| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Politix |
| The Democrats Faustian Bargain |
| 2010-01-22 |
| The central battle in our time is over political primacy. It is a competition between the public sector and the private sector over who defines the work and the institutions that make a nation thrive and grow. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy planted the seeds that grew the modern Democratic Party. That year, JFK signed executive order 10988 allowing the unionization of the federal work force. This changed everything in the American political system. Kennedy's order swung open the door for the inexorable rise of a unionized public work force in many states and cities. This in turn led to the fantastic growth in membership of the public employee unions—The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the teachers' National Education Association. They broke the public's bank. More than that, they entrenched a system of taking money from members' dues and spending it on political campaigns. Over time, this transformed the Democratic Party into a public-sector dependency. There's no way out for these Democrats. They made a Faustian bargain 40 years ago with the public unions. Scott Brown's victory has given the GOP a rare, narrow chance to align itself with an electorate that understands its anger. Now the GOP has to find a way to disconnect from a political legacy that smothered governments at all levels and is now smothering the Democratic Party. |
| Posted by:Nimble Spemble |
| #2 Executive order 10988 allowing the unionization of the federal work force. The Federal gummits Age of Aquarius. Like a defective firing pin on a shotgun. It won't work nor can it be discharged. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-01-22 13:38 |
| #1 In 1962, President John F. Kennedy planted the seeds that grew the modern Democratic Party. That year, JFK signed executive order 10988 allowing the unionization of the federal work force. This changed everything in the American political system. Kennedy's order swung open the door for the inexorable rise of a unionized public work force in many states and cities. So this is when people in government began to put union affiliation and party above country. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-01-22 13:33 |