One more reason why thrice-elected, two-term Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is the frontrunner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination: He was a trailblazer, an example-setter for taking on the "powerful" public employee unions that consider plundering the taxpayers their birthright and cutting them off at the knees.
And now that example is being followed just to Wisconsin's south, in a State that desperately needs such a fight as much, if not more, than any other:
Bruce Rauner, Illinois’ newly elected Republican governor, signed an executive order ending mandatory public sector union dues on Monday.
As a result of Rauner’s action, public sector workers will no longer be forced to join government unions, such as the politically powerful American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU), as a condition of employment.
“An employee who is forced to pay unfair share dues is being forced to fund political activity with which they disagree. That is a clear violation of First Amendment rights—and something that, as governor, I am duty-bound to correct,” Rauner said in a press release.
The judiciary has dealt setbacks to Illinois’ mandatory dues policies in recent years.
Rod Blagojevich, the state’s imprisoned former [Democrat] governor, signed an executive order in 2003 forcing home healthcare workers, many of whom were caring for disabled relatives, to pay union dues. Public sector unions, who were among the top contributors to Blagojevich’s campaign, added millions to their coffers as a result of the order.
The Supreme Court struck down Blagojevich’s forced dues scheme as unconstitutional in 2014. The court’s 5-4 ruling in Harris v. Quinn only applied to Illinois, but several other states have since reformed the way that unions collect dues from home healthcare workers in the aftermath of the ruling.
“Forced union dues are a critical cog in the corrupt bargain that is crushing taxpayers. Government union bargaining and government union political activity are inexorably linked,” Rauner said in the release.
We, The People, never know what we can accomplish until somebody ventures forth, takes the proverbial arrows, perseveres, and wins anyway. That's what's known as leadership - whether it be a local activist last summer who happens to also host a weekend radio program (now two) you may have heard of, or a man who sought a high-level executive office on the specific grounds of doing precisely what he is doing now, or the man who may well become the POTUS who begins the long, hard task of resurrecting the old American Republic.
Scott Walker showed that victory over the Left is, after all, still possible. Bruce Rauner is following that winning template. In the hands of his courage and resolve and perseverance lies Illinois's fiscal survival.
Good hunting, Governor.
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