Revolt Against the Mouse: Disney Pays the Price for Going Woke

REVOLT AGAINST THE MOUSE Our campaign against Disney has put a price on woke capital.  Two weeks ago, amid the controversy about The Walt Disney Company’s opposition to Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, I released exclusive internal videos from Disney that revealed the company’s plans to inject gender ideology into its children’s programming. The videos drove the news cycle for more than week, generated billions of media impressions, and shifted the national debate about public education and gender ideology. More importantly, my team helped connect the story to public policy, using it as a supporting narrative for activism against woke capital. The goal was to force Disney to pay a price for transgressing the values of middle-class families and forcing left-wing gender ideology onto children. And the early evidence suggests that this campaign was a smashing success. Here are some of the outcomes: • Ensured that congressional Republicans will not vote to extend Disney’s copyrights on characters such as Mickey Mouse when they expire at the end of next year, delivering a multibillion-dollar intellectual property loss to the company. • Inspired multiple Disney employees to speak out against the company’s left-wing sexual politics, putting a countervailing internal pressure on executives. • Sparked grassroots demonstrations at Disney’s theme parks in Orlando, Florida, and Anaheim, California. • Strengthened the position of Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans, who courageously stood up to Disney and passed the Parental Rights in Education Act. Following the anti-Disney backlash, some Florida legislators are even considering eliminating Disney’s special exemptions and tax breaks within the state. We are building a new model of conservative activism: waging narrative and symbolic warfare, mobilizing grassroots parent-driven protests, designing robust policies to change incentives, and supporting strong leaders who are willing stand with families against hostile and nihilistic elite institutions. As always, this activism depends on your support. Please consider becoming a $5 or $10 monthly patron and help strike a blow against woke capital. Share Tweet

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The Texas Minute: Only Fighters Win

The Texas Minute has been keeping an eye on the Austin-based state legislature for years. Like Texas MassResistance, they have been calling out the feckless cowardice of Governor Abbott and the Republican leaders, all of whom are bought by Big Pharma and pushing away from conservative priorities while placating Democrats.

This is truly disgusting. The Lone Star State does not have real leadership right now, and Greg Abbott's Special Session political theater has all be designed to stop the real reforms that the vast majority of Texans want.

Check out their latest report, especially the very important quote from Margaret Thatcher at the end of the eblast:

Good morning!

The historical context of a recent ruling from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is a reminder that it is never a good idea to back down from a principled fight. There will always be self-proclaimed “experts” telling us to stand down and avoid a loss, but I end the week reflecting on the simple fact that only fighters win fights.

First, here is today's Texas Minute.

 

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Friday, August 27, 2021
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Election Integrity Bill Advances

• Late last night, the Texas House gave preliminary approval to Republicans’ top-priority election reform legislation (Senate Bill 1), despite continuing opposition from Democrats. This is the legislative issue that led to Democrats walking out of the regular session May, and then stalling the special sessions for 37 days this summer.
      
• Erin Anderson reports the version passed by the House is different from that passed several weeks ago by the Senate. And both differ from the major election reform bills proposed during the regular session, which the Republican-controlled Legislature failed to pass.
      
• The House sponsor of the legislation was Andrew Murr (R-Junction), who calmly withstood hours of verbal lashings from Democrats.
     
• Once SB 1 passes a final House vote, the measure goes back to the Senate. There, senators can either concur with the House’s changes or request a conference committee that would hammer out a compromise version. That compromise version would then require the approval of both chambers.

 

Session Clock is Ticking

• The current 30-day special session expires on Sept. 5.
   
• While Senate has passed all of the items on Gov. Abbott’s special session agenda (twice), SB1 is the first measure passed by the House since the regular legislative session ended in May.

 

Get The Latest Today at 11 a.m.

• At 11 a.m. today, join Brandon Waltens for a live edition of The Headline. He’ll be joined by Texas Scorecard Senior Correspondent Jeramy Kitchen to talk about the sudden flurry of activity in the Texas Capitol. (The video archive and podcast will be available shortly after.)

 

Abbott Won’t Address Employer Vax Mandates

• While Gov. Greg Abbott has doubled down on his previous executive orders aimed at preventing governmental entities in Texas from requiring COVID-19 vaccines, he isn’t going to be taking action against such requirements from private employers. Brandon Waltens has the details.
     
• A spokesman for the governor has said employers should be able to mandate COVID-19 vaccines on their employees: “Private businesses don’t need government running their business.”
     
• During the regular legislative session earlier this year, the Legislature passed (and the governor signed) legislation prohibiting governments from issuing vaccine passports and businesses from requiring COVID vaccines from their customers. The new law does not address employer-employee relationships, however.
     
• Despite the issue of employer-mandated vaccines not currently being on the call for the special session, two measures have been filed to prevent the mandates: House Bill 24 by State Rep. Candy Noble (R–Lucas) and House Bill 125 by State Rep. Tony Tinderholt (R–Arlington). 

 

DEMs Push Further Left

• In what they call a “response to increasingly radical, right-wing laws that hurt Texans, coupled with a rapidly growing progressive movement in Texas,” 20 House Democrat lawmakers created the new Texas House Progressive Caucus on Thursday. Jeramy Kitchen has the story.
   
• Notably, all of the members of this new, far-left caucus were participants in the quorum bust that paralyzed the House for 37 days; three of the Democrats serve as chairmen and six serve as vice chairmen of standing House committees – all appointed by Republican Speaker Dade Phelan.

 

New Series Premiere!

 

• Later today we will premiere the first in a new podcast series: The Autopsy Files, documenting the biggest issues from the 87th Texas legislative Session.
        
• The first episode will premiere at 2 p.m. Find it at texasscorecard.com/podcasts/ or wherever you listen to podcasts!

 

Scorecard Store Opening: 15% Off!

• The Texas Scorecard Store is now open! To celebrate, everything is 15% off today and through Sunday when you use the discount code SCORECARD at check out. (Hey – this is actually a bigger discount than the ‘employee’ discount we give the staff!)
     
• Right now, you’ll find mugs, hats, sweatshirts, and t-shirts in a variety of colors and sizes. And we’ll be regularly adding more items - so stop in often.
      
• Let everyone know you are a citizen who is keeping score and taking action!

 

 

Friday Reflection:
Only Fighters Win Fights

by Michael Quinn Sullivan

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When the Texas Legislature was considering a ban on dismemberment abortions back in 2017, lawmakers were urged to oppose the legislation by all the usual suspects – but also by a “pro-life” group. Their excuse was that they didn’t think it was a fight Texas could win. They were inexcusably wrong.

In a hyperbolic memo sent to legislators on March 31, 2017, the executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life, Joe Pojman, declared with absolute certainty that the bills “Will Not Survive a Federal Court Challenge” (his capitalization).

Pojman explained that his lawyer, Paul Linton, had written two legal memoranda concluding that “unquestionably” the courts would strike down any ban on dismemberment abortions.

Wow, TWO whole legal memoranda. And… “unquestionably,” he said.

A month before that memo, Pojman gave condescending testimony to the Senate that year – testifying “on” the dismemberment ban rather than “for” or “against” it. But no one was fooled; he was arguing from a positions of cowardice, waving a “white flag” on the very issue his organization claimed to champion.

Maybe Pojman really believed his faulty prognostications, or maybe he just didn’t want Texas being too bold in pro-life advocacy. Either way, he lacked the courage of the convictions for which his organization ostensibly believes.

As it turned out, the Texas Legislature ignored both. Pojman and Linton, listening to the state’s bold, pro-life majority. The language of the “dismemberment” ban was amended to 2017’s omnibus prolife measure Senate Bill 8, setting it to take effect on Sept. 1 of that year.

For a time, the Pojman plea for legislative cowardice seemed prudent. A leftwing federal judge in Austin blocked implementation of the law – specifically the portion banning dismemberment abortions. That case has been quietly winding its way through the federal judicial labyrinth.

Late last week, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals gave the law its approval, clearing the way for it to finally take full effect in the Lone Star State. Babies will no longer be brutally torn to pieces by profit-hungry doctors serving the genocidal agenda of Planned Parenthood.

Now, it is entirely possible the U.S. Supreme Court might eventually decide differently. But it is also entirely possible the Supreme Court will side with the Fifth Circuit, the Texas Legislature, Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Paxton, real pro-life Texans, and the moral righteousness of the law’s intent.

All of that is good news on its face. But this incident should serve as a broader reminder about the importance of ignoring the “pleas” for reasonableness from the bought-and-paid-for shills of the crony establishment.

All too often in the legislative process people with Ph.D.’s and J.D.’s will waive around white papers, condescendingly urge the conservative rabble to stand down on an issue. They will make expert-sounding claims about judicial survivability, legislative processes, and other governing complexities to inspire cowardice or sow confusion. And, all too often, activists get suckered in. We let good public policy be sacrificed on the altar of legal reasonableness built by our opponents in service to a decidedly unholy god.

The fear of losing can be paralyzing. But here is the good news: none of us are called to be “successful,” we are called to be faithful.

You may not win every fight you enter, but you lose every fight from which you run. Fights are won only by those who are fighting. In pursuing good public policy, the fight is always worth it. 

The fight is all that matters. We cannot be faithful to that fight when we allow our hands to be tied to our ankles. In public policy, the grassroots can have political agendas imposed upon them – or the grassroots can be the ones imposing the agenda.

Yes, there will always be “reasonable” men who consider invitations to haughty cocktail parties more important than fighting for principles. They should be called out, and then ignored.

There will always be people with pedigrees who will push the grassroots to stand down from a fight today in exchange for the ill-defined promise of “future success.” Those people should be mocked and tossed aside.

Rather than be shackled to the political expectations of the establishment cronies, grassroots activists should disrupt the status quo by forcing all three branches of government, and culture at large, into the fight for a better Texas.

Cowardice is always a killer. Victory is found only in boldly fighting forward.

 

 

Quote-Unquote “I fight on, I fight to win.” – Margaret Thatcher​​

 

MassResistance Victim of Cancel Culture? Nope! We Are Fighting Back!

 

MassResistance Update Pro-family Activism "Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport the world affords." - Theodore Roosevelt February 17, 2021 MassResistance was hit hard by the "cancel culture." But we're back! On Monday, Feb. 8, MassResistance suddenly discovered that our credit card processing had been shut down. The bank had abruptly decided that it didn’t want to deal with a pro-family conservative organization. We all know about the vicious efforts by Big Tech, Corporate America, and the Left that have erupted to silence and destroy conservatives – usually called the “cancel culture.” The financial industry has been particularly aggressive. According to national news, Bank of America collaborates with the government to secretly give the travel and purchase credit card records of conservatives to the FBI. JP Morgan has closed the bank accounts of known conservatives. Several major banks have recently refused to do business with Trump companies, or industries such as gun manufacturers and others that they disagree with politically. The corporate culture in the financial industry is very poisonous. They give hundreds of millions of dollars to Black Lives Matter/Antifa organizations as well as anti-family LGBT groups and Planned Parenthood. For nine harrowing days we worked to deal with this. Any of you who tried to donate online was told his credit card was “declined.” For our monthly credit card donors, the donations were delayed. Finally, yesterday MassResistance signed up with another bank that’s willing to work with us. We’re back up and running! But being down this long hurt badly. Those of you who tried to donate by credit card over the last week and were unable to, please come and try again! This is a crucial time to donate to MassResistance and keep us going strong! (Here's our donation form.) The real heroes in this are the folks at Cornerstone Payment Systems. They are the credit card merchant service provider that stuck with us through all of this, connected us with the right bank, and made sure everything got set up again properly. Cornerstone is a Christian-run company that will never “cancel” pro-family conservatives. Pro-family and conservative groups may be tempted to use “easy” solutions like Pay-Pal, Stripe, and Square – but these are horrible anti-family companies that will eventually de-platform you. And other companies are also a big risk. Over the past several years, MassResistance has taken steps to make as much of our operation as possible - including web and information technology - safe from these kinds of attacks and "cancellations." Make no mistake about this. In totalitarian countries such as Nazi Germany, the USSR, and Communist China, the “cancel culture” was always the first step before death camps. The people who decide to fire you or destroy your business because of your beliefs actually want to destroy you personally. Normal people don’t do this to others. Their hatred really is that powerful. We need to learn from history. Unfortunately, most of the conservative movement isn’t paying attention. The only solution is to aggressively confront it. With your help MassResistance is dedicated to doing just that! Showing their corporate values: At a recent Gay Pride Parade in Boston, Bank of America had a contingent of about 100 marchers. [MassResistance photo] For all recent posts see our website. Donate to MassResistance.

©2021 MassResistance, All Rights Reserved Our mailing address is: MassResistance PO Box 1612 Waltham, MA 02454 USA 781-890-6001 This email was sent to: arthur@massresistance.org

John McCain: Opportunist, Not a Maverick

US Senator John McCain has died. I imagine that many writers will pile on the praises for the recently-deceased “maverick” US Senator from the Grand Canyon State.

Sorry, but I will not be joining the chorus of eulogies. Perhaps he was a saint in combat, but as an elected official he was one of the dregs. As Thomas Sowell once commented, being a veteran is not a “Get Out of Criticism Free” card. For any veteran’s service, we should be grateful. Their prior efforts in the military, however, do not cover for their failures, fallouts, sins, and betrayals once in office. In 2005, Randy “Duke” Cunningham, a Congressman from the San Diego area, was convicted of multiple bribery charges in 2005. He didn’t get off easy just because he was a veteran. The same standard should hold true for anyone else, regardless of their service in the American Military.

Was McCain a crook? He weathered considerable scandal in the late 1980’s following the Savings and Loan collapse, but was never charged with anything. I have no interest in pursuing allegations, aspersions, or conspiracy theories. On his votes, on his rhetoric, on his policies, I appraise him, and John McCain is found wanting.

It’s hard to imagine someone like this guy replacing Barry Goldwater. Both were Presidential candidates, but Goldwater was a gold standard conservative. With a consistent libertarian streak, Goldwater stood by his principles, demanding a clean sweep of the D.C. Swamp long before such calls were popular. When President Richard Nixon was foundering under credible obstruction of justice charges, Goldwater joined with then House minority leader Ben Rhodes (also of Arizona) to urge Nixon’s resignation.

In stark contrast, John McCain was not a principled maverick, but a Swampy opportunist, a big government militarian who shamed those who wanted measured military ventures. He also slammed anyone else who skeptically opposed sudden interventionist campaigns. Even anti-Trump, pro-K Street conservative contrarian took offense when McCain questioned the patriotism of his anti-war critics.

There was a time, however, when John McCain stood for principle, bucking his party because he thought it was the right thing to do. In 2000 he ran against George W. Bush, the so-called Establishment favorite, capturing the outsider momentum in the New Hampshire primary with double-digit victory. When Texas Governor George W. Bush realized that he couldn’t follow his father’s centrist globalism to win the nomination, he turned right, slammed McCain with controversial smears (or at least his supporters did), and swept South Carolina. Of course, McCain’s blasting the “religious right” didn’t endear him to conservatives, either.

After Bush’s election, the maverick became a fly-by-night statist. Big Government “Compassionate conservatism” was the way to win big money for a political future, so McCain began voting that way. He had a penchant for voting against his political rivals’ agendas, too. He voted against Bush’s tax cuts. He pushed for McCain-Feingold campaign finance “reform.” He was willing to work with moderate pro-military Democrat Joseph Lieberman to combat climate change.

The greatest betrayal, of course, came with his ongoing dance with Democrats and other Chamber of Commerce Republicans for comprehensive immigration “reform”, i.e. amnesty. Thankfully, these proposals failed many times, and yet McCain insisted on this disastrous agenda, while representing a border state where one of his potential successors has called for building a wall between Arizona and California.

As a Presidential candidate, he was never my first choice. I lined up behind firebrand Congressman Tom Tancredo, then Romney for one reason: immigration. McCain did win the nomination in spite of massive opposition within the GOP, so I supported him in the general election. It’s remarkable, then and now, how little McCain wanted to fight back. Once in a while, he mocked his upstart opponent, Junior Senator Barack Obama. This historic first-time black nominee, however, hindered McCain’s capacity to campaign vigorously. Did the county want to bring in a nationalized health care system? A corrupt cap and trade program? Obama was planning to change the country and the world, but McCain spent more time distancing himself from Bush, all while suspending his campaign to bail out the Big Banks.

McCain the Swamp Thing embraced greater odium when he ran for re-election as a US Senator. Campaigning against his amnesty pandering, he fought hard to veer right during the 2010 Tea Party primary. “Build the Dang Fence” he growled. Two years later, he was building more bridges with amnesty proponents, playing both sides to make himself the star of the show in the middle.

Granted, John McCain was a hero. As a war prisoner in Hanoi, he refused to be released before others who had been imprisoned longer than he. For the record, Trump had acquiesced that McCain was a hero: "He's a war hero because he was captured," Trump had said, "I like people that weren't captured."  I also like veterans who do not get captured by bitterness and grandstanding. McCain hated Trump, and I hated McCain’s disdain. Shameful. Like so many Washington fixtures, McCain couldn’t stand that Trump, who wasn’t “one of them” had captured the White House, something that the privileged son of two naval officers couldn’t do.

The culmination of McCain’s personal opprobrium broke out not with the leaked Steele Dossier, but his “No” vote on against the Obamacare skinny repeal. Never have I witnessed such self-serving grandstanding. With arm raised high, after fifteen minutes of fraternizing with both sides of the aisle, he killed a real chance at repeal of that terrible bill, not because it wouldn’t serve Arizonans, but because his legacy of bipartisan double-dealing had come to an end with Trump’s ascension, and McCain was going to frustrate as many as he could with him.

Cancer is a terrible thing, and it must have been a tough decision for McCain and family to see him renounce further treatment. I recognize his service as a soldier, but as a representative, as a politician he was another self-serving opportunist, and I feel no remorse that he is gone.

SCOTUS Rules for Worker Freedom and Free Speech

President Trump has had so much to celebrate this week, and so do the rest of us!

The Supreme Court just released their decision Janus v.s AFSCME, and the Court ruled in favor for worker freedom and free speech. For the last four decades, public sector unions have continued to exort agency fees from non-union members. All that money goes to liberal, left-wing, would-be progressive causes, all of which undermine the rule of law, individual liberty, and fiscal prudence.

Blue states are dying from financial asphyxiation because of public sector union lobbying, which is funded by coerced dues from union and non-union members. Union leaders have never faced the pressure of providing a good service or any kind of goods as long as members have been forced to join or at least to pay the dues.

This Supreme Court decision has been long in coming.

President Trump celebrated the restoration of worker freedom:

Supreme Court rules in favor of non-union workers who are now, as an example, able to support a candidate of his or her choice without having those who control the Union deciding for them. Big loss for the coffers of the Democrats!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2018

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker also sent out his support for this decision, pointing out what he and his fellow Republicans had accomplished in 2011 to curb collective bargaining abuses:

SCOTUS today affirms what we did years ago - gives public servants the freedom to choose whether they want to be in a union or not. Pro-worker & pro-taxpayer! Great day!🇺🇸

— Governor Walker (@GovWalker) June 27, 2018

New Jersey GOP Slams Goldman Sachs Governor Phil Murphy

Friend, . Goldman Sachs Millionaire Phil Murphy is on a spending spree - WITH YOUR TAX DOLLARS - offering free college to satisfy his liberal base.   But we know better. Help us educate Governor Murphy on the facts: There’s no such thing as free!    Make a pledge to tell Murphy that $200 million in additional taxes ISN'T FREE for New Jersey's taxpayers!   Phil Murphy's promise of free college tuition is the classic political bait and switch:   Gov. Murphy + 2 years of free tuition = 1 lifetime of tax increases   Yet another bad deal that New Jerseyans can’t afford.   Help us educate Spend-More-Murphy on basic math, send a donation to our Watchdog Fund today!   Hurry! We’re running out of time to block these reckless measures.   Sincerely,   NJGOP Staff

The Other Demographic Demise Democrats Should Worry About (Extended Musings)

“I like right-to-work better.” Donald Trump, February 2016

The #SchumerShutdown fight whimpered out when Democrats realize they had no chance of winning public support for their open-borders bigotry. Democrats have won sizeable influence in states where they have rushed in with mass migration (Virginia) and illegal immigration (California, Colorado). But this massive setback is hurting their future election chances. This loss to shape the country’s demographics has covered up another fight that Democrats are losing in great number. A leaked internal memo showed that Democrats depend on a fresh supply of third-world immigrants, legal and illegal, in order to maintain any kind of voter hegemony.

There’s another demographic which Democrats are losing: labor unions. Stalwart allies for the progressive liberal cause, labor unions buoyed Democrats’ political careers. Minority leader Chuck Schumer owes his US Senate Seat to the labor unions who helped him crush incumbent Republican Al D’Amato in 1998, for example.

Why are Democrats losing labor union support now?

The first reason rests on the pro-American, pro-economic growth agenda of the President. Union members reported their disdain with Hillary Clinton’s opposition to mining and manufacturing while pursuing progressive social goals, like flooding the labor market with cheap labor and prioritizing the fate of trees ahead of teamsters. Barack Obama had not curried favor with organized labor, enough that union presidents hosted their own convention instead of attending the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Public safety unions have tended to support Republican candidates, since they stress law and order. The Border Patrol union as well as police unions across the country stood behind Trump, who supported then.

Democrats are also losing labor support, however, because Big Labor as a whole is in decline, especially in their political influence. Organized labor is facing greater roadblocks to their political process because labor unions face declining membership or declining political influence. In Southern states, labor union membership has gained somewhat, but mostly because of the manufacturing explosion. This trend should prove, however, that right-to-work legislation does not mean the utter demise of labor unions in any state.

Collective bargaining reforms have chipped away at their political power so assiduously, that their formidable pre-eminence in statewide elections has fallen dramatically. The progressive “journal” The Nation released an article detailing how Republican efforts, with considerable investment from conservative pro-liberty groups have taken down the aggressive abuse of the labor movement, which donates 90% of its union funding to Democratic candidates.

For the last 2 years, I've pointed out how the right-to-work movement was a big part of the reason why president Trump did so well in the Rust Belt states. The Nation article points out that Democratic voter turnout declined by an average of 3.5% following right-to-work legislation’s passage. Despite the most vocal efforts, Democrats are ignoring this downward trend at their peril.

Mass migration has become a non-started for keeping Democratic numbers propped up. As labor unions walk away from Democratic candidates, because they actually want a thriving economy which benefits American workers and not just international corporate executives, Democrats have moved toward the bi-coastal elites and their technocratic minions. Silicon Valley and Hollywood are the major cash cows for Democratic candidates. Hillary Clinton learned, however, that money cannot by an election.

The biggest reason why Scott Walker was my first choice for president was that he withstood the Big Labor Onslaught, winning three Statewide elections in four years. The collective bargaining reforms were crucial to diminishing the Progressive Movement in Wisconsin, the home of progressive politics. Even though Walker was not successful in the presidential primaries, his reforms both of collective bargaining and the right to work law he passed in 2015, helped ensure that a Republican would win the dairy State for the first time in over 30 years.

Those same reforms also moved Michigan into the GOP column. Granted, many analysts have argued that Hillary Clinton didn't get the turnout she wanted in those States, and the voter percentage decreased in Michigan and Wisconsin. One factor many of these analysts have left out is that the Big labor movement wasn't there to get them out to vote.

Right-to-work legislation has passed in 28 states. The provision is currently on-hold in Missouri since labor unions mobilized to place a statewide initiative repealing the law on the ballot. Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, who campaigned to victory on right-to-work, is facing his own PR nightmare following exposure of an extramarital affair two years ago, coupled with allegations of revenge porn blackmail. Will the negative veneer and the supposed Blue Wave backlash to Trump and Congressional Republicans hurt the labor reform in the Show Me State?

I doubt it. Labor unions cannot rely on the multimillions from labor unions in Rust Belt states. Workers are enjoying the benefits of labor reforms freeing up workers to join or not to join. Not only that, but the pro-worker policies have forced unions to serve their members, rather than serving themselves in the pursuit of raw yet elitist political power.

Election 2016 was not only a victory for Trump, but other statehouses gained GOP trifectas for the first time in decades. Within two months, Iowa’s GOP-controlled state legislature enacted sweeping collective bargaining reforms, similar to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s Act 10 reforms. Iowa is already a right-to-work state, but the taxpayer burden of public sector unions requires more stringent legislative remedies.

Collective bargaining reforms have rolled out in other states, too, without the official right-to-work policy. In Maine, retiring governor Paul LePage worked out a new contract where the largest state employee union agreed to a pay rise, and in exchange the contract includes a comprehensive right-to-work provision. This measure will ensure that the Pine Tree State maintains its more purple brand of politics going forward.

This year, local and county governments have taken the lead on right-to-work reforms, despite vocal, menacing labor opposition. Sussex County, Delaware flirted with the reform, but organizational and legal pressure forced the county commissioners to back away from them proposal. This setback didn’t discourage the town of Seaford from going forward with their own ordinance. Despite mixed reactions to the policy change, at least one city will have a competitive investment advantage. Sandoval County, New Mexico also enacted a right-to-work provision. Past legal challenges to local right-to-work ordinances have met mixed outcomes, but have been upheld more than not. The economic and political consequences will come forth in the next year or two. Other blue states are entering the RTW column, too.

Ohio Governor John Kasich topped Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s reforms, but organized labor repealed those efforts by initiative in 2011. Republican supermajorities in Columbus have rewed their push for right-to-work, but the voters may decide the issue in 2020.

Big Labor is meeting further challenges at the federal level, too. President Trump has successfully appointed a pro-worker RTW majority to the National Labor Relations Board. Renewed interest in a national right-to-work law has encouraged Congressmen to submit legislation, and libertarian-leaning Republican Rand Paul has offered the same. Much of these piecemeal reforms and successes may become moot following a ruling in Janus v. AFSCME. The court could strike down the right of compelled agency fees from public workers, which would enact de facto right-to-work as a national policy.

Labor unions which cannot compel membership as a condition of employment will lose an easy revenue stream which has benefitted Democratic politicians for decades. This maneuver could turn purple states red and make blue states more competitive for Republicans who have struggled to compete because of Big Labor’s fundraising prowess. Despite two major Democratic opportunities for long-term pro-labor reforms, unions have seen Democrats taking them for granted. Now they may not have unions at all.

Democrats are losing the demographic battle over immigration. The demise of Big Labor could ensure, in the words of Grover Norquist that “the modern Democratic Party will cease to be a competitive power in American politics.”