Commentary by Dick Young
This year’s election doesn’t bring Americans only a choice on their representation: many ballot initiatives will be cropping up around the country too. In Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah, Americans will have a chance to ban “card check” in their state. The editors of the Wall Street Journal write:
“Private employment grew 3.7% in states with right-to-work laws in the last decade compared to a decline of 2.8% in states that have more favorable organizing laws.”
I have long advocated Right to Work laws that strengthen individual rather than union power. (See my Liberty & Freedom map to learn about your state’s right to work status.) If you live in one of the four states listed above, take some time to familiarize yourself with your election ballot and vote for freedom on November 2.
It seems incredible that after being embroiled in a president job-gate scandal that Joe Sestak could make any headway in the race for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat. Sestak refused to fully explain the circumstances of a job offer by the president to him, made as a quid pro quo offer to drop out of the race, giving Arlen Specter an open primary field in his fight to win reelection. None of that happened of course, and since Sestak won the nomination Pat Toomey, the fiscally conservative former president of the Club for Growth, has been trouncing Sestak in the polls. It’s no wonder. Pennsylvania is in dire straits and needs representation from small-government, fiscal conservatives to find its way out of the woods. Sestak’s recent resurgence in the polls is not too surprising. Thomas Shakely at National Review writes “The DSCC is spending more in Pennsylvania than on any other race, and will have spent at least $9 million by Nov. 2.” Conservatives in Pennsylvania need to get out and support Toomey, an excellent choice for senator over the raving liberal Sestak.
In other election news, Barney Frank has loaned himself $200,000, or roughly 20% of his net worth. For an extremely powerful committee chairman to loan himself money in a reelection campaign in a district where he has held office since 1981 is astounding. His opponent, Sean Bielat, a Marine Reserve major, is gaining popularity in the district and has great ideas for moving America forward. Frank, as you likely know, was a key figure in allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to grow into the monstrous-economy-destroying machines that destroyed the mortgage industry. Support Sean Bielat for Congress here.
Sean Bielat is not the only example of Tea Party backed newcomers giving hardened political barnacles like Barney Frank a run for their money. Chip Cravaack in Minnesota is running well against another petrified committee chairman, Jim Oberstar. The chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure committee is long in the tooth. The district is looking for new blood, and Cravaack is a great fit for Americans seeking economic liberty and freedom. As Michael Barone writes in National Review today, “The Tea Party movement today, like the peace movement 40 years ago, has brought many new people into politics — and many with sharper political instincts than their detractors in the press have been able to understand.”
Once elected, Republicans need to keep their eye on the ball. It isn’t enough to yap about spending cuts: then begin the pork barrel spending immediately upon entering the Capitol building. Congressmen need to look at all parts of the budget for spending cuts, including in Defense. An article in today’s Wall Street Journal by Max Boot outlines the terrible toll overspending has taken on Britain’s military. America cannot afford the type of cuts to military spending that Britain has taken since the end of the Cold War. That is why Congress must make sure every dollar is being spent wisely on Defense. Part of a streamlining in Defense spending should come from the withdrawal of American ground forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention South Korea, Japan and Germany. Bring the troops home, from everywhere.
To be sure, America cannot afford another two years of Congressional leadership from Nancy Pelosi. She has told her allies in the Democratic Party to “Do what you have to do,” to win, even if that means disavowing Pelosi herself. So when you hear Democratic candidates telling you they don’t support Nancy Pelosi, it’s more likely that they’re just saying what you want to hear. Check a Democrat’s votes before believing they have been opposing Pelosi. John Fund quotes a Democratic insider as saying this about Pelosi if Democrats retain the majority in Congress, “She will expect support from every member and she will get it from almost every member.”
Every vote is needed to turn the tide against big government. Democrats have the overwhelming support of well-funded union political action committees and elitists like George Soros, not to mention the mainstream media. But every vote counts on November 2nd, yours most of all.
The Greatest Race Against Alinsky Schooled Obama – E.J. Smith
“Remember: once you organize people around something as commonly agreed upon as pollution, then an organized people is on the move.” Rules for Radicals, by Saul Alinsky
No President has been as anti-coal as President Obama. He fires up the liberal elite around the green movement, while the EPA has big bad coal in its cross hairs. As George Will writes, “Barack Obama has a remarkable hostility to coal.” Obama said in 2008, “If somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”
Well, the fly in the ointment for Obama’s green dream is West Virginians. They see the writing on the wall. They must wonder why they have to suddenly shutter their businesses after having provided the main source for our country’s energy needs all these years.
They’re ready to vote against the Obama agenda and the political elite in the D.C. metro area living large with only a 6.2% unemployment rate. Both candidates for WV Senate understand this. The problem is, for candidate Manchin he has that letter “D” for Democrat next to his name. You know the same letter that is next to President Obama’s. West Virginians want nothing to do with a President that wants to drive their economy into a ditch. That’s why it’s John Raese’s, as in race, to win.
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