While doing all this she has fulfilled a leadership role within the Lebanon Tea Party, worked to advance “School Choice” as a viable option in Ohio, and maintained very close relationships with key politicians to advance legislation key to much-needed education reforms in Ohio.
For all those reasons and more, Sharon Poe is a “warrior” that if others did half of what she does in her commitment to justice, this world would be a free and wonderful place.
I’ve said it many times, I read a lot. A whole lot. And over 2010 one of the books that most jumped out at me was Glenn Beck’s The Overton Window. My daughter had bought it for me for Father’s Day and I read it in one day.
I hear people like Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO talk about the “RIGHT WING” and you hear what comes out of his mouth and you have to wonder about his sanity. As far as a union leader, and a person close to the White House, which he says he speaks to daily, I would be ashamed if that guy where my boss or leader. He clearly doesn’t understand basic economics and its people like him that create the message that millions of union workers chant.
Here is Trumka speaking in March of 2009. He has no idea how the bill he’s speaking about will “expand” the middle class, and he doesn’t have any idea how this will drive up the labor costs. He just makes statements that people seem to blindly following without question. Something he accuses Beck and other people primarily on the political right of doing.
America is supposed to be a group of individuals, not a unified collective sum like Trumka speaks about. The Federalist Papers, which went on to become The Constitution were written to protect American from people like Trumka, and Obama. Those people and people like them taken by themselves are not bad people, but they have a dangerous ideology and they disguise it with a message the masses can understand. So it is not a far stretch to say that when I saw Trumka speak on February 26, 2011 that the best way to create jobs was to raise taxes, which I know from economics is false, yet people chant and cheer in approval, and I witnessed the union protests all across the country, it reminded me of Jim Jones, of the Jonestown massacre from 1978. Jones had several thousand supporters that followed him from Indianapolis Indiana, to San Francisco, then to Guyana South America. Jones was an admirer of Marx, Lenin, and Mao. That’s why they chanted this song at their church rallies in the early 70’s.
Jim Jones is a tough story to swallow. Because it is the extreme example of what collectivism can inflict on people. Jones was a proud socialist. What you are about to hear is the actual death tape from the Jonestown Massacre. Jones turned on a tape recorder and gave a final speech while his thousands of followers drank poisoned drink to their deaths. He calls it “revolutionary suicide” to an inhuman world. You will actually hear people perishing in the background, so if you have a soft stomach, don’t listen to this. This behavior is far from a joke. If you listen you will hear several people step forward and speak about the greatness of Jim Jones, their “Daddy,” and of the merits of socialism and communism.
The following clip is from the film The Guyana Tragedy and is a reenactment of what you will hear below.
Here is the actual death tapes. Now consider as you listen to this, these people speaking are just moments from their death. They know it. Listen to their thoughts and what they intend.
So what is the lesson here? Well, madmen have a way of lying to themselves and distorting the reality of the world around them. And such people are attracted to socialism, communism, progressivism and all those collective “ism’s.” At that point it no longer becomes a simple argument about economics and the best way to handle economic issues. It evolves into a struggle between good and evil.
That’s where I start seeing startling comparisons from people in the modern labor movement. What they are saying are simply the words their leaders speak. Richard Trumka is a powerful union leader and in this recent case involving these labor protests, what he says in public, over a microphone, ends up coming out of the mouths of his followers.
Trumka, like many people attracted to those “collective ideologies” are prone to climb for power. History shows that it happens in every case. I don’t know of a single instance of a collective society that survives outside of a tribal village. The individuality inherit in the human being seems to break down true collectivism, and social experiments to water this tendency down in our youth have failed with terrible results. This is the reason the Tea Party has risen as a permanent movement, because many people are just tired of the “social experiments.” Many want to return to the original blue print that paved the way for the greatest nation on earth.
Whether or not he is aware of it or not, Trumka’s actions show that he is power-hungry and idealistic, and is essentially no different from someone like Jim Jones. It is quite possible that if that congressman from California had not went to Jonestown and been killed, Jim Jones and his followers would have lived for years without a mass suicide. But the scary thing about it is that Jones had to retreat to South America to have his utopian society. And the congressman was doing in that society much of what the Tea Party is trying to do in American Society. They are intervening and attempting to break up the dangerous collectivism that is consuming the nation.
Progressives are insistent in the modern age to not leave the country for their utopian society. They instead are intent to change the country itself. Here Trumka reveals what he is all about, which concerns me a great deal. It concerns me because watching his followers on Saturday; they seem to think he truly believes in this whole “middle class” protection. Yet he states otherwise.
Watch and listen to these clips from the Saturday Protests. And compare the behavior to what you heard from Jim Jones’s Congregation.
This brings me back to the Overton window concept introduced in Beck’s book. People can say what they want about Glenn Beck, but from what I know about the guy, he genuinely wants to get at the truth. His agenda is the truth. And that’s why he wrote his book, The Overton Window.
The Overton window, in political theory, describes a “window” in the range of public reactions to ideas in public discourse, in a spectrum of all possible options on a particular issue. It is named after its originator, Joseph P. Overton.
At any given moment, the “window” includes a range of policies considered to be politically acceptable in the current climate of public opinion, which a politician can recommend without being considered too “extreme” or outside the mainstream to gain or keep public office. Overton arranged the spectrum on a vertical axis of “more free” and “less free” in regards to government intervention. When the window moves or expands, ideas can accordingly become more or less politically acceptable. The degrees of acceptance of public ideas can be described roughly as:
The Overton Window is a means of visualizing which ideas define that range of acceptance by where they fall in it. Proponents of policies outside the window seek to persuade or educate the public so that the window either “moves” or expands to encompass them. Opponents of current policies, or similar ones currently within the window, likewise seek to convince people who these should be considered unacceptable.
Other formulations of the process created after Overton’s death add the concept of moving the window, such as deliberately promoting ideas even less acceptable than the previous “outer fringe” ideas, with the intention of making the current fringe ideas acceptable by comparison. __________________________________________________
What these extreme left groups have done over time is they pulled the Overton window radically to the left with key phrases like, “workers’ rights” and “tax the rich.” Or “all conservatives are Hitler.” 100 years ago at the start of the progressive movement these ideas were considered radical. But in the election of 1912, Eugene V.Debs had doubled the Socialist vote from 500,000 in 1908 to 1 million in 1912. This wasn’t some guy from Europe; he was born in Terre Haute, Indiana. In fact, the Socialists had their 1912 Convention in Indianapolis; the same place Jim Jones started his socialist church. Ronald Reagan toyed with joining the socialist party when he was a young man in Hollywood. It was after he traveled to England and witnessed what socialism had done to England through the Labor Party that he turned far to the right, out of fear for his country. But those people, those 1 million people who voted socialist in 1912 are out there, and they attached themselves to progressive ideas, they had children, raised families and found themselves drawn to the Labor Movement in America on the backs of the unions. Now many of those people aren’t bad people, but they are attracted to the collectivism of socialist concepts by their family culture and genetic make-up, because let’s face it, some people are more comfortable hiding in the masses and are not inclined to stand on their own.
Those poor, unfortunate souls are the people who end up following someone like Jim Jones in the extreme circumstance. And to a lesser degree, they find themselves repeating word for word what someone like Richard Trumka utters, without any care as to the relevance of his words. Trumka knows he can’t talk to an economist about how he represents the “middle class” or how “increasing taxes on the rich,” “creates jobs.” Those are just buzz words to stir up the followers. What Trumka is really after is moving the Overton window far to the left as was the trend during the entire 20th century. It happened because people weren’t aware of the threat and it just crept into our culture subtly. Trumka said it himself; he’s not in the labor movement for wages and benefits. He’s using the labor movement as a platform to change society, and that isn’t any different from Jim Jones who wanted to change the world through religion.
The real threat and real money being poured into politics isn’t coming from Rupert Murdoch, or the Koch Brothers. George Soros, and all the Hollywood left has poured far more money into political manipulation so there isn’t any room to talk. Yet if Trumka says “the conservative right is for the rich, and we are for the working man!” Look at all these contributors to the radical left! Yet all these people point to the right and say it’s “Wall Street, the rich, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, all are blamed for manipulating the American people when in fact it is these people that have committed the act of their accusations.
“The working man” is another false premise captured by the labor movement and placed into the minds of Americans by the Overton window. In Ohio 655,000 people work for a union, both public and private. That’s only 13.7 percent of the 4,787,000 million people who are employed in the state. That leaves over 4 million people not represented by a union, and don’t particularly want to be represented by a union. And most of those people are not in management. Most of those people are the real workers, and is proof that such extreme rhetoric as exhibited by people like Trumka to an army of people built on entitlement. Yet, because of the Overton window, the media, and the regular everyday people accept that “workers’ rights” represents union work, because that’s how the term was marketed.
I never had illusions that S.B.5 would avoid a referendum. After all, when it comes to union activity, they have a history of pushing and shoving until they get what they want, so a referendum that is well financed by the union is a certainty one way or the other.
If I’m wrong, which is about as rare as an eclipse, I’ll be happy to buy Cunningham a hot fudge sundae from UDF. But my bet is that these new elements that exist in the political landscape will tip the balance of power in a new direction not to the liking of the public sector unions.
To display this argument I submit exhibit “A.” Witness David Letterman talking to Rand Paul and you can see how the world of yesterday “thought” and how the world of tomorrow will “think.”
This interview with Doc Thompson below is especially potent. If you have any doubt about impropriety among the public sector employees, then listen to this broadcast. If you want to continue walking around blind and gullible, than only read the latest news from Lakota also below. If you want the whole story then read the article and listen to the broadcast together, so take a break from your schedule and enjoy the broadcast. While you listen compare what you hear to the news released from Lakota, as reported by Lindsey Hilty, about the specific cuts announced by the Lakota Administration. I will save my closing comments for the end of that article.
By Lindsey Hilty, Staff Writer Updated 8:22 AM Thursday, February 24, 2011 LIBERTY TWP. — Tensions ran high at Lakota East High School Wednesday night as more than 200 concerned parents and community members listened to how cuts would impact students next year. “We’ve looked at all areas of our budget — everywhere,” interim Superintendent Ron Spurlock said. “…We have to start living within our means.”
Many of the budget cuts, he said, likely could be permanent even with the passage of a levy. “It’s not a pretty picture,” Spokeswoman Laura Kursman said. “And it’s hard to communicate bad news.” Another meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Lakota West High School to hear about how $12.2 million in proposed cuts to the operating budget may be implemented pending school board approval. Parents who can’t attend sessions are asked to fill out a survey on the district’s web site to help with some of the future tough choices.
“I’m very worried,” parent Tricia McCaffrey said. “The Lakota School District I moved in to eight years ago is not the school district I have now when it matters for my son. Losing electives and going to state minimums is not why I chose to pay Lakota taxes.”
Elementary reductions: $3 million, 50 employees cut The goal is to maintain reading supports, supplemental classes taught by specialists, media center access and an accelerated gifted programs. To be cut: sixth-grade band; third-grade gifted program and services for grades four through six; gym, art, music and library time to 30 minutes each per week for grades one to six; one reading specialist per school; three media specialists sharing 14 schools; literacy coaches and two fewer English as a Second Language instructional aides.
Junior school reductions: $1.7 million, 25.5 employees cut Reduce day from eight bells to seven with 26-minute study hall, four core content classes and two electives. Programs eliminated include wood shop, English double block, band team teaching, jazz band, an intervention math class and department performance supplemental contracts. There will be two fewer media specialists. High School reductions: $1.9 million, 28 employees cut
Elective classes to be based on enrollment numbers with limited options, elimination of seventh bell; class size increases and 23.5 credits possible with 21 needed to graduate.
Special Services: $858,500, 19 employees cut Six fewer special education aides, one counselor per junior school and reduced nursing aids. Athletic reductions: $1 million cut
No funds for junior school athletics; $550 per high school athlete per sport with no family cap; supervision supplemental and sports information directors positions eliminated, and decreased transportation budgets. Central Office: $874,143, 5.5 employees cut
Elimination of an assistant superintendent and several central office support positions. Changes to contracted services and a hold on filling positions also led to savings. Transportation: $2.8 million cut
Already implemented in part, but in August, no student within two miles of school will receive transportation. This will impact half of Lakota’s student population.
They don’t have one. They are going to have to think differently. Because asking for more revenue to feed wages they’ve allowed to escalate irresponsibly is not going to work. It’s a complete lack of management.
It’s time for a new plan, or to step away and let people who know what they’re doing to manage the situation. The old way won’t work because the community isn’t poised to pass another levy no matter how they chose to spin it with their new spokesman. “Lakota hasn’t passed a levy since 2005.” What will never be forgotten, because I’ll never let people forget it, is that after that levy was passed, in 2008, the LEA bent the community over backwards for increased wages which drove up the costs we are seeing today. So we won’t be traveling back down that path again, no matter how it gets manipulated to the public.
In Ohio only 655,000 people belong to a union both public and private. That’s 13.7 percent of the 4,787,000 people employed in the state. Yet this minority has dictated an extraordinary expense upon the tax payers through taxes improperly collected and distributed.
The Republicans that are of that selfish ilk, they care about issues so long as their world is convenient. Those are the conservatives that have made the conservative philosophy look bad for years. They are Republicans because it makes them money. They are the first Judas’s to report to a Roman guard what goes on in the garden in order to save their own necks, and this again is a pathetic by-product of the unions which have subsequently weakened our society. Lawyers, and police heads that are Republicans, but benefit off of legal antics driven by union activity, they have difficulty thinking clearly. These people are the type of Republicans that say ending collective bargaining is a bad political move because the unions have the power to put the issue on a referendum to overturn such a law as S.B.5 proposes to do. Those Republicans are afraid that they will lose office holders in the next election if such bold legislation is created.
Do something bold, get rid of collective bargaining. Get rid of the money and influence built around the Democratic Party. And don’t play politics like it’s a football game where there are this many Republicans and this many Democrats and whoever has the majority wins. Take the chips off the table and the majority concerns with it. Take away the special interest of union influence and lets see what Ohioans really think politically, and we’ll have a better representation of what the state really wants from its elected officials.
If you are a frequent visitor to this site you know that Jeff isn’t an isolated politician when it comes to understanding reason. There are hundreds of hours of such conversations documented here just like the one you just heard. I admit there are hundreds of thousands of words written here and many hundreds of articles, videos and sound bites, so it can be overwhelming. That information is here like a library to help discuss topics that aren’t covered by the popular press. You can search for that information by checking the calendar off to the side of this article.
You can also pull them up by Googling “Overmanwarrior” along with whatever topic you want info for.
Some Senators have given the unions hope because of comments these Senators have made, and they are the targets of these protests. The protests are designed to break these senators’s resolve to reason out of fear from reprisal or the possibility of not being re-elected.
The reality is 15K, 20K or even 70K is not very many people. The real mass is out there in the plains and hills of Ohio, and they are busy working and watching. And if politicians waver from their task, those politicians will be removed and new ones put in place until reform does happen. It’s as simple as that.
Congratulations Jeff Berding for reaching across the aisle and showing the kind of boldness these times require. It may hurt politically in the short-term, but it will give you a proud story to tell your grandchildren someday when they are looking for a hero and you can offer them one with your grand story. Because doing what’s hard is what we take pride in when life darkens around us.
And Senator Sietze, I was inspired by your speech last year calling on Governor Strickland to “lead.” Well, now you have a Governor willing to “lead.”
I get the high and low negotiation process. I’ve done it myself many times. But when it comes to the kind of activity that goes on in collective bargaining, use the strong cards you have when you have them, and play the game to win in the long run. Not just to appease the current masses. It’s best to avoid a referendum process, but consider how many of those people in unions vote purely as Democrats because of their pay check. So long as there are public unions involved in politics we will never know what is the true nature of our Republic, because the numbers will always be skewed. Unions tell people how to vote and that’s a problem.
For the latest on what’s happening regarding School Choice up at the capital, here is some testimony from Representative Matt Huffman from Lima, Ohio given on February 16th, 2011. There are plans to expand the voucher program which is an encouraging sign for those of us that are pushing for 100% eligibility in the state.
My good friend Ray Warrick from Mason testified on Collective Bargaining in Columbus on February 17th, 2011. Since I have video of his testimony I put it here to be watched instead of read. Listen to the rumble of the crowd outside who were able to watch the proceedings on a screen and hear what was going on in the chamber.
This is what it looked like outside that chamber.
Even though many union workers took the day off to be there, “paid for I might add,” there were some who managed to go up to Columbus and show public support for the bill. Mixed in with the chanting on this next video, “kill the bill,” are people yelling, “Pass the Bill.” It is easy to ascertain that many supporters of the bill are not present. They are the silent majority, while the many of the people against the bill were encouraged by their unions to take off work and protest. This shows the fundamental difference in philosophy.
Let’s begin with Reed Larson from 1997, over a decade ago. American society knew we had a problem then, and nothing changed. We have the same issues now, as we did then. So listen to Mr. Larson.
Now, do you think Reed is speaking out of turn? Well, listen Bob Chanin from 2009. After 41 years as the nation’s top education lawyer, Chanin closes his last Representative Assembly as general counsel with a stirring address to more than 8,000 delegates. Who wants to pay for this kind of “power?” I don’t.
The problem is, these people tend to be radical and on the left side of our political spectrum. If there was more of a balance of all political types, it would have more merit, and justification. But what happens is many of the union members adopt left winged policies in trade for the financial security the unions provide.
And this is how unions bring people under their ranks and ensure that everyone toes the line.
Here is a non-union truck driver trying to deliver his load to a union construction site. It’s a little long, but worth watching because it shows why businesses would rather do business with Right to Work States. Look how unproductive this activity is.
And when it’s thought that this is all a right winged conspiracy, it’s not. If a guy like Jeff Smith was running in my district, I’d vote for him even though he’s a democrat. I admire Jeff, not because of this speech, but because he’s a very hard worker and wants to be in politics for all the right reasons.
Left leaning citizens are always quick to protest the destruction of whales, or deforestation. They’ll protest drilling for oil in Alaska, or the rights of the gay population. But who’s protesting the thuggish influence workers unions have on state and national economies? Who!
The Overmanwarrior 