The Card Check System

If Obama is elected President, my guess is that he will want to do something that will make a big splash with those special interest groups who got him elected. Bill Clinton did it with his executive order approving "gays in the military." Of course, with that debacle, public opinion forced Clinton back down and, as result, we wound up with the ever-controversial "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy for gays in the military.

My guess is that Barack Obama will reward the labor unions for all their hard with an executive order "or" his signature on a Congressional bill that instates the "Card Check System" for unionizing businesses and corporations. The Card Check System will eliminate more than 60 years of secret balloting in deciding whether or not a company's employees wish to unionize. Instead, a union representative will confront each prospective company employee for an "oral vote" as to whether or not that employee wants to join a union. The result of that face-to-face vote will be "check off" on a card; followed by a signature of that employee. The union bosses will have possession and control of all the cards that are taken in the process. As soon as 51 percent of the employees "Card Check" to indicate that they want to unionize, the company is said to be automatically unionized. There will be no company wide vote. No union representatives can be barred from "talking" to any company's employees; either on or off working time or work hours.

To make the elimination of the secret balloting system more palatable in the minds of the American public, the Democrats have come up with the very democratic-sounding name of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). I guess they learned this trick when they decided to drop all references to the word abortion by cooking up today's widely used term of "Pro-Choice" to indicate being pro-abortion. But, make no mistake about it, and with no Obama-like insult to Sarah Palin, this is truly like putting lipstick on a pig. There is absolutely nothing "Free Choice" about having a system that could result in union retaliation against those who voted "no" when the union bosses absolutely know how each and every person voted. This system is totally ripe for the extortion of employees by other union workers and the union leadership; either before or after the company has become unionized. By its very nature, the Card Check System is designed to be a form of psychological and, possibly, physical intimidation.

Sadly, this new law of Congress will probably go untested in the courts because even our own Constitution doesn't specify "secret balloting" for elections. The fact that we have "secret ballots" for any elections in America is only due to state constitutions which have been amended over the years. Prior to that, voting was done orally as in the Card Check System and as it is still done in many caucus voting systems during the primaries; and you only have to have listened to Bill Clinton to know he thought that the caucuses were riddled with problems (See the story and video). Even former Democratic Senator and presidential candidate George McGovern has come out vehemently against the "Free Choice" law because of the intimidation factor (click to see video).

Certainly, the Card Check System will benefit the labor unions which have been losing membership over the years. And, if Mr. Obama wins he can thank the unions like the SEIU and AFL-CIO for his win. Whether a new President Obama uses the "Free Choice" Act as his payback or something else, there will be a payback to some group and it will be done very early in the first month or month-and-a-half of his Administration. Just mark my words.

When Our Government Has No Boundaries

We may be at a stage in our government when as much as half the population in this country will have no voice. That's because, in January, the reins of government might be completely in the control of the Democrats. When I say completely, I mean it. There is a distinct possibility that we will not only have a Democratic President and Democratically controlled Congress, but, also, the upper chamber of our Congress, the United States Senate, may have enough control to be both veto-proof and, more importantly, filibuster-proof. Not since 1977 and the Carter Administration has this country been in a similar situation and one could hardly point to those years following that fact as being the bright spot in this country's history.

What does this mean to America? Basically, it means that the loyal opposition, the Republicans, have no means at their disposal to stop the steamrolling of liberal policies through our government. The best that they could hope for is that a few centrist Democrats (like the Blue Dogs) that will help protect this country by standing with the Republicans in what could be the greatest and farthest left-wing agenda that this country has every seen.

Our Constitution is unique in that it was intentionally designed to, normally, protect us from dominant control. The entire constitution was designed with "representation" in mind and with a concern over checks and balances by having separate and distinct branches of government. If you recall, the rallying cry for the independence movement from England was "taxation without representation". So, the concept of representation was paramount in the creation of our unique form of government.

However, at the time our Constitution was drafted, the concept of two strong political parties was not considered a possibility. At that time, the closest thing to a political party were the Whigs (also called the Patriot Whigs) that were, in essence, our American Revolutionaries. These Whigs were in contrast with the loyalists who had no objection to British rule.

When our government and Constitution was establish, I am sure that no one would have thought that there would be such a thing as a "solid voting" block of ideology that we now call a political party. I am sure that our founders believed that any Congressman or Senator would only vote to best serve their specific constituencies (their districts and their states) and would not be serving the broader wishes of some political movement like a political party.

My guess is that this future Democratically controlled government of Obama/Pelosi/Reid will overstep their powers and their complete control will be as short-lived as was the Congress of 1977. If so, expect that the election of 2010 will undo much of what may be about to be done in this year's election. In essence, expect our country to "Vote the bums out" by electing some Republicans to minimize the control by the Democrats. Also, if history does repeat itself, Barack Obama is probably doomed to just one term; just as Jimmy Carter was.

Unfortunately, there could be a lot of damage done to this country if we have one political party in control and that party has no boundaries. Laws could be enacted like the Fairness Doctrine and the Union Card Check System that could have a massive effect on the long term direction of true democracy in this country. Tax credits can be given that can never be taken away. Tax increases could be enacted that could have disastrous effects on our currently fragile economy. Our military could be weakened to the extent that we are at risk when Russia and China are strengthening their own military complexes. The effect on our Judicial System with the appointment of Federal Judges and Supreme Court Judges may further erode the purpose of our Judiciary as being a separate check against the Legislative and Executive branches of our government. If too many "activist" judges (which are appointments for life) infiltrate the Judiciary, we could have a continuance of Democratic rule because progressive-minded and liberal-minded Judges would literally legislate from the "benches" of our court system.

The extent of liberal/progressive/socialistic programs that can be imposed on this country can almost be limitless. Don't expect a President Barack Obama to make the tough decisions to veto any of that. My opinion is that he will just continue to do what he has done in the past. He will sign his party's legislation and, like all those times he voted "present" in the Illinois Senate, he will never want to rock the boat on tough issues that might not be right for this country. There will be absolutely no working across the aisle with the Republicans because he won't need to. Just mark my words.