Public Employee Unions Win in Ohio, Taxpayers Lose
Article audio sponsored by The John Birch Society

One of the biggest mistakes taxpayers made in this country is permitting government employees to unionize. They created a real Frankenstein: unions that can hold the taxpayers hostage in order to get all of the benefits they feel entitled to. Governor Walker in Wisconsin was successful in curtailing the bargaining power of the government employee unions, but now that the unions have won in Ohio, they are determined to unseat Governor Walker and restore the benefits they lost. Will the taxpayers of Wisconsin allow that to happen? We shall see.

Meanwhile, conservatives have learned a hard lesson in Ohio. The unions will stop at nothing to retain their power and privileges, and the taxpayers will be forced to pay for it all — or go bankrupt. Of course, President Obama was overjoyed by the results of the election in Ohio. He is totally dependent on the unions for their power to keep him in office, and the signal from Ohio is that the unions have the means and strategy to give him a second term.

How did this upset happen in Ohio, where Governor John Kasich has done all in his power to reduce the cost of state government and expected the taxpayers to back him up by voting for the proposition that would have curtailed the bargaining power of the unions? It happened because the unions spent more money than the opposition and frightened the public by painting dire pictures of what would happen if cops and firemen were laid off and the public was left at the mercy of criminals.

Of course, everyone forgets that policemen and firemen were quite capable of serving the public very well before there were unions. But today’s Ohio citizens have been brainwashed to believe that government employees have a right to be unionized and that Governor Kasich would have decimated these protectors of the taxpaying citizens, who would have been left helpless and defenseless.

This is the same public who will vote to keep Obama in power because, as the President has said, Republicans like dirty water, polluted air, and want to get rid of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and his wonderful socialized healthcare program. And that is why America will continue to pile on increasing deficits and debts leading us to bankruptcy. These are arguments that appeal to the public emotionally, and they work because most Americans no longer know how to use their brains. The public schools, operated by unionized teachers, have made sure of that.

If the voters of Ohio could not see that the public employee unions had become much too powerful and demanding, then that simply indicates that they are no longer capable of rational judgment. They voted emotionally, because the unions warned them what would happen if the power of the unions were in any way diminished by those evil Republicans. And petrified Ohioans, who didn’t learn in their public schools that two and two make four, cried uncle.

It is not going to be easy getting rid of Obama and his socialist crones. Americans with brains are already planning to put their financial assets in safe foreign banks to keep them out of the hands of the socialists who will confiscate them in Obama’s second term. These smart Americans see the handwriting on the wall. “Soak the rich, soak the millionaires ….” (meaning anyone who makes over $200,000 a year) is the cry of the OWS mobs. “Redistribute the wealth,” is the cry of Obama. These smart Americans are betting that America cannot be saved from its own undoing because of an ignorant population easily manipulated by the likes of Obama and his union henchmen.

But there are many conservatives unable to deposit whatever wealth they have in foreign banks, or take up residence in friendly foreign countries not controlled by rampaging socialists. They are stuck in a once great country going to the dogs. That may be an overly pessimistic vision of the future, but the fact that we have come this far on the road to socialism and have a national debt of over 15 trillion dollars is enough to dampen the spirits of even the most patriotic American.

But there is still much to be thankful (and hopeful) for. While we may bemoan what happened in Ohio, elsewhere conservatives made substantial gains, which should not be underestimated. So what we had in this election was a mixed bag. Americans are divided. But because of the national economic situation, Americans are retreating to their families and local communities, where people are used to helping others in need. Each community is a little republic, self-governing and responsive to local problems. Most churches and temples are helping families in need. Every supermarket has a bin for food donations. Facebook and Twitter are being used to help others. There is still enough residual wealth in local communities to get us through these difficult times.

Even if a Republican is elected president in November 2012, there will still be the problems created by 75 years of liberalism perpetuated by both parties. The Socialist Democrats will not go away. They will use all the means at their command to disrupt a Republican presidency. Budget cuts that abolish government “services” will not be easily tolerated by those addicted to statism. After all, what’s government for if not to be the biggest sugar daddy of all.

We had hoped that all of these debates by Republican candidates on television would educate the public on what conservative principles are all about. And while many so-called independents have been disillusioned by Obama’s performance as president, these most recent election results indicate that this country is deeply divided ideologically, and we don’t know how much conservatism the country is willing to tolerate. A population that has become greatly dependent on federal entitlement programs cannot be easily weaned from such dependency.
And so, the essence of survival in such a situation is that each person must decide what is best for himself and his family. The Wall Street Occupiers, who are now coming down with respiratory ailments, provide no answers to anything. They are the great demonic mob being used by the invisible puppeteer George Soros to be the pressure from below to help win Obama a second term. But it doesn’t seem to be working. Americans are willing to hunker down to get through difficult times, but they don’t form mobs and riot. They try to find ways to support their families by working at any jobs they can get. They can’t afford the luxury of living in a tent on cold pavement and doing nothing for days on end. But apparently, some people are being paid by the successors to Acorn to do exactly that.

But the smart people with large assets to protect are not waiting for the roof to cave in before taking measures that will help them weather the storm. Socialism is reaching its breaking point all over Europe, since it has finally come to pass that capitalism is no longer generating enough wealth to support these parasitic socialist regimes. And all of those university students who were taught the beauties of socialism by their professors can’t find jobs in Spain, Portugal, Greece, and elsewhere and don’t know why. And they blame their plight all on capitalism and want more socialism. But it was Ludwig von Mises, the great Austrian free-market economist, who said that the socialist-capitalist third way will not work and will result in failure and chaos, which is what we are seeing all over Europe and also in the United States.

And we are in this awkward position because of politicians who have used the system to feather their own nests while promoting an idiotic utopian program based on a failed ideology so as to make people dependent on corrupt politicians for their sustenance.

Hopefully, enough Americans will realize what has been done to this country by its venal politicians and throw the bums out in 2012. We have in this country brilliant CEOs capable of operating the most complex enterprises, producing great products for the consumer, and earning good profits for their shareholders. We have great inventors able to improve the lives of everyone by their ingenuity, energy, and imagination. We have a million parents in the homeschool movement able to do a better job of educating their children than the certified professionals who specialize in dumbing down their students. In other words, we have incredibly creative and productive human resources in this country who make the politicians who govern us look like incompetent clowns.

These are the creative, resilient people the socialists want to regulate into obedience to socialist mandates. The socialists are in the process of destroying the American health care system. And that’s just the beginning. Give them another four years and America won’t even be recognizable.