Words vs Actions

My recent post entitled "Barack Obama - A Misunderstood President" generated some offline push back about my conclusion: "Is President Barack Obama misunderstood? Is he a radical posing as a patriotic progressive; a socialist posing as a liberal? It pains me to say that. Increasingly, I believe he is."

CTU teachers at the Midwest Marxist Conference

None of us want to believe that.  As Conservatives, we are automatically inclined to give the benefit of the doubt.  Short of President Obama saying "I am a Socialist," we are inclined to hope for the best.  Yet policies and action are often the best indication of a man's worldview.

No where is the disconnect between words and actions more evident than among teachers and, specifically, teacher unions.  The rhetoric that teacher union's primary concern is "the children" and "quality education" mask some harsh realities.  And no where is this more evident than Chicago.  In an article titled Marxist Ties of the Chicago Teachers Union Exposed, Vicki Alger of The Independent Institute reports on the close ties between the Chicago Teachers Union and We Are Many, a Marxist activist organization in the city.

Ms Alger notes that the CTU was a featured component at a Marxist conference recently: 

“What the CTU Strike Teaches Us about the Fight for a Better World” was a featured theme of last month’s Midwest Marxist Conference, held at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. (Document link was available here, but apparently the Chicago Socialists site is down. As of this posting, the document can be accessed here.)

The conference notice insisted, “Chicago teachers…refused to give in to Rahm Emanuel’s attack on labor and public education. Instead, they built solidarity with community activists against racism and inequality.”

Never mind, of course, that Chicago is in dire financial shape (what major American city isn't?).  Under the cloak of "the children," the CTU is trying to push back school choice and privatization. Why? Because CTU members want to continue to feed off the municipal gravy train. 

The average Chicago teacher earns $76,450, nearly a third more than the typical private sector worker in the surrounding Cook County. Teachers can retire at age 60 with an annual pension equal to 75 percent of their highest average salary.

In this proletariat gone mad, this means a teacher who retired in 2010 after 30 years of service receives a starting annual pension of $60,000 with continuous annual raises. Who pays for this generosity? Mostly private-sector workers for whom retirement at age 60 is a Utopian pipe dream.

Several obvious questions arise. . .  Why does the Chicago Teachers Union need to affiliate with a Marxist organization?  Marxists believe in a Utopian state of their own design - never mind want the rest of the people want.  Does the rank and file of the CTU support this radical Marxist view?  And, moreover, why should any city or its citizens give in to demands for salaries and benefits that are already so far out of line with the private sector?

Assess people through their actions.  Words are cheap.