Conservative Domination

With so many state legislatures now in session and the Republican wins this past election, we are seeing some very scary bills being presented and many are passing.

Tennessee passed a bill and awaiting the Gov's signature, that would make obeying Sheri-ha a felony crime. Obviously these legislators did not seek learned advice as to what sheri-ha is. It is no different than the Cannons of the Catholic faith, the laws of Judaism of the Jews, or the Word of Wisdom of the Mormons. It is not the writings of jihad against other faiths or countries. The perverted interpretation of the act of jihad as written in the Koran, is being used by radical Muslims to justify their murderous actions.

Last year Oklahoma passed a law prohibiting Sheri-ha from being considered by the courts there. A federal judge has declared the law unconstitutional. The state has appealed the ruling to the Appeals Court. Why is there such a fear that Sheri-ha would even be considered civil or criminal law? It has never been applied to civil or criminal law in the United States.Further it is a complete violation of the First Amendment to criminalize a persons faith, especially one that is recognized around the world as a major faith. What ignorant idiots.

South Dakota is considering a bill that would provide a legal defense for assassinating an abortion provider by saying it was in the defense of an unborn person. I understand that they are trying to reword it to make acceptable, but the intent was clear, as the bill was provided by an anti-abortion activist group with ties to the murder of Dr. Tiller in Kansas.

Georgia is considering a bill that would make natural spontaneous miscarriages a felony punishable by death. This is an event that is natural and happens often, "studies reveal that anywhere from 10-25% of all clinically recognized pregnancies will end in miscarriage" according the ACOG. Miscarriages are completely out of the control of the woman. If this should pass, women would be afraid to tell their doctor that they are spotting and cramping that indicates a possible miscarriage. This could result in women dying from bleeding if there is a problem with the miscarriage or by infection should not all of the fetus be spontaneously expelled naturally. What are they thinking?

Several states, including Utah, are attempting to pass laws that would require family planning providers to read a script created by the government regarding abortion and family planning that attempts to discourage the patient from exercising her legal right to obtain health care services. These conservative legislators profess to believe in small government and that government should stay out of peoples lives. But their actions are just the opposite, proposing bills that government should get in between the patient and her doctor and dictate how the doctor treats his/her patient. That's not conducive of their philosophy.

The Tea Party conservatives have taken over many state and federal offices and thus has brought about a dynamic we have not seen in this country. The authoritarian governance policy. Witness Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin who is trying to bust public employee labor unions and also consolidate power to the Governor and legislature in dictating to local school districts as well as local towns and municipalities that it is the legislature with the power to set wages and benefits for their employees. He has taken a very hard-line position that it has to be his way only. His fellow Republicans are in lock step with him in this movement by manipulating the legislative process to shut the Democrats out of any co-governance and thus involvement in the process. If he didn't need at least one Democrat in the chamber to have a legal quorum, he would not even talk to the Democrats on any subject. This is totally contrary to our historical tradition of plural governance through negotiations and compromise with the minority party.

In Ohio the Republican controlled Senate just passed by one vote a bill to strip collective bargaining by public employees. The process that occurred, if not illegal, is certainly unethical, During the committee process, a Republican senator, Bill Seitz, expressed concern about the bill. Abruptly the Republican Senate President pulled him from the committee just before it voted on the bill and replaced him with a Republican senator that would vote in favor of it. The bill then went to the Rules committee for its final hearing before it went to the senate floor. Again a Republican senator expressed similar concerns about the bill. Again the Republican Senate President pulled Senator Tim Grendell before the vote and replaced him with a Republican that would vote for the bill. Of course it passed both committees and went to the floor. Both Senators Grendell and Seitz voted against the bill, to no avail, it passed anyway by one vote, all Republican. This type of maneuver has never occurred before in any legislator or Congress. This is in direct conflict with our constitutional representative republic democracy. 

What has happened over the years in the conservative movement is that they have come to hate and despise the Democrats and democracy to such an extent that they no longer even consider them legitimate. Therefore they can vilify them, and totally be disrespectful of them. They truly believe that they are the only legitimate party to govern the country at any level, after all the Democrats are anti-America and are Socialists.

We are at a turning point in this country of whether we remain a plural democracy or an oligarchy republic. Should these conservative politicians continue to gain more seats at all level of government, we will slowly see this transition and the working class will become surfs to the wealthy of this nation and a total loss of representation within the government. The wealthy and corporation shall control the selected representatives to perform the business of governance as the wealthy and corporation dictate.

In order to do this the power of labor unions have to be neutralized. To do that you have to falsely state that union employees gets more than the average worker and that's not fair because you, the poor worker, has to pay for the benefits that you don't have or are not as nice. It makes it sound like they are getting this big bonus for working for the government. I don't know of any police officer, fire fighter, teacher, social worker, road worker, sewer plant worker, school bus driver, prison guard, making a lot of money and getting big bonuses. At best after decades of hard work and service they may get to a point that they don't have to work 2 or 3 extra jobs to make ends meet. Sure we hear about administrators that earn high salaries and sweet retirement packages that are insane. But they are not union workers and they get to set their own compensation with the consent of the legislator or city/county councils.

So much of the America public are ignorant about how compensation for workers is determined. When a company and government determines an employee's total compensation, the amount the company or government contributes to such things as health insurance and pension are part of that total compensation. When, as Scott Walker is demanding public employees to assume more of the cost of their health insurance premium and pension contribution, it in effect reduces the total compensation to that employee as the money paid to cover the higher percentage of participation comes directly from gross earnings before the benefits are considered, thus the net take home is lower. This is also true for private employees.

For example: If an employee contributes 8% of his wages into a pension plan, that is money he/she earned through their ordinary wages. The company may match that amount as a benefit, thereby the employee received an additional compensation value of 8% that is put in the employee's retirement plan that is untouchable until he/she retires. If the employer reduces what they contribute to the plan, that reduces the overall compensation of the employee and the amount the employee will have to live on when they retire. When the employer reduces that amount that they pay of the employees health insurance premium, the employee must make up the difference by increasing the amount deducted from his/her ordinary wages to pay the premium to the insurance company. That again reduces the overall compensation and directly reduces the net amount that employee takes home, that also effects how much they have to pay their bills, like mortgage, auto loans, utilities, food, transportation, etc.

Many labor unions have agreed to this shared sacrifice to help their employer meet the need to balance budgets. The United Auto Workers took huge cuts in wages and benefits to help the American auto industry to survive. Other unions have done the same when management have been honest with them regarding the need to do so.

However, there have been some companies that have claimed dire need to reduce wages and benefits and then turn around and increased compensation for management and paid higher dividends to share holders. This type of action is wrong and should not be permitted.

So the actions of these new conservative politicians is multifaceted; destroy labor unions to cut the funding that goes to Democrats in elections from the unions, eliminate unions so that management, both private and public, have absolute control, manipulate the election process so that they obtain and maintain a super majority at all levels of governance. Pass laws they want regardless of what the people want and without even acknowledging an opposition party. This is the objective that Karl Rove presented to the CPAC convention back in 2000.

Now look at the Utah legislature and the dumb and dangerous bills they are passing.

Making gold and silver coins legal tender as apposed to an investment, thereby the holder would not pay capital gains tax on the increase in value when they sell them. Of course this will cost the public schools about a half million dollars a year in revenue.

A bill that would eliminate the need for a concealed weapon permit that would allow anyone to carry a loaded weapon out of sight anyplace they want. Another bill would eliminate the 1,000 foot no-gun zone around schools. Great now you can pack a gun onto school campuses, that is just what gang members want, now they can't get busted for a weapon on school grounds. Smart, real smart. 

Raising the sales tax on food and lower the sales tax on all other goods. Now this would impact those who spend most of their income on food, transpiration and health care, the diminishing middle-class and the poor. For those who have more disposable income, they get hit with the food tax, but make it back, plus some with the lower tax on all their other purchases. At a time when so many people are out of work and living on very little, lets hurt them some more by making food even more expensive on top of the rapid inflation of food we are currently seeing. 

It is mind boggling that such ideas even are generated. I really worry that the great nation of America hit is prime in the last century and we will become nothing more than a note in the history books of time of one of the great counties and societies that fell into ruin.