A Winning Week for Conservatives
By Chuck Muth (07/02/07)
When it comes to public policy victories, conservatives are gonna have a tough time topping last week. So let's recap. We don't get opportunities like this very often.
The most obvious was the victory over the Bush/Kennedy “No Illegal Alien Left Behind” bill. No matter how the White House tried to spin it, that bill provided a path to amnesty. And ordinary citizens from across the country cranked up phones, faxes and emails to say, not just “No,” but “Hell, no!”
And make no mistake, one of the primary reasons this bill went down in flames was the grassroots activism stirred up by conservative talk-radio hosts. Naturally, Democrats want to stop this sort of thing. So they’ve been agitating to bring back the “Fairness Doctrine.” That rule would require that radio stations provide equal time for liberal opinions to counter those of conservative talk shows whether anyone ever listened to those liberal opinions or not.
The Fairness Doctrine is a direct attack on conservatives…period. So Rep. Mike Pence, Indiana Republican and former talk-radio host, introduced an amendment last week which would prohibit the FCC from using taxpayer dollars to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. That amendment, surprisingly enough, passed overwhelmingly. A big victory for radio broadcast freedom.
Which brings us to the Internet.
Last week the FTC’s Internet Access Task Force issued a report stating that broadband access was moving toward “more, not less, competition” and urged policy makers to stay away from federal “net neutrality” regulation of the Internet. “In the absence of significant market failure or demonstrated consumer harm,” wrote task force Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras, “policy makers should be particularly hesitant to enact new regulation in this area.”
What’s truly significant here is that this wasn’t a split decision down ideological lines; the report was approved by a unanimous 5-0 vote. Even the one commissioner apparently most sympathetic toward the concept of net neutrality concurred, noting that the report’s research and analysis “soberly reminds us that regulation often has unintended side-effects.” It’s hard not to concur with that concurring opinion. No net neutrality. No way. No how.
But as they say on late-night TV, that’s not all. There’s more? Yep.
Big Labor took it in the shorts last week, as well, when the Senate shot down the crown jewel of their legislative agenda this year, “card check.”
Fewer and fewer people – aside from government employees and illegal aliens who don’t speak English – are joining labor unions these days. When secret ballot elections are held at the workplace, unions are losing. So the union bosses’ solution, of course, is to ban secret ballot elections. Which is what the “card check” legislation would have done.
If passed, the bill would have required an employer to recognize a union if 51 percent of workers simply signed a card stating they wanted the union. Of course, many of those cards would be signed under duress or false pretenses. Union bosses aren’t exactly known for subtlety and fair play. Baseball bats and brass knuckles are more their style. By eliminating secret ballot elections, union agitators would be able to intimidate large numbers of workers into signing cards who would otherwise vote “no” in an actual election.
But card check crashed and burned last week. Chalk up another victory for truth, justice and the American way.
And finally there was the spanking that race-hustlers such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton took at the hands of the United States Supreme Court last week, which ruled against the use of racial preferences by public schools. Conservatives have been advocating this for decades now. As Ward Connerly of the American Civil Rights Institute put it, “The Court is finally starting to catch up with what the American people have known for years: Race has no place in American public life.” Indeed.
Ironically, it seems conservatives enjoy far more victories when Republicans are in the minority than when they’re in the majority. Perhaps while we’re on a roll, maybe now would be a good time to try killing the Bush/Kennedy “No Child Left Behind” law which is up for renewal and which has given the federal government a far bigger role in education than was ever envisioned by our Founders.
Gentlemen and women, to your keyboards!
Copyright 2007 Chuck Muth. All rights reserved.
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