"Thanks to my Spider sense, I am freed from those who have deceived me"

Originally Published the National Right to Work Committee:

From the Foster’s Daily Democrat, State Rep. Steve Vaillancourt makes the case for enacting Right to Work (emphasis added):

"Until the last few weeks, right to work has always been a close call for me. In years past, I have opposed the bill after buying into the argument that one should not benefit from union contracts unless one pays the cost of negotiating them.

It was a close call because then as now, I believe the individual should control his or her own life without being coerced into joining anything. Thus, I have always seen a conflict of two principles and have to weigh their importance.

This year, with the Daniels amendment, the conflict was removed, and I voted for right to work. It remained a close call, l but the Daniels amendment tipped the scales to supporting the bill.

Even with the Daniels amendment gone, I continue to support the right to work bill, and guess what. It’s no longer a close call. I’m now a staunch supporter of the bill and urge all my Republican colleagues, especially those who like me have been on the fence in the past, to vote to override the governor’s veto.

Clearly, unions were using the payment for negotiation argument as nothing more than a red herring. How do I know this? Because, when they refused to budge in their total opposition to the bill, even when the Daniels amendment was added, my Spider senses startled tingling.

That’s a phrase I use to describe when I begin to realize that I’m being taken for a fool, that those trying to convince me are in fact being less than totally honest.

When my Spider senses start to tingle, I begin to delve in depth into an issue and I usually come down totally for or totally against the issue involved. Research produces clarity; there can be no middle ground or fence sitting any more.

There’s nothing worse than being taken for a fool. I now confess that for a decade, I have been played for a fool by big labor which is not at all concerned about what’s best for our economy, our state, or the majority of the people in it. They are only concerned about perpetuating their hold on membership; a hold which includes taking dues and fees and using the monies to promote an agenda those forced to pay it may or may not agree with.

That’s wrong. Most union fees go not toward negotiating contracts but into campaigns to elect big tax and spenders, in other words, to elect Democrats. Even if I were a big tax and spender (I most assuredly am not); even if I were a Democrat (I was at one time, until I realized how slavishly the party is devoted to bloated bureaucracy at the expense of taxpayers); I could not in good conscience oppose right to work any longer.

Government must never be in the business of forcing people to do things against their will, no matter who benefit from the coercion.

The hallmark of my philosophy, now more than ever, is that the individual is paramount. The collective mentality must never prevail over individual rights. Communism and socialism failed miserably by placing the collective ahead of the individual.

In a real sense, right to work is like gay marriage.

The individual should be able to decide whether or not he or she wants to marry a member of the same sex. As I tell heterosexuals who feel gay marriage, don’t worry, you won’t be forced into a gay marriage.

Union members need to be assured now. Fear not. If this bill becomes law, you will not be forced to leave your union. No one who wants to join a union will be prevented from joining one.

Let freedom right, both in choosing whether or not to enter into a same-sex marriage and in choosing whether or not to join a union.

Freedom must always be our paramount concern. That’s why I find it absolutely astounding that not a single Democrat, most of whom supported gay marriage, is opting for freedom in this case.

Freedom is not something you can stand up for only when it helps your cause. Men (and women) cannot be free just some of the time. They must be free all the time.

Since my Spider Sense started tingling, I’ve looked into the economic arguments as well and am absolutely convinced that right to work passage is probably the single most important thing we can do to improve the New Hampshire economy. Yes, our unemployment rate is only five percent, but it will go down, not up, when right to work becomes law.

No one can deny that we are losing the best and brightest, our young people, to right to work states.

Correction … only those with a slavish devotion to the collective mentality, only those who choose to place special interests ahead of individual interest… only those who would sell their and our freedoms for — to borrow a line from Cabaret — a mark, a yen, a buck, or a pound (or a euro today) … only those can deny that our economic demand we pass right to work.

Freedom issues come first, but on this occasion, issues of freedom and economy are in perfect alignment.

Thanks to my Spider sense, I am freed from those who have deceived me in the past.

To those still wavering, I ask — aren’t your Spider senses tingling—just a little perhaps? Follow your senses. Let the force of freedom be with you. Join me in creating a two-thirds coalition to override the governor’s ill-founded and highly selfish veto of House bill. Out of fairness, I’m sending this to all constituent who have asked me to join right to work. Fear not. This is not union busting. No one will prevent you from joining a union.

Far from union busting, this is laying a new marker down … a marker for freedom, for individuals to decide their own destiny. Certainly you can see that."

Read more at the National Right to Work Committee:

“Thanks to my Spider sense, I am freed from those who have deceived me”