Regardless of how transparent its aims now seem, this new coalition will remain formidable in the cities, because the tax-eater sector is now so large that it can easily thwart reforms aimed at undermining its programs. But the coalition is also becoming the real power in national campaigns, working both within the Democratic Party and outside it. AFSCME, the AFT, and SEIU were among the largest contributors to the Media Fund, a $65 million advertising effort aimed at defeating President Bush in 2004. Those groups, plus ACORN, also supplied much of the manpower for the national voter-registration effort aimed at defeating the president. A succession of Democratic presidential hopefuls traveled to New York to seek the blessing of 1199/SEIU union chief Dennis Rivera, who once held a seat on the Democratic National Committee, and when John Kerry picked his running mate, he immediately called SEIU boss Andrew Stern, a John Edwards supporter, to say, “I heard you.” About one in ten delegates to the 2004 Democratic National Convention was a member of a teachers’ union.
The tax-eaters’ party has seized control of many of America’s cities; now it is trying to make the next big leap.
There's the rub. The "tax-eaters" are indeed expanding their power, over the DEMOCRATS. The more power they exert over the dems, the more they drag them to the left, and the more voters they shed and the further they drag them into electoral irrelevance.
This article is spot on. This is indeed the "800 pound" gorilla in the living room. The only way it is undone is public exposure. What is required is daring political leadership.
You gotta remember tho, that these tax eaters have also expanded their influence over the REPUBLICANS too. No one can honestly deny this fact!
Take President Bush, for instance: has the size of the federal government increased or decreased under his watch? Has he vetoed any bills that would increase its power & authority, or has he signed ALL of them into law?
Isn't it true that former Presidents Eisenhower & reagan were DEMOCRATS? I think Eisenhower changed his party affiliation just in time to decide whether or not he would run for President did he not?
What about all of the big-government NEOCONS in the Bush Administration, so-called "conservative" think tanks, Congress, & the GOP leadership? How many times, if any, have you heard any of them call for the downsizing of the federal government?