Secrets are a trust between individuals and groups. They play a role in security and building sustainable relationships. But when secrets are compromised, trust is the victim.
There have been two recent situations where secrets are being compromised — both of which will compromise job creation.
The first surrounds the supposed secret deliberations by the Supreme Court over Obamacare. The cost of implementation and compliance with a government controlled healthcare system will be staggering. The estimates escalate each time another layer of regulation is peeled back. Ultimately, this heavy burden will be passed on to American businesses in the form of higher insurance premiums and taxes.
The consequence is that companies are not hiring new employees and will start reducing staff to afford the mandates. This only prolongs the anxiety, pain and suffering of the 25 million Americans that are unemployed or underemployed.
Two days after the Supreme Court heard arguments on both sides of the issue, as is their custom, the justices convened a secret session of deliberations in their chambers. During this time, the justices take an initial non-binding vote and the writing of opinions is assigned. These meetings are restricted to the nine justices and their clerks, and are at the core of the foundation of the Judicial Branch.
Yet, the week after the deliberations began, President Barack Obama took to the airwaves and seemed to come unglued in an ignorant rant that criticized the justices and cast aspersions on the very process.
I don’t normally subscribe to conspiracy theories, but in this case, one has to wonder whether the president was informed the majority vote was to strike down his signature legislative accomplishment in these supposedly secret meetings. He certainly acted like someone in serious trouble as he went on the offensive for some damage control.
This would make a mockery of the secret deliberations and diminishes the office of the president. There’s a reason the founding fathers separated the Executive Branch from the Judicial Branch to prevent this kind of corruption of the Supreme Court’s role as the defender and ultimate interpreter of our Constitution.
An equally menacing corruption of secrets is taking place in the work force. Unions are trying to push through Card Check, even though it was resoundingly defeated when presented to Congress.
As a reminder, Card Check gets rid of the sanctity of the secret ballot, which is fundamental to American democracy. It forces employees to divulge their vote publicly when union elections are being held in a place of business.
The corruption of the secret vote — a constitutional right — is being promoted so unions can intimidate workers and force them to accept unionization even if they object.
This insidious process forces companies into a game of chance where the game is rigged and the house (unions) has the advantage.
Workers that had not previously wanted to be unionized are beset by union representatives that demand that employees vote to unionize. Unions force employers to hand over the names of all employees including home addresses, home and cell phone numbers and personal email addresses.
Then union representatives begin badgering employees at their homes to determine how they will vote. This process strongly portends that reprisals will be waged upon those that don’t fall into line with union demands.
Meanwhile, employers that have been blindsided by the union’s encroachment must scramble to estimate the costs, retain legal counsel, create an alternative plan to unionization and meet with employees to make their case.
This current process calls for union elections to take place within 40 days of contact by the union, even though the NLRB estimates that 90 percent of union elections take at least 56 days. And now unions are trying to impose a policy whereby union elections must take place within 7-10 days, giving employers a distinct disadvantage. It takes employers out of the game.
Ending the secret ballot starts with union elections, but could soon spill over into local or national elections. If history has taught us anything, when the people lose their ability to retain the secret vote, an empire cannot stand.
The historical record for the secret ballot traces back to ancient Rome, where the laws regulating elections were collectively known as Tabellariae Leges, the first of which was introduced in 139 BC. The French Constitution of 1795 states that “All elections are to be held by secret ballot.”
In the United Kingdom, the secret ballot was introduced in the Ballot Act 1872, and the United States adopted the secret ballot in 1891. The first president of the United States elected completely under the secret ballot was President Grover Cleveland in 1892.
James Buchanan, our 15th president once wrote: “The ballot box is the surest arbiter of disputes among free men.”
You would think that after 100 years of presidents respecting secret ballots and judicial deliberations, that our current president, a supposed constitutional lawyer, would have understood the sanctity of this constitutional right.
If we do nothing more than restore the tenets of the constitution in this election by electing a new president, then we will have come a long way toward establishing an environment for vigorous job creation while strengthening our democracy and rule of government.
APR
