Union Rank-and-File in Massachusetts Deserted Democrats in Droves

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The Wall Street Journal today notes that Republican Scott Brown got more union votes than Martha Coakley. That would be big news if I hadn’t already reported a week ago that SEIU members were supporting Brown and if I hadn’t reported on Election Day that an AFSCME local official was supporting Brown.

The plural of anecdote is data, and with the help of Da Tech Guy, I got plenty of anecdotal evidence in Massachusetts of a massive blue-collar backlash against Coakley, Obama and the shove-it-down-our-throats approach to politics.

But it’s not just Massachusetts, it’s everywhere nowadays. People are tired of the “insider consensus.” They’re tired of experts and intellectuals and politicians who don’t seem to understand that “We The People” want meaningful input into the process of governance. Last year, I explained the concept of The Ordinary American:

The Ordinary American is not a journalist, a movie producer, an academic or a politician. News media, entertainment, education and politics are endeavors that shape public attitudes, and for this reason the elite have striven f or decades to exclude from those fields anyone who might dispute their consensus. . . .
Ordinary Americans may be Democrats or Republicans or neither. They may be gay or straight, black or white, Hispanic or Asian. They may be rich or poor, but most are somewhere in the broad middle. They don’t define themselves by the categories of ideology or identity politics that are so important to the elite.

Liberals just don’t seem to understand why Ordinary Americans are fed up with the Obama administration’s arrogant we-know-better-than-you type of governance. Here’s another anecdote: My buddy Chris Cassone — the “Take Our Country Back” singer — was talking to one of his liberal musician friends. When Chris said he was performing at a Tea Party rally, the friend said dismissively, “Did those people ever figure out what they’re so angry about?”

Of course, if you actually listen to Tea Party protesters, they’re quite specific about their grievances, especially the out-of-control deficit spending that is heaping debt on the heads of their children and grandchildren. This is why I despise yuppie NPR Republicans like David Brooks who use “populism” as a pejorative and turn up their noses at grassroots conservatives. These elitists are effectively urging the GOP not only to abandon the limited-government principles of Ronald Reagan, but also to abandon the kind of working-class voters who powered the Reagan Revolution.

Whether it’s moose-hunting Sarah Palin or truck-driving Scott Brown, voters will listen to a limited-government message if it is presented to them by an Ordinary American candidate who doesn’t talk down to them. In 2008, I dubbed this concept “Libertarian Populism,” and it’s the real secret of why the GOP is starting to get its mojo back.

SMALL GOVERNMENT = BIG VICTORIES

Planned Parenthood’s Federal Bailout

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The nation’s largest abortion provider will be opening a new office in Fitchburg, Mass. — Da Tech Guy’s hometown — thanks to your tax dollars:

FITCHBURG — The Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts will open an office on Main Street in Fitchburg this spring, with the goal of reducing the area’s high teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease rates, according to the agency’s chief executive officer, Dianne Luby. . . .
“We want to be on Main Street in Fitchburg. We want to be in a location that’s easily accessible along major transportation routes, where people will be able to get high-quality care in a nicely redone office space,” Luby said. . . .
Services will be provided at no cost to those who cannot pay, Luby said. . . .
Abortion services will not be offered, because Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts is opening the Fitchburg office using federal grant money it received in December, which carries the stipulation that abortions will not be provided, Luby said. (Emphasis added.)

Bovine excrement. The new office won’t provide abortions, but you can bet your bottom dollar they’ll provide referrals to Planned Parenthood’s abortion services elsewhere.

Beyond that, a basic principle of economics is that money is fungible. If Planned Parenthood gets a $1 million federal grant, that’s $1 million they don’t have to raise from their own donor base. And the fact is that contributions to Planned Parenthood have been down, in part because of the collapse of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme:

The left-leaning Picower Foundation gave away almost $213 million since 1999, according to a philanthropy database.
The giant foundation had the misfortune to choose Madoff to manage its more than $1 billion in assets.
A sizeable chunk of its funding has gone to abortion groups, including NARAL ($3.2 million), Center for Reproductive Rights ($2.5 million), Planned Parenthood ($2.4 million), and Center for Reproductive Law and Policy ($625,000).

So giving federal grant money to Abortion, Inc. — let’s not mince words about what Planned Parenthood really is — is a very timely bailout.

And why was it so important for Planned Parenthood to have a clinic in Fitchburg, Mass.? There are a growing number of Hispanic immigrants — the city’s population was 15% Hispanic in 2006, according to a Census estimate — and Hispanics have higher teen-pregnancy rates.

As I’ve explained before, I have a deep suspicion toward “teen pregnancy crisis” alarmists. Teen pregnancy rates are now actually much lower than they were in the 1950s, the Golden Age of Family Values. The problem, as Maggie Gallagher has pointed out, is not an increase of teen pregnancy but a decline of marriage:

“What we have called our ‘teen pregnancy’ crisis is not really about teenagers. Nor is it really about pregnancy. It is about the decline of marriage. . . .
“What has changed most in recent decades is not who gets pregnant, but who gets married . . . The single biggest change in recent decades has been the declining proportion of pregnant single teens who marry.”

In point of fact, according to official data (Powerpoint download) Massachusetts is below the U.S. average in both its overall fertility rate (55.6 Mass. vs. 66.7 U.S.) and its teen birth rate (21.7 Mass. vs. 40.4 U.S.). The total fertility rate (average lifetime births per woman)  in Massachusetts is 1.74 — which is 17% below the “replacement level” of 2.1 — and if it weren’t for pockets of higher fertility like the Hispanics of Fitchburg, the state’s demographic decline would be even more stark.

Instead of funding Planned Parenthood’s misanthropic agenda in an unsubtle effort to suppress Hispanic birth rates, Massachusetts ought to be encouraging marriage. But the only kind of marriage Massachusetts cares about now is gay marriage, and so Planned Parenthood gets a federal grant for an “easily accessible” Fitchburg office.

The irony? One of the reasons Scott Brown is now the 41st vote in the Senate is because Martha Coakley lashed herself to the mast in support of federally-funded abortion, inciting the hostility of working-class Catholics, which was why the “bellwether” town of Fitchburg went 59% for Brown.

Pro-life wins elections, and yet tax money pays for the Culture of Death.

UPDATE: Dan Collins calls my attention to these statistics:

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America has released its annual report for fiscal year 2007-2008. The document shows the nation’s largest abortion business is getting bigger as it showed an increase of five percent more abortions and increased taxpayer funding.
According to Planned Parenthood’s latest report, abortions increased to 305,310 abortions up from 289,750 in 2006. . . .
The total government grants and contracts received by PPFA affiliates from government sources including state, local and federal governments, increased from $337 million to $350 million. (Emphasis added.)

Meanwhile, Da Tech Guy reports a backlash from the people of Fitchburg:

Six members of the City Council voted Thursday to draft a resolution urging the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts to abandon its plan to locate in Fitchburg, after the organization announced plans to open an office on Main Street earlier this week. . . .
State Rep. Stephen DiNatale signed on to the late-filed petition calling for a resolution, and said he planned to sit down with Planned Parenthood officials and explain to them why Fitchburg is not the right community for them to come to. . . .
“We do not need them on Main Street,” DiNatale said.

Last Sunday, I talked to Rep. DiNatale at St. Anthony of Padua Church. He’s a pro-life, blue-collar Catholic Democrat who understands the importance of representing the people who elected him — and most of those people voted against Martha Coakley’s Culture of Death agenda.

Does Anyone Know Why We Have A Debt Ceiling?

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by Smitty (h/t Drudge)

If the Democrats want to keep raising the debt limit, as with this $1.9T proposal, then what is the point of having one?

The national debt either:

  • Has some meaning other than the obvious one for the common people,
  • Has already snuffed us, so WTF?,
  • Is problematic, but the country is in the very best of hands, so be patient,
  • None of the ‘experts’ have clue #1.

If the Tuesday election of Brown is any indication, it’s option #2 or #4.

Good morning!

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This morning I woke up in my own bed next to my wife who is — even as I write this — cooking breakfast. I’m watching “Morning Joe” in my pajamas and bathrobe. Erin Burnett is one of the guests.

Life is good!

UPDATE: Eight hours on a train home yesterday was followed by the exhiliration of two hours driving. Da Tech Guy insisted on driving everywhere when I was in Massachusetts. Less risk, but more delay. (And dude, if you think that was Dukes of Hazzard, you should ask Ali about NY23.) 

For me, driving fast is a stress-reliever. There is nothing like a high-speed three-lane freeway swerve — jump from the left lane over to the right, zooming past the trundling herd, then hooking it back to the left — to cure what ails you.

You want to improve America’s health? Repeal the speed limit. Your average German smokes two packs a day but lives to be 93 because, whenever things get a bit too tense, he can hit the Autobahn doing 114 mph and not have to worry about dodging the police.

UPDATE II: The National Enquirer wants a Pulitzer for its John Edwards scandal coverage. I’d vote for that.

Not Since the Collapse of Culture 11 . . .

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. . . has there been any news less surprising than the failure of Air America:

Air America Radio, a radio network that was launched in 2004 as a liberal alternative to Rush Limbaugh and other conservative commentators, on Thursday shut down abruptly due to financial woes.
The network once boasted hosts such as Al Franken and Rachel Maddow, but struggled from the outset, including multiple management shake-ups, a bankruptcy in 2006 and sale for $4.25 million the following year.
Air America ceased airing new programs Thursday afternoon and said it will soon file to be liquidated under Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It began broadcasting reruns of programs and would end those as well Monday night.
“The very difficult economic environment has had a significant impact on Air America’s business. This past year has seen a `perfect storm’ in the media industry generally,” the company said in a statement on its Web site. . . .

Michelle Malkin does cartwheels. Air America offered a product for which there was no demand.  Conservative talk radio exists primarily because Continue reading Not Since the Collapse of Culture 11 . . . →

Flip Side of the Brown Coin

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by Smitty

The Amused Cynic points to a George Will column which ends:

If the Democrats’ congressional leaders are determined to continue their kamikaze flight to incineration, they will ignore Massachusetts’ redundant evidence of public disgust. They will leaven their strategy of briberies with procedural cynicism — delaying certification of Massachusetts’ Senate choice, or misusing “reconciliation” to evade Senate rules, or forcing the House to swallow its last shred of pride in order to rush the Senate bill to the president’s desk. Surely any such trickery would be one brick over a load for some hitherto servile members of the Democratic House and Senate caucuses, giving them an excuse to halt their party’s Gadarene rush toward the precipice.

I don’t foresee the Democrats taking any ‘scorched earth’ approach. No, once they recover from whatever they’re doing to drown their sorrows, the strategic game looks far better.

Make the Republicans appear to be driving, as they have the tempo. Give Mitch McConnell an unlimited supply of rope. Get anything possible passed that can be labeled “ObamaCare” as a fig leaf for the POTUS.

The real problem for the Republicans is the Progressive worm gnawing at their power-lusting hearts. Too few of the GOP in either chamber have rejected the premise of Federal involvement in individual citizens’ medical decisions. Why? My suspicion is that such a train of thought threatens to expose the last century of bi-partisan folly. If the Federal Government hasn’t any business worrying about Smitty’s ticker, then why should it be worried about my retirement, or my income, or mortgage (for non-veterans), or student loans?

Healthcare cuts to the marrow of the question of what tasks are assigned by We The People to which level of government. The bad news about the Federal Government is that it has, with infrequent exception, botched the bulk of tasks undertaken, especially those that involve individual citizens.

This is not to say that State Government would tube things any less, just that the results might be more fixable, given the relative responsiveness of local leaders. The diminished range of the neck making decisions to the hand those decisions affect seems to be a powerful feedback loop.

The GOP, like the Democrats, enjoy maximizing that range, however. The message of the Tea Parties seems to be that there is some possibility for long term GOP survival, but only if the GOP load-sheds the Progressivism that has wrought financial ruin within the last century. If Michael Steele comes to love the smell of napalm burning crappy, un-Constitutional legislation in the morning, he may yet smell some victory.  Also, that napalm needs to immolate the GOP, so that it can rise, a phoenix/elephant/pegasus (?) from the ashes.

When Harry Reid comes by with the rope, Mitch McConnell needs to look at the line, then at Harry, and say:

dice
No Dice