THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IV, Issue # 92, August 14, 2002
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THE CAMPAIGN TO STOP LABOR UNION POLITICAL ABUSE
By Linda Chavez
Fellow Americans, I am asking you to help me cripple Liberal politics by wiping out their biggest source of funds. With your assistance and support, we can permanently cripple Liberal politics in this country.
My name is Linda Chavez. You may know me as President George W. Bush's first nominee for U.S. Secretary of Labor, as a syndicated Conservative columnist, or even from my years as a White House official under President Ronald Reagan.
I'm organizing a grassroots effort to secure the enactment of congressional legislation that will stop Big Labor from taking money from union merbers' paychecks to pay for radical Leftist political causes that the union members would never support, if they had a choice.
When a similar measure affecting state employees passed in Washington state, the number of public employees contributing to labor union political action committees fell from more than 40,000 to an astonishingly low 85.
That means that, in Washington state, Big Labor was left with less than one-fourth of one percent of their political war chest. Think what would happen if we could do that on a national level.
One of the dirty little secrets of the Democratic Party is that Liberal candidates just can't get elected nationally without enormous amounts of money being poured into their campain war chests by labor union bosses.
Big Labor has these hundreds of millions of dollars to spend each year on politics solely because they can take it from their members' paychecks, whether they agree or not.
We can give workers back the basic American freedom to choose for themselves what political causes to support and, at the same time, dry up the river of money being funneled to Liberal politicians.
I believe that you realize the benefits that will result from wiping out the stream of money that goes to Leftwing politics in this country.
Think of what our project will mean, if we raise the funds needed to make it successful.
Imagine. Without money from labor union bosses, Al Gore could never be President. Nor could Hillary Rodham Clinton, nor any of the other extreme Leftist politicians in the Democratic Party,
But to put Socialistic Democrats out of business, we are going to need the help of a great many dedicated Conservatives.
I'm organizing a grassroots campaign to make Congress sit up and listen. It's the only way to overcome Big Labor's huge financial advantage in lobbying Congress (more about this in just a moment).
I want you to become part of this effort because, together, we can make America better for generations to come, simply by removing Liberals from their seats of power.
Let me explain how we can stop Leftist politicians like Hillary Clinton and others.
This is so important for America's future that I want to be sure you understand just how astounding this project is.
Experts who analyze union political spending show that Big Labor bosses pour $800 million a year into Liberal politics.
That means, for instance, that, in the two year campaign leading up to the 2002 congressional elections, union powerbrokers will spend $1.6 billion to elect their hand-picked, tax-and-spend Liberal politicians.
To put that in perspective, a well-funded presidential campaign may spend $60 million. As much money as that is, it's still just a drop in the bucket compared to Big Labor's political budget.
So, you can see that Liberal Democrats have a huge financial advantage in the political process.
Union bosses can afford to spend so much money only because the federal government has given them a special privilege that no other private organzation has. They have the power to deduct money from a worker's paycheck to use for radical Leftwing politics, whether or not the worker supports those beliefs.
Hence, I'm fighting for the Workers' Freedom of Choice Act (H.R. 3632), seeking to get the legislation passed by Congress so that employees are no longer forced to pay for the union bosses' radical political agenda.
Big Labor union bosses know that the Workers' Freedom of Choice Act will, if enacted into law, cripple them, destroying their political power. And they're fighting us tooth and nail.
They know, as I'm sure you can see as well, what would happen if workers could say "No" to union bosses' demands for cash to use for Leftist politics.
With the help and support of America's visionary and progressive Conservatives, we can make this happen.
This grassroots effort will organize the overwhelming majority of Americans who oppose Big Labor's strong-arm methods of raising political money.
I'm already working hard, and willing to do whatever I have to see that the legislation is passed.
I'm meeting with congressional leaders, traveling. speaking and writing on this subject, and, quite frankly, I'm paying for a lot of these efforts out of my own pocket. That's fine with me. I believe this is the right thing to do, as I think you do.
But to reach the millions of Americans I need to reach, I need your help. That's why I'm asking today for your financial assistance and support in this effort.
I don't have millions of dollars in mandatory union dues to fund this effort. I can't match the Big Labor bosses dollar for dollar.
What I do have is the vast majority of the American people, including union members, who are on my side in saying that workers should have a choice about whether to support a labor union's political program.
And the overwhelming support for this represents a huge advantage, provided we can have your financial assistance in organizing this grassroots campaign.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll reveals that 82 percent of Americans believe workers shouldn't have to pay for Big Labor politics against their will. And 77 percent of union households believe this as well.
I founded Stop Union Political Abuse (SUPA) to organize this huge population into a vast grasseoots effort.
It's the only way to offset the enormous financial advantage Big Labor has.
And that's why I am pleading with you to help fund this massive project.
We need American Conservatives and other supporters of individual freedom and honest government to become part of our movement, so that we can squash the Socialistic dreams of Liberal, power-hungry politicians like Hillary Clinton.
We must see that millions of petitions are distributed and collected--petitions supporting the Workers' Freedom of Choice Act.
We'll need to have news conferences, mass mailings, and phone bank operations. We'll need to fund television and radio advertisements as well.
In the next 30 days alone, I want to reach 8.5 million Americans with mailings, telephone calls, and advertisements so that we can generate the public pressure to force Congress to act.
A project this big is an enormous undertaking, and an expensive one. But it will be worth it, if we can restore workers' freedom and break the primary source of money for the radical Liberal Left in this country.
The only way we can offset Big Labor's financial advantage is with the power of public opinion.
We just need to reach enough people to make Congress sit up and listen.
It's a simple concept, but one a lot of people overlook.
A congressman may be afraid of offending Big Labor bosses, but we can make him more afraid that he'll lose his job.
Think what would happen if we were to walk into a congressman's office--one who won the last election by 3,000 votes--and dump 50,000 petitions from his constituents on his desk.
If he wants to be reelected, he has to listen to that kind of outcry. Knowledge gained from my years of experience in politics enables me to tell you that the first and overriding concern of most congressmen is getting reelected.
Americans overwhelmingly support the ideas behind the Workers' Freedom of Choice Act. We just need to organize the grassroots effort to make Congress listen.
So, I want to ask you again to become a part of history by supporting our crusade.
AFL-CIO boss John Sweemey is an avowed Socialist, by his own admission. And he's put billions into pushing the Socialist agenda.
Big Labor is advancing this Socialist agenda, and, if union members had a choice, the vast majority would never support it.
That's why union bosses fight so hard to keep their power to deduct money for politics from their members' paychecks, before the members can get their hands on it. The union bosses know that, if union members had to write a check to voluntarily contribute to Big Labor's politics, the union war chests would be empty.
We can defeat the Socialist/Liberal Left in this country, if we take away their funding. And we can do that, if we take away Big Labor's power to deduct money for politics from union members' paychecks against their will. The Workers' Freedom of Choice Act would put an end to it, once and for all.
Think of it. Union bosses would no longer be paying "volunteers" to go and work for their hand-picked tax-and-spend Liberal Democratic candidates. Union dues would no longer be paying for "member contact" mailings, which are really just propaganda for the union bosses' Leftist candidates. Union militants would no longer be out rounding up their members and pressuring them to vote their way. Union dues wouldn't be spent for the causes the union bosses have been pushing--increased government spending, opposition to tax cuts, and establishment of socialized medicine and other Liberal Leftist "cradle-to-the grave" social welfare programs. Union dues would be spent for only one thing--providing representation for their members in the economic arena, i.e., in area of labor-management relations.
The legislation we advocate, the Workers' Freedom of Choice act, would make labor unions just like every other private organization in America. The unions would have to fund their political activities and goals with voluntary contributions. They would no longer have the power to simply take the money from their members' paychecks and use it for whatever extremist political agenda they wanted.
And once Big Labor bosses lose their ability to spend billions on an election, they will lose their power to force their congressional toadies to do their bidding. The power of the Liberal Left will be broken.
Congress will listen and pass our bill, if we can organize this grassroots campaign--this groundswell of support for the Workers' Freedom of Choice Act.
I think you'll agree that, if we're successful, the expansion of Big Government will be a thing of the past.
More on American Politics & Political Competition
Linda Chavez is Founder and Chairman of Stop Union Political Abuse (SUPA), a project to secure congressional passage of the proposed Workers' Freedom of Choice Act.
Stop Union Political Abuse
P.O. Box 1863
Merrifield, VA 22116-8063
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity