Arsenic tainted Fools Gold

by David Safier

I receive the Goldwater Institute Daily Emails. Know thy enemy. I pay most attention to the anti-teacher, anti-school-district tirades. But lately, G.I. has put out a barrage of emails about the evils of unions and the "common sense" solutions to cutting their power. It's been the buildup to the recent draconian anti-union laws making their way through the legislature.

Here's an excerpt from today's daily email, which is neither about education nor labor. The topic is a bill which the email says "would wrest money from oil companies." What caught my eye was the Ayn Rand-crazed intro, which indicates where these folks are coming from. Combine right wing extremism with adolescent, utopian libertarianism, and you get a poisonous brew.

Part one of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged ends in despair, as the oil fields of entrepreneur Ellis Wyatt burst into flames. Wyatt Oil, once a successful business that created jobs and launched an economic Renaissance in the western United States, had fallen victim to stifling taxes and government regulation. No longer willing to surrender to bureaucrats, Wyatt abandons his once-thriving business.

Page by page, Rand’s apocalyptic masterpiece is coming true right before our eyes. The most recent eerie similarity involves a bill introduced in Congress to create a “Reasonable Profits Board.” Yes; I am serious.

Goldwater Institute is dictating the Republican agenda in Arizona. They've succeeded, and continue to succeed, on the education front. They're working on the anti-labor front. They write the bills. They testify in front of committees. And their Republican legislative acolytes eat it up. This multi-million dollar institute staffed by talented, intelligent people making six figure incomes is dangerous and increasingly powerful. Predicting, I imagine, the current Republican super majority in the legislature won't last, G.I. is shifting into overdrive, pushing as much through the legislature as it can cram in this session.