REPUBLICAN STRATEGY

Imagine, if you can, a legislature that could pass laws that could not be overturned. Imagine that that legislature was a super majority Republican legislature. Imagine if many states, all Republican legislatures with Republican governors, had the same system, that is they had a way to pass laws that the people could not overturn by referendum (the people vote).  It would put us on the road to a Republican or one party dictatorship. Check out Michigan.

In Michigan, spending bills cannot be overturned by referendum. Ohio Democrats recently were successful in overturned a measure in to block collective bargaining by referendum. The people petitioned and over to overturn the laws. Michigan Republican learned from that. Labor and all of their supporters objected a proposed “Right to Work Law” in their state, an extremely anti-union legislation. The legislator simply attached an appropriation measure onto the bill and passed it with their super majority. Michigan law cannot overturn appropriation measures by petition and referendum.

As a casual observer of Republican political strategy and tactics, I see a growing pattern with gerrymandering, voter suppression, and now this. When Karl Rove was in the White, House Democrats accused him of manipulating the federal courts. He pleaded not guilty saying people gave him credit for a lot more power then he actually had. He and his significant other, George W. Bush, turned judgeships especially the Supreme Court justices into not only legislative body but also a political organization. That court is aiding and abetting the Republican strategy and their political tactics; therefore, they will not do what they are suppose to do; rule such laws and political manipulations as being unconstitutional.

Thus, that court has blocked the road to any recourse Democrats might have had in preserving our democracy. I live in North Carolina and see our once beautiful state turned into a bastion of Republican dominated policy just like Michigan and Ohio. It will not get better It can only get worse. To paraphrase something I heard on TV the other day; we as a society in a textile state are getting better as measured by the number of 8 to 10 year old boys working 10 to 12 hour days who are not being sucked into weaving machines. Our Republican legislature is working to conserve that heritage.  Or, as Newt Gingrich said they could be school janitors.  

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