Live Breathe and Die

Today in Phoenix Arizona, members of the AFL-CIO protested outside Sen. McCain’s office. Their claim is that Sen. McCain and President Bush are so cozy with big oil that they would hurt the American people to do favors for their alleged friends. The problem is, the protest has been orchestrated by the Democratic Party and has no basis in fact.

Let’s review the fundamentals of their claim and the background of the organization which these protestors belong too. As is the case with so many other ‘news events’, this one is right out of the Democratic playbook.

The AFL-CIO has an anti-McCain booklet and links to many left-wing organizations right on their web site. Even back in 1997, they spent $35 million on an anti-GOP House freshman election campaign.

A study done by a Rutgers University economics professor in 1996 found that labor unions provided the Democratic Party with $300 million to $500 million that year. Groups like the AFL-CIO have an arms-length ideological relationship with the Democratic Party that is very questionable at best. Their protests do not really provide a voice for middle-class workers, but instead are designed to create negative press for Republicans and get Democrats elected. Protests against Republicans under the guise of middle-class representation are designed to fool as many people as possible.

The term ‘smoke and mirrors’ is very appropriate here and the ‘protest’ outside McCain’s office may define this term better than anything else could. News organizations will give voice to the ‘protestors’ carrying their anti-Republican, anti-McCain message to millions of TV news viewers, newspaper readers and internet blog junkies. The pro-Democratic, anti-Republican message will have reached these large numbers of voters for free. The strategy doesn’t cost the Democrats anything and they have willing participants in the form of AFL-CIO members who are as much as operatives.

Even in 1996, the AFL-CIO had 2000 ‘political activists’ in the field training tens of thousands of protestors to do the bidding of their leadership’s ideology. That ideology aligned with the Democratic Party and did not cost the Democrats a dime of campaign funds because the expenditures were the unions. Campaign finance still does not solve this ‘end-around’ tactic used by the Democrats to sway votes.

The net result of these ‘protests’ are always predictable. Their accomplices in the local media will perpetuate their message without questioning its authenticity. In the days ahead, the Arizona Republic (whether feature or editorial page) will delight in the opportunity to give bad press to Sen. McCain and the Republicans. The union protest will provide the perfect fodder for pages of pro-Democratic Party propaganda.

Other organizations walk in lock-step with the AFL-CIO as front organizations for the Democratic Party. The NEA gives millions of dollars to the Democrats every election cycle and throws a few token dollars at the Republicans. NEA publications are rife with anti-Republican, pro-Democrat articles.

AARP portrays itself as a non-partisan organization with the interests of seniors as its mission. A review of its two primary publications from the past five years paints a very different picture. As recent examples, the June 2008 issue of the AARP Bulletin had a cover story entitled, ‘What’s age got to do with it’? One would assume that a ‘non-partisan’ organization that supports the rights of older Americans would certainly celebrate the experience of Senator McCain. My guess is that if he were a Democrat that would be the case. Instead, the bulletin provided a couple of paragraphs giving their own antidotal reasons for McCain’s age benefits. Most of the article though, was geared towards casting doubt about voting for someone who will be 72 at election time.

AARP also publishes a bi-monthly called The AARP Magazine. They bill the publication as the ‘world’s largest circulation magazine’. They must be certain that the magazine will influence a lot of people. Most issues feature a Hollywood celebrity on the cover.

The May/June 2008 issue had two cover stories that celebrated Democrats. One was called ’1968-The year that rocked our world’. The article touches on every liberal talking point known to exist. They begin by reciting the evils of our military and recite the story of the My Lai massacre. They praise Oliver Stone. They extol Walter Cronkite for questioning success in Vietnam. They cover the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. They then paint Tom Hayden and Mark Rudd as American heroes for participating in the Chicago and Columbia University protests of that year. The article then goes on the hail the activist work of Kathie Sarachild (protestor at ’68 Miss America Pageant) and Tommie Smith, who looked down at the ground and raised his fist during the playing of the National Anthem at the ’68 Olympics. The whole 12 page article celebrates the liberal activists of that year and provides no balance.

On the web site for the Committee On Political Education, Communications Workers of America (CWA-COPE), they advertise an anti-McCain booklet created by the AFL-CIO. Their web site states, ‘The AFL-CIO, announced on Wednesday(should be Thursday), March 12, 2008 a $53.4 million campaign to denounce Sen. McCain’s political positions on issues related to AFL-CIO members, hoping to elect a Democrat to the White House’. The site’s ‘news and opinion’ page lists a number of far left-wing blogs with links for their membership. This is the reality of union influence and a lack of balance.

Other groups like the United Mine Workers and Sheetmetal Workers, who are affiliated with the AFL-CIO, believe that the organization stands for American workers and families. They never stop to consider that Republicans cut their taxes providing thousands of dollars for each family to buy food, transportation and clothing. Middle class workers used to have to work until June each year just to pay the government. What has the Democratic Party done recently to benefit those same middle-class Americans?

During the Johnson administration, congress passed a law that required unions to file financial reports under the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. What they excluded from the law was any requirement to identify expenditures that were political in nature. The first president Bush issued an executive order requiring the filing of the missing information. This was near the end of his term as president. When Bill Clinton took office, he immediately voided the new requirement. Unions like the AFL-CIO could continue their substantial monetary and manpower support of the Democrats covertly.

Twenty-one years ago today (June 12), President Ronald Reagan gave his famous speech instructing Mikhail Gorbachev to ‘tear down this wall’. That was the beginning of the end of the cold war and changed much of the world for the better. In 1861, another Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, pronounced to a young country that slavery was not acceptable. The next four years was the beginning of the end of slavery. In both cases, Republican Presidents, unafraid of their detractors, changed history for the better.

When Republicans have done so much for Americans, why do organizations like the AFL-CIO do so much to destroy them? Because; Democrats do so much for unions.