Partisanship evidence of how much at stake in election

Nov. 6, 2012

Katy Grimes: This is the most partisan election I’ve seen since I first voted in 1980. But there is a reason, and one apparently rooted in American history.

A telling example of the partisanship along with much irony can be found in the Proposition 32 campaign.

Prop. 32, the ballot initiative which would ban automatic payroll deductions from employee paychecks by labor unions, has been a brutal campaign. The “No” on Prop. 32 camp has run the most dishonest campaign and ads which have nothing to do with the actual proposition.

“The campaign for Prop 32 is spending tens of millions of dollars from shady Super PACs, oil billionaires, and radical conservatives,” the “No” on Prop. 32 campaign says. Yet the opposition to the proposition – labor unions, public employee unions, liberals and Democratic politicians – have spent more than $73 million to defeat the initiative.

Yet is is very well known and widely acknowledged that the massive labor unions,  public employee unions, large corporations, and a few very wealthy individuals, dominate the agenda of California’s government, and control Democratic politicians.

If these groups had to raise funds through voluntary contributions and donations, they’d starve.

Donors to “No” on Prop. 32

According to Ballotpedia, “this is a list of the $100,000 and over donors to the ‘no’ campaign as of Saturday, November 3, 2012:”

Donor	Amount
California Teachers Association	$21,149,963
SEIU/California State Council of Service Employees	$13,496,711
California Labor Federation (AFL-CIO/Change to Win)	$5,935,374
AFSCME	$4,332,829
Democratic State Central Committee of California	$3,216,387
California Professional Firefighters	$2,978,635
California School Employees Association	$1,730,987
California Faculty Association	$1,653,963
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers	$1,525,000
Peace Officers Research Association of California PAC	$1,524,846
California/American Federation of Teachers	$1,000,500
International Association of Firefighters	$500,000
Professional Engineers in California Government	$500,000
Thomas Steyer	$500,000
California Statewide Law Enforcement Association	$426,552
California State Pipe Trades Council	$250,000
Los Angeles Police Protective League’s Public Safety First PAC	$250,000
Peace Officers Research Association	$250,000
Million More Voters (AFL-CIO)	$245,516
Northern California District Council of Laborers’ Issues	$150,000
State Building and Construction Trades Council of California	$129,718
United Transportation Union	$105,000
San Bernardino County Safety Employees’ Benefit Association	$100,000
John Perez Ballot Measure Committee	$100,000
United Domestic Workers of America	$100,000
Union of American Physicians & Dentists	$100,000
California Association of Psychiatric Technicians	$100,000

 

A divided nation

“The intensity of our divisions increased significantly under President Obama,”  said Tom Del Beccaro, the Chairman of the California Republican Party, in an interview today.

Del Beccaro is writing a book about what he calls “The Divided Era.” He explained that American partisanship has so significantly increased because the way we govern ourselves has also changed.  “So much so, that today our system of government and the parties that practice it, are rather more like our English counterparts – a development that would  horrify our Founders,” Del Beccero said.

England has no Constitution, so every election is of the utmost importance, according to Del Beccaro. And England has very good voter turnout because the stakes are so high.

American elections have traditionally had lower turnout. We’ve had an ironclad Constitution to rely on for the rule of law. However, that has changed significantly since President Obama’s election in 2008.

How has President Barack Obama violated the Constitution?

*Obama appointed “Czars” without Senate approval.

*He pushed through Obamacare, to force Americans to buy health insurance.

*He has violated religious freedom by allowing the Health and Human Services agency to force Catholic hospitals and other religious institutions to perform abortions, sterilizations and prescribe contraceptives.

* Obama made illegal appointments by bypassing the Senate during recess.

* He has used the EPA to attack the energy industry.

* Obama has violated voting rights and equal protection when he allowed Attorney General Eric Holder to dismiss the Black Panther voter intimidation case. And there are reports that they are back again today in Philadelphia, intimidating voters.

The list is long, and includes many more violations.

“Without a limiting Constitution, dramatic changes can occur in the wake of any one British election,” Del Beccaro said. “Entire industries or their parts can be nationalized and have been.”

“Here at home, for most of our history, our limiting Constitution produced a decentralized form of government,” according to Del Beccaro. “The growth in our government the last forty years have increased the stakes – and the changes of the past four years, in particular, have changed our system. Obamacare and the Supreme Court case that upheld it did that for us – not to mention the use of the government imposed “solution” on GM, our Solyndra industrial green energy policy, Czars, executive orders and Obama’s outright failure to abide by the rule of law.”

Del Beccaro said that the division and partisanship will only get worse. Because the stakes are so high, “people, businesses, and unions now must be engaged and be more partisan, either through voting or lobbying because they are competing as much in the halls of Congress as the market place.”