Tom Morello, the same guy who thinks a Marxist president would be "fantastic", drops his pro-union video. How'd that Marxism work out historically, Tom? Just asking.
If you listened to rock music in the 90’s, you’ve heard Tom Morello’s handiwork. If you’ve ever watched your kids play the Guitar Hero video game series, you’ve probably seen his avatar. And if you live in Wisconsin, you may have experienced his plea for you to consider taking a bite from his Noam Chomsky-inspired brain droppings. In February he proclaimed to the Badger State that, “Wisconsin is the new Cairo.” Now he’s put out a pro-union video, with all proceeds going to SaveWorkers.org. Rolling Stone began promoting it this weekend.
Morello’s song, Union Town, splices black-and-white stock footage from the union’s heyday, with the Wisconsin protests. Images of New Jersey’s Chris Christie, Ohio’s John Kasich, and Wisconsin’s very own Scott Walker flash across the screen as Morello sings:
The kids locked in the capitol are fighting to the end. And we’re not gonna break tonight, and we’re not gonna bend. Some say the union’s down, but I asked around, and everybody said, “This is a union town! A union town…all down the line!” And if they come to strip our rights away, we’ll give em hell every time!
Someone needs to tell Tom that unions don’t just “give em hell” when they’re threatened. They’re a drag on local economies. They stifle innovation. Consumers suffer the consequences of successful union efforts with higher prices. Companies see lower profits. Job seekers receive less call backs. Productive union members see the same benefits as the guy who got his work ethic from Homer Simpson. As James Sherk of The Heritage Foundation aptly pointed out, “when government unions strike, they strike against taxpayers,” and that even FDR considered it “unthinkable and intolerable.”
If you thought that might give Tom Morello pause—think again. He’s has more in common with Karl Marx than FDR:
“I always laugh when the Republicans would say, ‘[Obama's] a Socialist or he’s a Marxist.’ I’m thinking, ‘Man, if we really did have a black Marxist as president, that’d be fantastic.’”
Someone needs to tell leftist guitarists that they have it all wrong. It isn’t the GOP, but what Mother Jones has deemed The Right Wing Network of conservative think thanks, waging “war” on organized labor. It doesn’t have the same ring to it as “Right Wing Conspiracy,” but the idea is still the same. Apparently, under cover of darkness, the State Policy Network, an “umbrella group” of The Heritage Foundation, has perniciously used free market economics like sniper rifles fitted with silencers.
Wrong. Conservatives win when they’re open about who they are, unabashedly conservative, and stick to their principles. It is the liberal politician who must obfuscate what their true intentions are.
Here’s your challenge, Tom Morello: An hard-rock anthem against conservative think tanks. Make it happen.
