An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Democrats, Unions, and The Economy
Political Litmus Test: Bluest States Spilling The Most Red Ink
Want to know which states are in the worst financial condition? One telling indicator that might not immediately come to mind is whether most of its citizens identify themselves as Democrats.
The five states in the worst financial condition–Illinois, New York, Connecticut, California and New Jersey–are all among the bluest of blue states. The five most fiscally fit states are more of a mix. Three–Utah, Nebraska and Texas–boast Republican majorities and two–New Hampshire and Virginia–skew Democratic.
The financial ranking of the states is part of a recent Forbes report on the Global Debt Bomb. The political affiliation data was compiled in a 2009 poll of 350,000 adults by Gallup Daily.
Tennessee is ranked #13. I’m hoping we’ll at least head into the top 10 in the not too distant future. An FYI for my Wisconsin friends, that state is ranked #41. I’m surprised the state actually ranks that high considering it’s wholly owned by some fairly powerful unions. 
Why do Democratic states appear to be struggling more than Republican ones? It comes down to stronger unions and a larger appetite for public programs, according to Kent Redfield, professor emeritus of political studies and public affairs at the University of Illinois’ Center for State Policy and Leadership.
For those of you who still don’t get it, unions are screwing up, not just the states, but the whole flippin’ country!
“Because workers of the world unite, it’s not just a slogan anymore.” – Andy Stern, SEIU President
One of Obama’s best buddies quoting Karl Marx. Isn’t that nice. And quite telling, don’t you think?
Not only are the states on the low end of economic stability fiscally bankrupt, they also seem to be the states more likely to be spiraling into moral bankruptcy.
“There are, besides, eternal truths, such as Freedom, Justice, etc., that are common to all states of society. But communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience.” (Source)
California is the obvious one, since the yahoos in the “entertainment” business have been pushing more and more trash on the ill informed masses.
Marx argues that communist should work with all “progressive” movements in what were later to be called “united fronts.” (Source)
Progressive? Sound familiar?
14. What will this new social order have to be like?
Above all, it will have to take the control of industry and of all branches of production out of the hands of mutually competing individuals, and instead institute a system in which all these branches of production are operated by society as a whole – that is, for the common account, according to a common plan, and with the participation of all members of society.
It will, in other words, abolish competition and replace it with association.
Moreover, since the management of industry by individuals necessarily implies private property, and since competition is in reality merely the manner and form in which the control of industry by private property owners expresses itself, it follows that private property cannot be separated from competition and the individual management of industry. Private property must, therefore, be abolished and in its place must come the common utilization of all instruments of production and the distribution of all products according to common agreement – in a word, what is called the communal ownership of goods.
In fact, the abolition of private property is, doubtless, the shortest and most significant way to characterize the revolution in the whole social order which has been made necessary by the development of industry – and for this reason it is rightly advanced by communists as their main demand.
The auto industry? Banks? Just to mention a couple of recent issues.
18. What will be the course of this revolution? (in part)
Democracy would be wholly valueless to the proletariat if it were not immediately used as a means for putting through measures directed against private property and ensuring the livelihood of the proletariat. The main measures, emerging as the necessary result of existing relations, are the following:
(i) Limitation of private property through progressive taxation, heavy inheritance taxes, abolition of inheritance through collateral lines (brothers, nephews, etc.) forced loans, etc.
(ii) Gradual expropriation of landowners, industrialists, railroad magnates and shipowners, partly through competition by state industry, partly directly through compensation in the form of bonds.
(iii) Confiscation of the possessions of all emigrants and rebels against the majority of the people.
(iv) Organization of labor or employment of proletarians on publicly owned land, in factories and workshops, with competition among the workers being abolished and with the factory owners, in so far as they still exist, being obliged to pay the same high wages as those paid by the state.
(v) An equal obligation on all members of society to work until such time as private property has been completely abolished. Formation of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
(vi) Centralization of money and credit in the hands of the state through a national bank with state capital, and the suppression of all private banks and bankers.
(vii) Increase in the number of national factories, workshops, railroads, ships; bringing new lands into cultivation and improvement of land already under cultivation – all in proportion to the growth of the capital and labor force at the disposal of the nation.
(viii) Education of all children, from the moment they can leave their mother’s care, in national establishments at national cost. Education and production together.
(ix) Construction, on public lands, of great palaces as communal dwellings for associated groups of citizens engaged in both industry and agriculture and combining in their way of life the advantages of urban and rural conditions while avoiding the one-sidedness and drawbacks of each.
(x) Destruction of all unhealthy and jerry-built dwellings in urban districts.
(xi) Equal inheritance rights for children born in and out of wedlock.
(xii) Concentration of all means of transportation in the hands of the nation.
It is impossible, of course, to carry out all these measures at once. But one will always bring others in its wake. Once the first radical attack on private property has been launched, the proletariat will find itself forced to go ever further, to concentrate increasingly in the hands of the state all capital, all agriculture, all transport, all trade. All the foregoing measures are directed to this end; and they will become practicable and feasible, capable of producing their centralizing effects to precisely the degree that the proletariat, through its labor, multiplies the country’s productive forces.
Finally, when all capital, all production, all exchange have been brought together in the hands of the nation, private property will disappear of its own accord, money will become superfluous, and production will so expand and man so change that society will be able to slough off whatever of its old economic habits may remain.
We have been seeing this course of action for quite a while, yet no one really noticed because it came about rather gradually. Or perhaps, we just didn’t care? I hope that’s not the case, yet I wonder. The “progressive” will tell you that they care more for their fellow citizens than non-progressives. In reality, this is not the case. Taking from those who earn, to give to those who don’t, through government programs is not charity.
21. What will be the influence of communist society on the family?
It will transform the relations between the sexes into a purely private matter which concerns only the persons involved and into which society has no occasion to intervene. It can do this since it does away with private property and educates children on a communal basis, and in this way removes the two bases of traditional marriage – the dependence rooted in private property, of the women on the man, and of the children on the parents.
And here is the answer to the outcry of the highly moral philistines against the “community of women”. Community of women is a condition which belongs entirely to bourgeois society and which today finds its complete expression in prostitution. But prostitution is based on private property and falls with it. Thus, communist society, instead of introducing community of women, in fact abolishes it.
I am not, nor have I ever been, a prostitute! Men and women ARE different, even if the feminazis would like you to believe otherwise. We look different, we act different, we THINK differently! Women are not men. Men are not women. And no, if you were born as a man, that’s what you are! Cutting off, or adding to, your body parts does not change this fact. Also, when the ‘state’ suffers those long hours of labor pains, I’ll agree they have to ‘right’ to raise our kids!
23. What will be its attitude to existing religions?
All religions so far have been the expression of historical stages of development of individual peoples or groups of peoples. But communism is the stage of historical development which makes all existing religions superfluous and brings about their disappearance.
You cannot dictate how, or what, people believe. Faith is a very strong emotion. True faith can change the world. I will not, EVER, put my faith in ‘the state’. They do not grant natural rights, only God does.
Back to Forbes.
“Unions in general have more influence in Democratic-controlled states,” he says. “This isn’t to say that unions are bad, but where they’re strong you have bigger demands for social services and coalitions with construction companies, road builders and others that push up debt.”
While I do think that unions did perform a service, at one point in history, as in the protection of the employees, I do believe this would have been addressed without the unions. It would have probably taken a little longer, and that it didn’t, is a good thing. Unions no longer concern themselves with the business at hand. No, they are concerning themselves with YOUR business, through government intervention.
Of the 10 states in the worst financial condition, eight are among a total of 23 defined by Gallup as “solidly Democratic,” meaning the Democrats enjoy an advantage of 10 percentage points or greater in party affiliation. These states include the ones listed above as making up the bottom five, plus Massachusetts, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Democrats, unions, and a lousy economy. It brings to mind the old adage from Albert Einstein: Insanity – doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. It applies to voting habits too.
Illinois is in the worst financial condition, with per-capita debt of $1,877 and unfunded pensions of $17,230. Moody’s rates Illinois’ general obligation debt A1, ahead of only California’s.
Chicago runs the state of Illinois. See above Einstein quote.
I’d like to see that study expanded, the states with the worst problems didn’t get that way in a couple of years….it took time to screw them up. For instance California when Reagan was Gov, was a state that was fairly fiscally sound. Then came the liberal policies of gimme, unions, and education failures….more and more liberals were elected to fill seats in the legislature and the policies continued.
I’m sure New Jersey is trying to reverse course with the election of a “R” for gov. BUT here’s the rub, the “R” can’t do it alone. Arnold was “Our Savior” too, but he’s against a house full of liberals and they don’t switch seats because they represent the people of their area…folks like pelosi, boxer, feinstein are a dime a dozen on California politics,,, same in NJ, NY and soon to be others I’m sure.
I guess you can thank my generation, filled with the radical hippie types that never grew up, for a large number of problems we are facing today.
Unfortunately, way too many have taken up residence in public schools, colleges, and Congress.