Good News on the Koch Brothers

Today’s New York Times carried an article on the millions of dollars the Koch Brothers are putting into races for the U.S. Senate to defeat Democrats.  The Democratic candidates, of course, can’t match this.  Last night I posted that the Koch Brothers are pushing a “right to work for less” law in Pennsylvania.

It is just amazing to me that in a country, purported to be a democracy, that two billionaires can have that much influence.

So what’s the good news.  The Koch Brothers, if I am correct, are in their seventies.  Let’s say they live to a ripe old age.  That means in about 25 years both of them will be dead.  

Paycheck Protection Bill. Say What?

Tonight the Palmerton Area Democratic Club heard from Mike Morrill of Keystone Progress.  He told us about HB 1507, an ALEC and Koch Brothers inspired bill that has been introduced into the Pennsylvania House.  Republicans know they will most likely lose the Governor’s race this November, so they are going all out to privatize the Wine and Spirits stores, gut the endangered species act, and most importantly, break unions.

HB 1507, called the Paycheck Protection Bill, would eliminate automatic union dues.  This is also known as “Right to Work for Less” legislation, and it is simply a way to weaken and ultimately eliminate unions.  Mr. Morrill says that over a million dollars is being dumped into the campaign, and every Republican voter in Pennsylvania will be receiving mailers touting the legislation.

Since only about 16% of Pennsylvania workers are union members, the legislation has a very good chance to succeed.  The results:  The WalMartization of the workforce, further hollowing out of the middle class, and Republican legislative dominance far into the future.  I would like to say I’m optimistic that HB 1507 can be defeated, but I’m not.  

Nonetheless, we must not give up.

The perfect candidate found

Last night I listed the qualifications for the perfect candidate to run against Rep. Heffley.  Today, amazingly, that candidate has announced her candidacy for the 122nd district in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.  She’s a woman with Carbon County roots.  She has business experience, having operated her own home interior business for years.  She not only has ties to agriculture, she was the first female president of the Pennsylvania Christmas Tree Growers’ Association.  She hunts; we have a picture of a ten-point buck she shot.  She likes other people, and people like her.  And she is NOT an atheist, a former college professor, or a left-wing blogger.  

She is Patti Borger of Mahoning Township.  She and her husband Kevin operate a Christmas tree farm.  She is not a toady of Governor Corbett.  She does not believe that legislators should be in the room when a woman and her doctor make reproductive decisions.  She is not beholden to out-of-state fracking companies.  She understands that cutting school funding will put Pennsylvania further behind other states.  She knows that seniors can can lose their homes because of rising property taxes.  She actually listens to people.  

I think she will beat Rep. Doyle Heffley like a drum.  She’s really one of us.

The Perfect Candidate

It’s no secret that Carbon County Democrats are looking for a candidate to run against Rep. Doyle Heffley.  Here’s what we are looking for:

1.  a woman.  Kathleen Kane did very well in Carbon County, as did Hillary Clinton in 2008 in the primary.  Rep. Heffley does not really respect women; he thinks the Pennsylvania legislature should be in the room when a woman and her doctor make reproductive decisions.

2.  a person with Carbon County roots.  I’d fit that one, but I lived in CA for 32 years, so that kind of taints me.  Plus I don’t meet #1.

3.  someone with business experience.  Republicans are always touting business experience, so it would be nice if the Democratic candidate at some time had run a business.  

4.  someone with a connection to agriculture.  In the recent past, Democratic candidates have not done well in the more rural townships.  I’d actually be ok here, but see #1 and 

5.  someone who hunts.  The ideal would be a hunter who is not a member of the N.R.A., which is really an agent of the gun manufacturers.

6.  a person who likes other people.  Again, that lets me out.

7.  someone who is not an atheist, a former college professor, and a left-wing blogger.  My candidacy is doomed.

Democratic Information Center

After the November 2012 Presidential election, a group of Obama volunteers decided that we liked our headquarters so much, we were determined to keep it open.  The HQ was located in downtown Lehighton at 110 S. 1st Street, across from the park.  Rent was $400 a month, and for $35 a month more, we had the front window.  

The County Party, understandably, was not keen on renting a space when no major positions were up for election.  A small group--Carol, Patti, Sandra, and I--decided we would keep the HQ anyway.  We formed a group called the “Community Outreach Association,” opened a bank account, and asked our friends to contribute.  The four of us run the HQ.

We now have been open for a full year, and today we had our annual meeting (and brunch).  Carbon Democratic County Chair Billy O’Gurek spoke and noted that while we have been open for a year, we still haven’t embarrassed the County Party.  

This year should see an increase in activity.  We have a gubernatorial election, a state legislative race, and a congressional race.  If you would like to contribute to keep the HQ open, email me at <hiramc@ptd.net> and I’ll tell you what to do.  

Our ultimate goal is to build a political machine that makes Mayor Daley and Boss Tweed look like Cub Scout leaders.

Running for County Committee

In Pennsylvania a voting district is called a precinct.  A precinct usually has between a 100 and a 1000 voters.  Carbon County has 51 precincts.  (I’m pretty sure that’s the number.)

Each precinct in Pennsylvania is entitled to elect one Committeeman and one Committeewoman in the primary election when parties choose their gubernatorial candidates.  These committee members make up the County Committee.  The Committee meets after the election to pick the County Chair and other officers of the County Party.  Committee members are also expected to register voters, help elect Democrats, and build the party.

I am one of Carbon County’s Committeemen, and I will be running again on May 20.  Here is how easy it is.  You get a nomination petition from the County Registrar of Voters on February 18.  (Or I can send you one.)  You then get the signatures of 10 Democrats in your precinct.  You have to be careful here, since your friends, who don’t want to disappoint you may say they are Democrats and sign your petition, but then you find out they aren’t registered. 

I have a list of registered Democrats in every precinct in Carbon County.  After you gather your signatures, call me at 610-377-0235, and we will make sure that all of your signatures are valid.  You need to do that by March 11.  Then you go to the Prothonotary’s office and have your petition notarized.  You take the notarized petition to the Registrar, and you will be on the ballot.

This procedure is the same for all Pennsylvania counties.  If you live in Illinois or Belgium or somewhere else outside of the Keystone state, I can’t help you.  If you live in a Pennsylvania county other than Carbon, I don’t have those lists, but I urge you to run.  

Love and Death in a Hot Country

Shiva Naipaul published Love and Death in a Hot Country in 1983.  The theme of the book is the abandonment of democracy in a small Latin American country.  Here’s a passage from the novel:

The surprising thing about the imminent abandonment of the Constitution--that lengthy charter so top-heavy with ringing preambles, so glutinously coated with abstract principles of right and justice and obligation, so ribboned with guarantees to minorities and special interests, so honeycombed with promises of life and liberty and happiness for all, so stiff with austere legalism, so sweetened with the codes of civility, that Constitution painstakingly fabricated and assembled over several weeks in panelled, chandeliered halls and flourished in triumph at the climax--the surprising thing was not that it was about to be unceremoniously tossed out of the window, but that it had taken such a comparatively long time for that to happen.

Societies could not be created on sheets of parchment.  They could not, even with the most golden of fountain pens, be signed into existence.  Inevitably, men will succumb to their own reality.  They will sink to the level of being where they feel most at ease with themselves.  They would always act in conformity with their own natures and remake the world in their own image.

Think Iraq.  Think Afghanistan.  Think Egypt.  Think voter suppression, N.S.A. taps, government shutdown, efforts to derail the Affordable Care Act, abortion restrictions, campaign finance.