be stopped. At the same time the global warmers were real close to the goal line to get something they always wanted, to straight jacket the American economy by taxing the hell out of fossil fuel and regulating a naturally occurring gas C02, a gas that is not toxic, exhaled by every animal on the planet and is used by plants to grow. A bit strange, don’t you think?

Well, in another month the American people are going to the polls to vote – 10% unemployment, home mortgages still at the highest foreclosure rate in American history and a dollar that has become an international laughing stock can’t be compared to scaring the cats and kicking over garbage cans. These Congressional drunks are leaving town, literally.

This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.

Economic Crisis Of The Century

This week China surpassed Japan as the second largest economy in the world. In a bit more than a decade China is expected to surpass the first largest economy in the world.

This is Roger Madon and this is what I think.

President Obama has been going around the country this month warning the American people that if they give the car keys to the Republicans in November this year they are going to drive the economy into the ditch. With the news that China surpassed Japan as the second largest economy in the world and that within 12 years it will overtake the United States, all this while the Democrats are in power, Americans are wondering that if the President is right about the Republicans – who the hell is going to drive this car and get home safely.

What we tend to forget is that there was a time when the United States was not always the largest and most dynamic economy in the world. However by the turn of the 20th century it was clear to those countries that cared about such things, Great Britain, France, Germany and Japan the U.S. was a country that had to be reckoned with. By the end of World War II in 1945 a victorious America was the last country standing and it was clear that it intended to dictate how the rest of the world was going to do business.

The financial catastrophe of October 2008 resulting in the election of a Socialist administration and Congress both of which have been responsible for the increase in debt of nearly 4 trillion dollars and 15 million unemployed has convinced Americans that the only way to address this economic disaster is to grow the economy, something Socialists know nothing about. But the American public is not too happy either with the way Republicans ran the country when they were in power. Someone is going to have to drive this car and it may be the sober teenager next door who has been drinking tea rather than liquor.

This is Roger Madon and that’s what I think.

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