Republican Governors

Republican Governors Rave About Improved Economy, But Mitt Romney Wants Them NOT To Claim So!

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An interesting development as we see Republican Governors raving about their improved economies, but causing grief for Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney in doing so!

Florida Governor Rick Scott, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, and Ohio Governor John Kasich all have been boasting about their states’ economies vastly improving.

The fact that all of these states except Florida have an unemployment rate BELOW the national average is a PLUS for President Barack Obama, although, of course, these GOP Governors will not give him any credit!

But by them pointing out their improved economies, it hurts the cause of Mitt Romney, who is trying to make a campaign simply on the economy, ignoring everything else, such as foreign policy, the future of the Supreme Court, and many social issues.

Romney seems to think that he will be able to focus on what he wants only, but that will certainly not be the case as the Obama campaign zeroes in on other issues, and as the three Presidential debates and one Vice Presidential debate arrive on the scene in September and October!

The Wisconsin Disaster And What It May Portend

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The failure last Tuesday to remove Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker from office by recall is a major blow to the labor movement and to progressivism.

It is a warning sign that workers, whether union or non union, whether public service workers or those employed by private employers, can expect that many of the hard won reforms of the 20th century could be taken away by Republican Governors, a Republican controlled Congress and a Republican President in the future.

It is a sign also of the power of wealthy corporate interests to destroy our political system, with the assistance of the right wing Supreme Court which allowed the Citizens United decision in 2010, which has now led to the right wing takeover in many states, in the House of Representatives, and was able to help Scott Walker survive, despite the abuse of power by him and his Republican colleagues in the state legislature. The ability of wealthy individuals to contribute large amounts of money without limit distorted the whole political process!

The fact that Mitt Romney was able to raise more money last month than Barack Obama for the first time is another danger sign that everything progressives and liberals have fought for could be going down the drain!

It is hard not to be very pessimistic about the short term and long term future, but those who believe in the rights of workers, women, minorities, children, the elderly, and wish to promote education, health care and the environment, cannot sit back and mope over the results!

If the forces for democracy decide to give up, instead of mobilizing for the upcoming campaign, and if they do not convince citizens how important it is to vote for their own futures, then indeed the country will be moving closer to a form of corporate fascism that will destroy the great progress made over a long period of generations of hard fought struggles!

Maine Republican Governor Paul LePage And Labor History

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Maine’s new Republican Governor, Paul LePage, may not be noticed nationally very much, but he is now drawing attention as another GOP state executive who is a disgrace in so many ways, and anyone who voted for him should be ashamed at what they have wrought by putting him into the Governorship!

Riding a wave or bitterness and resentment by the Tea Party Movement, LePage was elected Governor, much like Rick Scott in Florida, Scott Walker in Wisconsin, John Kasich in Ohio, Rick Snyder in Michigan, and Chris Christie in New Jersey.

All of the above, and LePage, have declared war on organized labor and working people in general, and have shown how they do not understand the history of this nation, and the long, hard fought battles of the labor movement over the past 150 years to better the conditions of workers, with millions of workers in all fields who never were members of labor unions, but benefiting from the labor struggles and rising to the middle class from poverty because of the sacrifices of others!

Now the wealthy corporate world has declared war on working people, both in unions and outside, setting out to add to their wealth and power while impoverishing every day working people, and they have had willing allies on Capitol Hill from House and Senate Republicans, as well as from Republican Governors, and have succeeded in destroying a century and a half of progress in a very short time!

If what has been happening just since this year began does not cause average, every day working people to rise in protest and to demand an end to the further aggrandizement of power by the wealthy and corporations, then we have truly and, likely, permanently, lost our concept of democracy, and have become a plutocracy, and that plants the seeds for eventual disintegration of our society and potential threat of civil war in the future, on a scale far greater than the event of 150 years ago, which will be commemorated on its opening day tragedy at Fort Sumter on April 12, and over the next four years to follow!

Paul LePage has proved himself totally insensitive to labor history, and he and the other GOP Governors need to be given lessons in the greatness of labor struggle to create better lives for the masses, to educate them in the history they apparently never studied or ignored in their earlier lives!

For LePage to order the withdrawal of a labor mural at the offices of the Maine Labor Department, depicting the triumphs and struggles of labor over the history of the state and nation, is an absolute outrage that needs a prompt response calling for a reversal of his ignorant, insensitive executive order, and a move to demand a recall election for the removal of this incompetent, stupid man who gives not a damn about the average Maine resident!

And for this outrage by LePage to occur on the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of March 25, 1911, causing the death of 146 men and women, and leading to the fight for greater labor reform in New York City and elsewhere, is indeed a sacrilege!

The Age Of Right Wing Republicans Begins! State, National, And Supreme Court Evidence Of The Changed Reality! :(

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A number of pieces of news today makes us aware of just how far right wing this country is to be taken by the Republican Party, once the new 112th Congress begins tomorrow! 🙁

News comes that the GOP Governors of many states are declaring “war” on public employee unions, making them the scapegoat of the economic crisis the nation faces! 🙁

The myth is that public service employees are overpaid, have too many benefits, and don’t work very hard. The facts are that people who work for state and local governments are NOT overpaid, and never have been, and while benefits might be better than average in a country where only 15 percent of private employers provide a traditional pension, the reason for their existence is exactly because pay in these jobs is below what many privately employed workers receive.

This is a case of turning the people of the states against their own teachers, police officers, firefighters, prison guards, nurses, social workers, librarians, and agency workers as a move of revenge, as if it is the fault of these workers that economic conditions are terrible.

Rather than blame corporations and the refusal of government to regulate their practices in the public interest, instead the goal is to destroy labor unions of all kinds, even though only NINE percent of all workers are union members! 🙁

Also, we learn that Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Antonin Scalia have no problem being partisan, when they are supposed to be objective and neutral on public matters.

Roberts has sworn in top aides of Speaker John Boehner, a highly unusual action, and Scalia, promoting his concept of “originalism”, now states that women are not protected constitutionally by the “equal protection” clause of the Constitution! 🙁

How outrageous such a statement is, and if that were to be utilized in the future by the Supreme Court majority, it could set us back to the 19th century, and include African Americans, Latinos, Jews, Catholics, and others as not being protected by the Constitution! Is this a move to repeal the 20th century by a reactionary Supreme Court, which would be overruling past Supreme Court cases upholding “equal protection”? 🙁

And finally, Darrell Issa is now asking corporations what laws they want considered for repeal as interfering with their economic activities, as he begins his term as head of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee in the House of Representatives! What could be more corrupt than that, and yet, Issa has the gall to say that the Obama Administration is the most corrupt in a long time! 🙁

It is hard to imagine that by 2012, there will not be “buyer’s remorse” about the Republican Party control of the House and growing influence in the Senate.

And realize that all that the Democrats need to regain control of the House of Representatives is a gain of 25 seats, certainly a manageable possibility!

Are Republican Governors The Future Of The Party For 2012?

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As one starts to look ahead to the 2012 Presidential election, it seems likely that it will be a governor or former governor who will be the GOP nominee for President.

The Republicans in the Senate are a pitiful lot, totally opposed to anything Barack Obama promotes, or too out of date to appeal to the future, or actually retiring in 2010, or being too moderate (such as Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins) to have any chance of consideration. The one exception at this point is Senator John Thune of South Dakota, who has some chance of being touted for President after he wins back his seat in 2010 for another six year term.

But it is former Governors Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, and Mitt Romney who most stand out now, as well as sitting governors Mitch Daniels of Indiana and Haley Barbour of Mississippi, as well as Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota.

Additionally, possible future governors such as John Kasich in Ohio (with a long career in the House of Representatives previously) and former EBay CEO Meg Whitman in California could be added to the list, as well as new Governor Bob McDonnell in Virginia. Some even see Rick Perry, ten years Governor of Texas and facing a very difficult primary against Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, as a possible alternative despite his secession talk this past summer, which should likely destroy any chance of considering him seriously, were he to keep his governorship for another four years.

There is talent here, but so many have strong weaknesses and the last few might not even win or retain their seats as governors, so speculation may be rampant, but it is certainly too early to say who will rise from the pack to leadership of the GOP.