We are all familiar with the scene played out in various movies where the evil madman at the head of the table pushes a button which triggers a trap door beneath the chair occupied by a person who dared question the authority or wisdom of the madman.
I couldn’t help but think of this familiar scene as I watched and spoke at last week’s protest rally against excessive regulations in Sacramento. The event was sponsored by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and the California TEA Party, with participation from the California Dump Truck Owners Association, the Pacific Legal Foundation and several other organizations from throughout the State, most notably, those representing the farmers in the Central Valley whose water has been cut off, ostensibly for the sake of the delta smelt. Keynote speakers included Congressmen Tom McClintock and Devin Nunes, along with, State Senator George Runner, and Mark Meckler, a National and State Coordinator of the TEA Party Patriots. Some 10,000 people were in attendance.
Throughout the day I couldn’t help but think of the organizations that did not sponsor or, in the least, make their presence and support known in any conspicuous manner, which brings me back to the all too familiar movie scene.
The business, manufacturing, transportation, farming and livestock sectors of our economy all rely on trade associations to represent their interests in Sacramento. Lobbyists, Association Executive staff, and the officers elected by the members of these organizations do their best to limit the damage in any given calendar year from legislation that would serve to decimate their particular sector of the economy. The best these organizations hope for is “a seat at the table” when legislative negotiations are taking place among the various stakeholders. It is imperative that these associations and organizations stay on the good side of the powers that be or they will be rendered powerless in their ability to influence legislation, threatened as they are with the loss of their seat at the table. At least, this is how they think.
In this context, the larger and most prestigious trade associations are afraid of grass roots movements and organizations such as the TEA Party, because the grass roots are not afraid to criticize the powers that be. Though privately many of these association leaders think no different of the madmen running the State of California into the ground than do the leaders of the grass roots movement, they are nonetheless scared to be associated with the same. In my opinion, these establishment associations should welcome the grass root support and welcome an alliance and create a coalition that can help to take on the real enemy, the special interest groups and government bureaucrats who have been altogether too successful in creating a regulatory climate that has served to critically weaken the California economy.
Nearly twenty years ago, I helped in the creation of a non-profit organization called COLAB, the Coalition of Labor, Agriculture and Business of Santa Barbara County- a true grass roots coalition of various organizations and individuals trying to survive the two punch combination of a recession along with the punitive, expensive regulatory climate in our State and County. We declared war on our local politicians because we felt we were in a do or die situation. We were losing manufacturing and industrial jobs by the thousands. Fees were going up several hundred percent each and every year. Regulations that were impossible to comply with were forcing business owners, including farmers, to lose everything they had ever worked for. In our opinion, there was no longer any time or room for give and take. Sound familiar?
Our movement, then and now, included members of organized labor. These labor representatives taught me a thing or two! They operated under a different political paradigm. They told me in no uncertain terms, “We reward our friends and we punish our enemies”. They also believed in the maxim that all politics are local.
Considering the fact that the unions are the most powerful and successful political lobby in our State, perhaps the leaders of the trade and commodity associations should rethink their strategy about keeping their seat at the table at all costs? Perhaps, they should abandon the Sacramento table altogether in favor of mobilizing their members in each community throughout the State?
Considering the State of our economy and the extremely limited success of the historic paradigm employed, it couldn’t hurt!