A Call To Action

This week we have seen at least two appalling displays by the Radical Right. The GOP in the House and Senate have blocked solutions to the looming sequester, all because they want to protect their wealthy masters. Then, Antonin Scalia, upon hearing arguments about whether the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ought to be applied in an Alabama county, said that renewing the Act was "A perpetuation of racial entitlement."  It was such a blatant display of ignorance and racism that gasps could be heard in the courtroom.

Clearly, Justices Scalia and Thomas need to be booted from the Supreme Court but there is really no way to accomplish that. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court is the only unchecked branch of government. That really ought to be changed with a constitutional amendment but it will probably never happen.

The radical right wing court and the radical right G.O.P. make me less than hopeful for the future of this country. They do not care about actually serving THE PEOPLE (except the very few richest people and corporations).  

There comes a time when the people of the country need to step up and demand change. We have a long tradition of doing just that starting with the American Revolution, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Suffragettes, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's and the protests against the Vietnam War. We are a people who stand up to injustice. Now is the time to do so again. The injustices we face are from the tyranny of the right. Now they attack all of the rights we fought for throughout our history.

In addition to the attacks on the Voting Rights Act, itself,  the radical right, in the guise of ALEC (The American Legislative Exchange Council,)  have crafted legislation to make voting harder, if not impossible for the people of color, the elderly and students - all of whom traditionally vote Democratic.  

They would also have us under the thumb of mega corporations just as the colonists were under the thumb of the East India Trade Company: 

"...the British trading company that faced ruin which was the reason parliament to pass the tea act, removing most taxes and bypassing colonial merchants, giving the British owned company an unfair advantage since they could sell their tea much cheaper than the colonial merchants, causing protests and the Boston tea party."  (Quizlet.com) 

If that sounds familiar that's because some things keep rearing their ugly heads. Just as the British Parliament gave The East India Trade Company monopolies to keep it from going under, so we have the US Government giving huge bailouts to our biggest banks. 

Then there are the attacks on women, particularly our right to govern our own bodies and our access to health care.  State after state (with the encouragement of ALEC) have attempted to pass or actually passed laws which make getting a safe and legal abortion almost impossible.  The most notorious of these being those which require a women seeking an abortion to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound, which essentially amounts to state sponsored rape with a foreign object (see Think Progress: http://bit.ly/UHD9tZ).   And on and on it goes.

If we sit back and continue to allow these injustices now, it will soon get worse. Already they have started attacks on trade unions because unions give employees a collective voice. For the radical right it is all about money and power and unions give their members power in the workplace. They also mean higher wages and better benefits: 

• Unions raise wages of unionized workers by roughly 20% and raise compensation, including both wages and benefits, by about 28%.
• Unions reduce wage inequality because they raise wages more for low- and middle-wage workers than for higher-wage workers, more for blue-collar than for white-collar workers, and more for workers who do not have a college degree.
• Strong unions set a pay standard that nonunion employers follow. For example, a high school graduate whose workplace is not unionized but whose industry is 25% unionized is paid 5% more than similar workers in less unionized industries.
• The impact of unions on total nonunion wages is almost as large as the impact on total union wages.
• The most sweeping advantage for unionized workers is in fringe benefits. Unionized workers are more likely than their nonunionized counterparts to receive paid leave, are approximately 18% to 28% more likely to have employer-provided health insurance, and are 23% to 54% more likely to be in employer-provided pension plans.
• Unionized workers receive more generous health benefits than nonunionized workers. They also pay 18% lower health care deductibles and a smaller share of the costs for family coverage. In retirement, unionized workers are 24% more likely to be covered by health insurance paid for by their employer.
• Unionized workers receive better pension plans. Not only are they more likely to have a guaranteed benefit in retirement, their employers contribute 28% more toward pensions.
• Unionized workers receive 26% more vacation time and 14% more total paid leave (vacations and holidays).  (Economic Policy Institute: http://bit.ly/pW3UdF)

For obvious reasons, many employers would rather not have a unionized workplace. ALEC helps them in their union preventing and union busting ways.  

What we, the people, need to understand is that all these struggles are one. When we fight for justice for one we fight for all. And fight we must, for women, for children, for the poor, the elderly, minorities and the unions. When we fight for them we fight for ourselves and for the country. Now is the time to act.