What America Means, is a Local Battle

BATTLE OF LEXINGTON

The political war in America isn’t between socialists and conservatives nor between Obamans and Teafolk. It’s not really even between Democrats and Republicans, though that’s what the banners proclaim. The true opposing forces are those that want something from the government on one side and those that want the government out of their lives on the other. And sadly, the government’s dependents seem to have the advantage of numbers.

Rent seekers include big business, Wall Street, the military-industrial folk, the labor unions, the non-profits, healthcare, the major media. education and many, many more while the remaining residue of old-time ‘leave me alone’ individualism are mostly individuals and small businesses lacking organization. The fight isn’t quite so uneven as the Greeks and Persians at Thermopolae but it may represent a similar historical impact…and seems headed for a similar outcome. If one casts the Republican leaders as the treacherous Greeks who guided the Persians past the doughty defenders, the parallel increases.

But the real fight , the important one, goes on in the trenches of local politics across the country. Union Protests Growing Desperate In Indiana gives a quick photo of one battle in the ongoing war. Indiana, historically a strong auto union state, is deciding whether mandatory unionism will continue there. When the U.S. auto business failed to compete with foriegn automakers, the unions moved into state and local government and found a home. Now, like the automakers, state and local governments find the unions unaffordable but unlike the manufacturers, they can’t move to factories in China.

The battles are growing desperate as voters turn to Republican politicians who legislate limits on union powers like those forcing non-members to pay dues to keep their jobs in Indiana or on the subjects the unions can negotiate in Wisconsin. Semi-riots at the Indiana Capitol illustrate the emotions driving the contention as does the heavily-funded recall election taking shape in Wisconsin and the California Democratic governor’s demand for a public vote on his tax increase to cover that state’s budget gap. These are the battles that will decide the war, even more than the Fall elections.

Lined up with the Democrats and their unions are forces devoted to maintaining government spending. Lined up with too many of the Republicans are different forces pursuing the same condition, just with different beneficiaries. Our cities and states have become just as hooked on flowing money as the Feds. Pulling each of these engorging ticks off the body politic, one by one, will be a difficult, nasty business much as were ancient hand-to-hand, Greek versus Persian sword and spear battles but that is where the real war is being fought.

How the unions fare in the local battles will predict the national outcome. If they maintain their power, the status-quo overspending of our resources cannot be stopped. If they can be shut down and prudent financial management returned to cities, counties and states, there is hope that Federal profligacy can be restrained in due course.

As the unions go, so will go the battle for the country. They aren’t the whole story by any means, but they are the canary in this coal mine.