A lot of people look at the unpopularity of GOP governors in Florida, Maine, and elsewhere, and look at some of the successes their opponents have had in such states as Ohio and Wisconsin, and assume that Republicans know they overreached in 2011.
A Gathering Storm Over ‘Right to Work’ in Indiana
Nearly a year after legislatures in Wisconsin and several other Republican-dominated states curbed the power of public sector unions, lawmakers are now turning their sights toward private sector unions, setting up what is sure to be another political storm.
The thunderclouds are gathering first here in Indiana. The leaders of the Republican-controlled Legislature say that when the legislative session opens on Wednesday, their No. 1 priority will be to push through a business-friendly piece of legislation known as a right-to-work law….
Right-to-work laws prohibit union contracts at private sector workplaces from requiring employees to pay any dues or other fees to the union. In states without such laws, workers at unionized workplaces generally have to pay such dues or fees….
This is presented as “business-friendly” legislation, but at least as important is the fact that it’s Republican-friendly legislation. It’s pathetic that the very existence of even a nominally liberal major political party in America depends on the continued payment of union dues by a certain percentage of the population, but that’s the way it is, given the way money works in our politics — and the GOP and its allied fat cat know that the Democratic Party can literally be destroyed, or turned into an ineffectual minor party, if right-to-work spreads, in combination with other assaults on Democratic voters and funding.
My prediction? We’ll see this nationally after President Romney and a GOP House and Senate are sworn in in 2013 — there’s going to be a drive for a national right-to-work law, and it’ll go through so fast no opponent will have properly prepared for it. All the insider journalists and pundits will be shocked that this will be Romney’s first major effort as president. (He never mentioned this when we were schmoozing on the campaign plane!)
Maybe it can’t happen. Maybe even a terrified Democratic Party, having lost the Senate and the presidency, will still be able to muster enough votes in the Senate to filibuster this. But that assumes the GOP won’t suspend or eliminate the filibuster after taking over the Senate — not a safe assumption.
I believe the GOP’s power brokers — Murdoch, Rove, the Kochs — have nothing less in mind than turning America into a one-party state. I don’t see why they couldn’t accomplish that with a few more GOP-friendly campaign finance rulings, a national RTW law, more voter ID laws, and perhaps a Supreme Court overturning of birthright citizenship, which would make it difficult for many U.S.-born Hispanics to register and vote just as Hispanics numbers swell in America. Yeah, I’m being apocalyptic here, but I really don’t think Republicans are just playing around. I wouldn’t put anything past them.
(X-posted at No More Mister Nice Blog.)
I don’t know how likely it is but where else would leading edge conservative thinking come from if not such radical legislation? The election would be declared ex post facto, perhaps justifiably, as a referendum on exactly those policies.
Indiana Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels and his Republican General Assembly has already fired the first right-to-work-for-less shot by writing new rules that limit public access to lawmakers at the statehouse.
Unlike Wisconsin, Indiana has no recall provision available to can legislators who have sufficiently angered voters to initiate new elections.
How many state lawmakers are up for election this fall?
126 – the entire house and half the senate plus the gov. I guess by the time a recall could be put together, the election would take care of it anyway (if only the state dems would run a candidate in every district).
This is a point I never see discussed. Are Democrats running an aggressive campaign in these States? Do they have challengers in most districts? Do they have strong candidates in competitive seats?
We’re in a pretty volatile political climate right now. It’d be pretty bad if Democrats left seats on the table, anywhere.
State and local party people need to get off their asses and recruit people to run for every vacancy. Our GOP rep has had no opposition for the last several elections and he’s an ALEC friend.
Steve:
So why is the DCCC backing anti-union jerk-offs like John Barrow? If there is one good thing about it, it will literally force the death of the DLC(what ever alphabet soup they’ve morphed into now) and the Blue Dogs.
Apocalyptic?? Maybe, maybe not. But it would be naive to not consider it at least within the realm of reason. Would be wise to consider and plan for even the most extreme possibilities. You’re right, the hard core right of the Republican Party is not fooling around. They are intent on carpet-bombing at the first opportunity. The actions after the 2010 elections are just a taste of what is on their wish list.
Here’s the right’s wishlist. Just go ask ALEC.
Exactly. ALEC seems to be flying under the radar screens of almost everyone. You seldom hear it mentioned by name. But this group, in large measure, is successfully buying the implementation of their agenda. Their efforts run from top to bottom on almost every issue one could conceive.
You said…”Yeah, I’m being apocalyptic here,”
No, you are right on taget with the motives of the super wealthy right wing oligarchs. Complete and utter domination is the driving ambition of this power hungry cabal of oligarchs.
This ruthless cabal have hired the con-men of the Republican Party to faciltate the accomplishment of their dreams of complete control of America.Currently the oligarchs (Koch Brothers, Ken Langone, etc) are banded together to faciltate the current attack on the democratic provisionns of America’s Constitution.
Once these provisional guarantees have been shredded on both the national level and the state level, the members of the cabal will then turn inward to fight each other for the ultimate control of American society. This is clear to me as a visionary repeat of those years in ancient history that immediately preceeded the birth of the Holy Roman Empire.
If it ever happens, it will happen with the active support, not merely the passive acquiescence, of the very workers it harms.
Not that we’re unusual in this regard. In three of the last five UK eneral elections, the chances that an actual blue-collar worker voted Tory were greater than that he or she voted Labour.
I predict that the filibuster will cease to exist the day Republicans retake the Senate.
Even if Obama is re-elected? If the House stays GOP, Obama can veto everything they pass, and they would have to vote to block Obama’s appointees. No more under-the-radar gridlock. If the Democrats take the House, it would be even more pointless for them to abolish the filibuster.
If the Senate Republicans are taking the long view, they should consider that they will wear out their welcome sooner or later, and then the filibuster will be their friend again.
For these reasons I think the Senate will vote to abolish the filibuster only if the GOP wins the Presidency and controls both houses of Congress.
Correction: I could see a GOP Senate abolishing the filibuster with a GOP President, regardless of how the House goes. Then they can pack the courts.
I predict that the filibuster will cease to exist the day Republicans retake the Senate.
I’d take that bet.
People forget, but the Senate’s cloture rules don’t just empower legislative minorities. They empower individual Senators.
You’re saying that the Republicans will, very easily, get a majority of United States Senators to vote to limit their own power. Power they use to get goodies for their states, power they use to get their little pet amendments included in bills.
I don’t see it. We don’t even have to get to the point that the filibuster has almost always been used to thwart progressive legislation. The 100 people in America who have done the best job oif accumulating legislative power are not willingly going to vote to make their elevated positions more like seats in the House of Representatives.