Citizens' Daily Lobby

John Brummett exposed the root of the problem with Tim Griffin in an editorial last Friday, accurately depicting the Congressional candidate as “a Rovian operator who knows and espouses the right-wing boilerplate.”   There’s that.  And the related fact that he was embroiled in a Bush II-era political scandal.   If that’s not enough to turn voters away, there’s also the little issue of his political philosophy.  At the Political Animals luncheon last week in Little Rock, Griffin said that being a low-labor-cost state is an advantage that Arkansas should keep.    Brummett made the assumption that “low labor costs” is a euphemism for low wages.  Griffin disagreed, and, it turns out, he’s right.  Labor costs do include much more than wages.  They represent the total value of a workers compensation and benefits.

Labor costs include more than just the hourly wages and salaries paid to a company’s employees. The cost of labor also includes employee benefits packages. Health insurance, disability insurance, PTO (paid time off) and 401-K plans all fall under the umbrella of labor costs.

And there’s workers compensation insurance, the premiums for which stay lower either if not so many of your workers get hurt or you don’t get hit with big payouts when they do get hurt.

Griffin is saying it helps Arkansas economically that employers invest less in their workers here than they do in some other places. He is saying we need to keep this situation intact.  [Opposing candidate Joyce] Elliott presumably believes we should aspire to have our people assigned greater value, and perhaps she will talk about that when she addresses this same Political Animals Club on Thursday. Griffin probably would be better off to couch this Arkansas advantage in a general cost of living.”

It’s one thing (not necessarily the right thing) to be anti-Obama, Arkansas.  It’s quite another to support out of spite a candidate that wants to keep the real value of the people that make the economy run (the workers) artificially low in order for business to profit. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 16, 2010

Contact:  Neil Sealy, Arkansas Community Organizations, 501-346-9617

RECENT POLL SHOWS THAT ARKANSAS AFRICAN-AMERICANS SUPPORT CLIMATE CHANGE LEGISLATION

A MAJORITY SAY IT IS IMPORTANT TO THEIR DECISION

ON WHO TO VOTE FOR

Pine Bluff – A recent poll conducted by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies was released yesterday in Washington, DC and found that 52% of African-Americans surveyed in Arkansas consider climate change to be very important in deciding which US Senate candidate to vote for.  The study shows that 55% of the Arkansas African-American respondents said that Congress should pass legislation reducing greenhouse gases before the 2010 elections.

The poll was part of a larger study entitled, Opinion of African-Americans on Climate Change and the 2010 Elections, that surveyed people in four states:  Indiana, Missouri, South Carolina and Arkansas.  A copy of the full study is attached.

The survey also found that 57% of the Arkansas respondents said they would be willing to support climate change legislation even if it meant that energy costs would increase by $10 per month and that 94% had a favorable view of President Obama.

“We are very pleased to see this survey come out.  While the economy and health care are our top concerns, we want to see Congress take action to reduce greenhouse gases and address the issue of global warming.  People in my neighborhood are very supportive of the President’s agenda, and we will evaluate the candidates on their level of support for initiatives coming out of the White House,” said Maxine Nelson, chair of the West Side Community Organization in Pine Bluff.

“The vote from our community will be important in both the Primary and the General elections this year.  We hope that the Democratic candidates for US Senate will take a look at this poll.  Their position on Climate Change legislation will be a factor in the decisions we will make on May 18,” added Ms. Nelson.

Recently Arkansas Community Organizations circulated a letter addressed to Senator Lincoln that expressed concern over her opposition to the EPA’s effort to regulate greenhouse gases.  The letter was signed by more than 50 African-American community leaders and elected officials.

David Brooks, New York Times commentator, thinks American-style capitalism is great.   That’s not surprising.  What is astounding is his reasoning.  He doesn’t think American capitalism is great because of its reputed wealth-generating benefits.  He thinks it’s great because it “leads to more exciting lives.”  Europeans, he argues, have so much job security that their work, and hence their lives, lack a sense of excitement.

If lack of job security equals excitement, Americans are certainly leading scintillating lives.  Imagine how dull it would be to work fewer hours in a job you were fairly certain would exist ten years from now.  Your life would almost certainly be excruciatingly boring, and what use would that extra free time be to you, anyway,  as you while away a lackluster existence?   Those of you who are out of work should consider yourselves fortunate.   James Bond himself would envy the thrill of your lifestyle.  Nothing stimulates joie de vivre like wondering where your next meal will come from.

David Sanders of Arkansas News questions whether the 2nd District should continue to allow Vic Snyder to vote his convictions, following his historic vote for the Waxman-Markey bill.   Chambers of Commerce in energy-boom places like Searcy aren’t happy with his vote to approve the bill that includes, among other things, a cap and trade provision.  Vic Snyder showed up at their meeting last week and challenged oil spokesman Claiborne Deming when Deming misrepresented the facts about the bill’s effects on consumers and the economy.  Sanders’ editorial raises the conundrum of representative democracy.  Should those we elect to office vote their convictions or be puppets of the  polls?

It’s true that those we elect to office should reflect the political will of their constituents at a broad level.    However, this is not a direct democracy (and seeing the average voter in Arkansas, I am convinced we never should become one).  Our government operates as a representative democracy, and that leaves room for legislators to make what they believe are the best choices for their constituents on  individual issues.    Too much pandering to the people ends up as demagoguery.  In the case of Dr. Snyder, his convictions are well-known in the state, and we must assume voters have been largely in agreement with his politics.  After all,  they keep returning him to office.

Conundrum aside, it isn’t clear that voters in the 2nd district share the convictions of the Searcy Chamber of Commerce, where the natural gas industry is, naturally, running the show.   I, for one, applaud Dr. Snyder for having the courage to voice his convictions and to stand up to oil industry front man Claiborne Deming.