Scholars have regularly argued that the Founding Fathers of the United States were well versed in the history and thinking of the ancient Roman and Greek world, as well as the thought and history of the Jewish people as expressed in the Old Testament and Christian scripture. American writers on the center and the left have rarely had good things to say about “gated communities.” We must remember that the Founders were trying something new or, something that had died out in some cases more than two thousand years ago. That is to say a Republic, with near universal male voting rights, legislative, executive, and judicial divisions of government designed to provide balance and justice in the conflicts that comprise the daily fare of politics in a country without Kings. And so in the thinking of the Founders, the Roman Republic, the Greek polis, and the political and legal practices of Biblical Israel all found a place in this new political dispensation. The British born American patriot Tom Paine once wrote, “What Athens was in miniature, America will be in magnitude.… The one was the wonder of the ancient world, the other is becoming the admiration and model of modernity.” (READ MORE: Supreme Court Curbs Land-Use Fees: Sheetz v. El Dorado County) The Founders opted for a Republic based on the model of early Rome, as opposed to the myriad pre-Alexandrian independent city states of the Greeks, as they knew that small city states (polis) or near independent colonies could easily be overwhelmed by whatever world power may rule the roost, be it Macedonian (Alexander), British, French, Spanish, Russian or even what then was thought of as just one “sleeping giant,” China. Nevertheless, the autonomy of the local was enshrined in the U.S. political and legal system  which continued into the early 20th century when the forces of centralization began to overwhelm it. For until WWI most Americans felt loyal to their town and county, then to their state and finally to their own country, more often when it was or appeared to be threatened by an outside world power. A simple example of the primacy of the local is trial by jury which emphasizes that one must be judged by ones peers and equals, not state appointed judges. And thus the great French aristocratic traveler, who travelled in the U.S. during the 1840s, Alexis de Tocqueville devoted a full chapter to local American government and how it schooled men in democracy. As Pascal Immanuel Gobry has written, “Tocqueville is adamant … looking at how local government works in America explains how all democracy works in America.” If this is and should remain the basis of American democratic greatness, then most Americans believe that since the Depression and WWII both the municipal and the state has been overtaken by the Federal to the detriment of all. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall the Federal Government and the presidency have grabbed more power, printed more money, increased inflation and gone a long way to beggar the middle class in the interests of foreign countries. And so, as a statistically aberrant, English-speaking Canadian, born and raised in Ontario, yet who is sympathetic to the American project I just may have accidentally discovered a way by which the average American can take back his and her local democracy through a unique new approach to property rights, community, and face to face participation. It is called the HOA or the Home Owner’s Association. It works in the spirit of the Greek polis. As I belong to one, I have seen it in action. Let me describe it to you. During my winter stay at our small house in Florida I joined the local public library. I got into the habit of finding a safe bike route from our home and spent most of my afternoons outside of the hot sun, reading and writing as is my wont. There I came across a small black book, published in the State of Florida, by a lawyer who laid out the legal history of the homeowner’s association movement in Florida (it started in the 1990s) and the many laws, by laws, and rules by which it functions. It was filled with legalese but as I scanned it, I began to understand some of its basic principles. This is what I took away. A Homeowner’s Association allows a group of contiguous homeowners to act as a legal corporate entity, run by elected volunteers. These volunteers then negotiate with an implementing company that provides the services which are paid for by the homeowners through quarterly fees. In our case it means that the landscaping is contracted to a landscape and gardening company whose employees maintain a hybrid landscape of indigenous Florida flora and imports such as the beautiful Philippine palms which have become such a symbol of the good life to be had in Southern Florida. Then there is the garbage company who comes on Tuesday mornings to pick up garbage, recycling, and anything bigger for which there are also rules. Then there is the club house, which is kept clean and for which the company is responsible, maintaining the pool (with another sub-contractor), the gym, Yoga room, meeting room, library, cleaning the place, paying for the utilities, and monitoring use according to the rules laid out. Then there is the wall that surrounds our community monitored by a gate house with a full-time attendant who monitors visitors and tradespeople. Those of us from the community have car stickers that allow us free entry and access to our community. All of this is monitored by electors who are voted for in free, fair elections and who meet monthly and annually using Robert’s rules to manage the meeting. As a full owner and member of the community I receive meeting minutes and announcements that I can read at my leisure. Our community and our consulting implementation company manage two web sites (one for the residents and one for communication with the implementing consultants) where we can communicate with management and pay our quarterly maintenance fees. There is also an informal Facebook page which can be entertaining at times. There are fines for speeding on the roads of our community (which protect the elderly and the young) and fines for people who violate the architectural and gardening codes. (READ MORE: Reagan’s Conservatism Is Worth Another Look) As this is a community there are many activities that you can join, and I remember going to an entertaining and quite remarkable magic show that ended with a patriotic reconstruction of an American flag from pieces of cloth of different colors. I was touched. Yes, there are rules for everything including how far from the curb you can let your dog go onto someone else’s property. And yes the faux Spanish architecture and red and green gabled rooves gives one the illusion that you are living in some Mediterranean community with semi tropical vegetation and landscaping. I can live with that as well as the fact that if we want to change the internal or external aspect of our homes we must plan, apply, and get those approved. So now that I have told you what this gives us, what does it protect us from? First, foremost, and most politically incorrect, it protects the community from law breakers. For example, in order to be able to buy a property one must voluntarily submit to various registers that check any present or past criminal activity. That does not mean that anyone with a record cannot get in, but that the association can take that into account as long as it does not violate the basic laws of Florida and the U.S. Second it prevents people from turning their homes and gardens into exhibits of their peculiar world view and it goes without saying that secondhand vehicles or old boats cannot rot in front or back yards. All of this contributes to an either voluntary or obligatory civility, for if you have a disagreement with any other member of the community you can bring your grievance to the HOA before you call your lawyer or the local sheriff. (I noted with content a few sheriff cars parked in the driveways of some of the houses in our community that suggest it attracts law abiding law enforcers. One of our neighbors is a former police officer from Richmond Virginia.) If you are a baby boomer who was born and raised in North America after WWII does any of this feel familiar? Yes, it echoes the suburban life of American cities after WWII where you minded your own business, acted like a good neighbor, and watched out for the weak, the elderly, and the underage of your community. Those days are over as suburban homes are now fitted with electric alarms, barred windows, and gated garages. However in a community like ours the “feel” of the place is eerily reminiscent of the fifties. Every evening you can see couples and singles walking, jogging, or riding their bikes on the streets of the community. You get used to their faces and they get used to you. And I did notice a small but growing number of middle-class Latino and African Americans who had bought homes in our community. You get to know who is local, and I have had many pleasant conversations with American men and women of my age who work out in the gym and do not get upset by my ever so polite but pointed Canadian questions about U.S. politics. In my community, I even get to vote. [T]here is nothing stopping these communities from banding together to lobby on substantial municipal and regional issues.   I prepared to do so by reading meeting notes and the agenda of the annual meeting which I attended. I chose my candidates, deposited my sealed ballot in the HOA office at the club house and watched the meeting unfold. It was much more colorful than I imagined it would be. As Americans are famous for their individuality, it showed up clearly at this meeting. There were a number of members with well-articulated grievances. They got up and spoke to the assembled and then sat down. They were not put off by any authority, either volunteer or contracted. Some of the complaints seemed unreasonable, amusing perhaps. Others seemed reasonable but everyone had their say and a right to be heard. All comments were duly noted and recorded with volunteers from the governing council committed to following up. American writers on the center and the left have rarely had good things to say about “gated communities.” They have argued that these communities are populated by people who are running away from public spaces, who racially self-segregate, or do so according to class and prejudice, and are disengaged from the day-to-day public interaction that makes America exceptional. I beg to differ. The reason that so many cities like New York, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, or Boston have become dangerous and hard to live in is that the legislators who run these cities are unwilling and unable to enforce the laws that keep drug dealers off the streets and criminals from robbing stores at gunpoint, all of whom know they will be charged and released. And then just add a dash of cultural Marxism and identity politics and you have the ingredients of social breakdown in public spaces. The ancient Greek polis had a number of features which did not stop the various poli from uniting to defend Hellas (the greater Greek world) from tyrannical oppressors such as the more numerous Persians, who did not like democracy. They included membership in a physically contiguous community governed by a constitution and laws which emerged from the people, were debated, and voted upon. Members of a polis believed in the same Gods. In our community I must assume that a majority believe in the U.S. Constitution whose deity seems most acceptable. In the polis full citizens have rights as do dues paying owners of our community.  We speak a common language (English), and we interact daily. I imagine that even the most cantankerous member of our community would prefer to be tried by twelve of his peers than some judge from the State Capital in Tallahassee. As the HOA and our gated community are adjacent to many others like it — as well as to similar but more loosely organized “deeded communities” — there is nothing stopping these communities from banding together to lobby on substantial municipal and regional issues. At the beginning of the 20th century sociologists and social thinkers worried that the gap between the citizen and the state would grow so wide that the state would dominate the citizen. If you look at the tragic history of the twentieth century in western and eastern Europe, this indeed has been the case. Since the depression of the 1930s federal overreach in the U.S. has grown exponentially. The Homeowners Association seems to be a spontaneous yet structured way for citizens to protect their property and other rights, such as those of the first and second amendment in what is still the greatest democracy on the face of the earth. When I walk the streets of my adopted home in my Florida community I think about the Polis, and I am grateful that the Founding Fathers looked to the Greeks and Republican Romans for inspiration. I am certain that their hope was not displaced. The post An American Return to the Polis appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

I read somewhere that the theme for the 2024 Met Gala was the short story “The Garden of Time” by the ever-inspiring J.G. Ballard. I didn’t recall reading it, so I’ve taken the trouble to do so before moving on to contemplate the most interesting of my journalistic endeavors: the photos of the ladies. The one thing common with almost all the dresses I’ve seen are the flowers, which are also the focus of Ballard’s tale. Besides, the flowers are easy to identify with a simple visual analysis; other adjoining themes of the story, such as the passage of time, decay, and dystopia, present more difficulties.  READ MORE from Itxu Díaz: Conservatives Are on a Mission From God I did notice the decadence and dystopia in the clothes, but I didn’t see the passage of time anywhere, except on the faces of some actors and actresses who were famous when I was still wearing shorts to school. The most well preserved — and I expected no less — is Nicole Kidman, who after many years (to quantify them would be vulgar and would also force me to open Wikipedia) still looks beautiful and elegant in her Balenciaga attire. In regard to another legend from my adolescence, I saw nothing wrong with Demi Moore, whose dress by Reed, somewhere between flowers and a black butterfly, seemingly allowed her to float around the gala without touching the floor. Allow me to open a libertarian parenthesis. When I was a young writer and I was crazy (not like now that I’m a crazy young writer), I would first write my opinion, and then, after it was published, I would reflect upon it. As one gets older — and more so in this time of cancellations — one increases one’s self-imposed filters. I say all this to avoid stating that Karol G’s dress, for example, was horrible; I can’t write it, among other things because I read in the specialized press that all the girls are fascinated with her orthopedic ankle support-colored dress, with diamonds hanging off of it, and crowned with pointed TikTok fairy-like ears. Kendall Jenner, for example, in a Givenchy dress from 1999 that no one had used yet, looked incredibly beautiful, while Kylie Jenner, went for a vanilla-colored bodice inspired by the statues in Ballard’s tale, which perhaps explains the geometric forms of the part of the dress that covers her chest, although I see more of a Tesla inspiration there. Sarah Jessica Parker showed up dressed as a 19th-century bedside table lamp, with a giant flake of popcorn on her head. Of course, upon seeing her, the press sang in unison, “How wonderful, she never disappoints!” At these things everyone extols eccentricity, and no one pays attention to normality; for example, the normality of Camila Morrone, who with two simple Chanel pieces became one of the prettiest of the whole gala. (By the way, Camila, do you have plans for tonight?) I talk about the women’s dresses because the guys’ suits are boring, even if some like Nicholas Galitzine chose to embroider some flowers on the jacket: After seeing them up close, I would recommend urgently calling a gardener. I loved Irina Shayk’s outfit, completely unrelated to Ballard’s theme: It’s exactly what I would have done. Shayk, with her experience, probably figured that she is no longer old enough to make a fool of herself by dressing up as a nymph to fulfill some crazed designer’s dream.  Gwendoline Christie’s interpretation of “The Garden of Time” puts her at the point of no return, on the verge of starring in one of those shock-horror B-movies, while Shakira’s red dress amazes me in that most of the fabric was used to cover the floor and not her body. More: Amanda Seyfried was disguised in floral tin foil; Serena Williams was stuffed into a hodgepodge of gold cellophane wrapper, as if she were a surprise trophy at the gala; Rita Ora could have gone full on naked with the slightest breeze blowing over her skimpy tassels; Prada tried to dress Brie Larson but came up with a work of contemporary art; Mindy Kaling dressed up as an orchid; Kylie Minogue left behind her usual sensuality to make way for a see-through dress on which she seemed to have accidentally dropped a chocolate syrup pancake; Emily Ratajkowski says she wore a spider web dress, but the truth is that she went to the gala with her ass out; and Cardi B, my favorite, needed a dozen assistants to move around the event, disguised as a huge black hole, dragging numerous guests, not few glasses, and part of the furniture along with her. I imagine that in the end the police had to rescue them all with the help of a vacuum-snob-cleaner.  Overall, I thought this year’s gala was much better than last year’s, although I haven’t actually seen either of them. Translated by Joel Dalmau. Buy Itxu Díaz’s new book, I Will Not Eat Crickets: An Angry Satirist Declares War on the Globalist Elite, here today! The post Beautiful Celebrities Dressed by Mad Geniuses appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Rapper Macklemore, who owns two Billboard Hot 100 chart toppers along with collaborator Ryan Lewis, just released a song in solidarity with the Palestinians and their well-wishers on American college campuses. He calls it “Hind’s Hall,” the name activists at Columbia University rechristened Hamilton Hall to honor a six-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces earlier this year. He raps: “The blood is on your hands, Biden, we can see it all / And, f*** no, I’m not voting for you in the fall.” HIND’S HALL. Once it’s up on streaming all proceeds to UNRWA. pic.twitter.com/QqZEKmzwZI — Macklemore (@macklemore) May 6, 2024 Eight years ago, Macklemore proudly posed for a picture with Joe Biden at the White House. Midway through Biden’s 2021 inauguration, the rapper released a dis track aimed at his Election Day opponent called “Trump’s Over Freestyle.” (READ MORE: Zero Championships for Hamas) Like many on the left, he now feels buyer’s remorse. In a song, he articulates — with more of a grunt than with eloquence — the opposition to Israel felt by many self-styled progressives. A few merely do not like their tax dollars funding war overseas. Others go further and regard the Israelis as colonizers and mark Israel for extinction (strangely while depicting the war as a genocide against the Palestinians). It remains a visceral opposition, which means it comes from the place of appetites and not intellect. Whatever motivates the Left on Israel seems less important than the fact that it appears motivated. In “Hind’s Hall,” one hears the conviction in this rapper’s voice and grasps the number of young people influenced by him. It sonically instills a sense of why Biden faces a nightmare in piecing together a winning coalition. Jews account for, by some estimates, roughly half of the dollars donated to the Democratic Party and its candidates and causes. Democratic dollars and Democratic energy clash on Biden administration policy toward the Israel-Hamas war, leaving party “leaders” who take their cues from their ostensible followers confused as to their most politically expedient course. According to a survey taken months before the current violence, 49 percent of Democrats sympathized more with the Palestinians, while just 38 percent sympathized more with the Israelis (Republican and independent sympathies veer heavily toward the Israelis). Earlier this year, months after the violence started, 9 percent of Democrats regarded the U.S. as “not supportive enough” of the Israelis as compared to 44 percent who said the same about U.S. policy toward the Palestinians, according to an Associated Press poll. Observationally, the bias toward the Palestinians over the Israelis looks more intense, far more intense, among activists. These people include communists and other troubled types not in the Democratic Party orbit to begin with. Their ranks also include those who knock on doors, stuff mailers, and hold signs bearing the names of Democratic candidates at intersections. Even if their energies were not diverted here, most would not work for Biden this fall because of what occurs in the Middle East on his watch. Given the 50-50 nature of recent elections, a fraction of the activist wing voting for Jill Stein or Cornell West, or merely voting their disgust by not voting, bodes poorly for Biden come November. Their disruptions to traffic, campuses, and, presumably, the Democratic National Committee means further bad optics for Biden in the press. Over the weekend at George Washington University, the protesters superimposed Joe Biden’s image atop a large American flag hung the university. Below his visage appeared the words “Genocide Joe.” Does anyone think people associating the president with genocide will vote for him in November? Twenty-twenty’s deliverer from chaos plays the role of Captain Chaos in 2024. And this all remains outside of the president’s control and within the control of a leader 6,000 miles from the White House repeatedly denigrated by the president and his minions. Worse still for Biden, the war beyond his control the purist Left imagines as within his control. Politically, Biden cannot condemn anti-Semitism without angering the pro-Palestinian contingent, and he cannot pressure Benjamin Netanyahu to ease off without angering partisans of Israel within his party. It’s a no-win situation for him, but by playing both sides at various times it can work as an all-lose situation. The president has handled this poorly. But even Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, and other presidents with considerably more skills could not have made lemonade from lemons here. And as an impotent and indecisive Biden cannot win over there in May, he increasingly looks as though he cannot win over here in November. The post Macklemore Shows Biden Between a Rock and a Hamas Place appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

The Boy Scouts of America announced Tuesday that it will be rolling out a new name: Scouting America. The change was made in the name of making girls feel included. “This will be a simple but very important evolution as we seek to ensure that everyone feels welcome in Scouting,” said the organization’s CEO in announcing the change. “We are an organization for all. It’s time our name reflects that,” he said. Back in 2019, the Boy Scouts announced that it would accept girls into its programs and would change the name of its flagship program to Scouts BSA to reflect that change. Ever since, the organization has been in total freefall. In 2018, the last year that only boys were allowed in Boy Scouts, the organization counted over 2 million boys among its members. Immediately upon the rollout of the co-ed policy, membership plunged, falling to 1,123,651 in 2020. The organization claimed that the pandemic was primarily responsible and that membership would quickly recover. That was not to be. The organization counted 1,042,000 members at the end of 2022 and now says membership hovers just over 1 million. Boy Scouts of America says that it currently counts 176,234 girls among its members, meaning that the organization sacrificed half its membership in the name of embracing wokeness and welcoming a group that now constitutes less than 10 percent of its 2018 membership totals. The primary appeal of Boy Scouts had been that it was a dedicated place for boys to do activities specifically geared toward their interests — with only other boys. It was one of the few places boys had to themselves. Boys were given a structured, adventurous environment to camp, hike, learn survival skills, and engage in other outdoor activities with men to lead them. This male-only setting fostered self-reliance and responsibility in a manner specific to boys. In 2010, when Boy Scouts celebrated its 100th anniversary, 17-year-old Eagle Scout Trevor Wentling described the organization in this way: “Boy Scouts is supposed to teach character and teach a boy how to become a man. Not all boys get the most out of [B]oy [S]couts and understand every single aspect that it teaches, but myself, I’ve learned so much about leadership and I’ve changed so much due to Boy Scouts.” With Boy Scouts of America’s rejection of the distinct paths to manhood and womanhood, it has lost this mission. It has now embraced a desexed, generalized aim to “prepare young people for lives of impact and purpose.” Attention to the specific developmental trajectory of boys that was fundamental to the organization’s purpose has been lost. While Boy Scouts of America’s disavowal of its central mission and removal of its central attraction (a boys-only environment) have been the main reasons for its utter collapse, its embrace of wokeness has also contributed to its decline. The organization centers its embrace of “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” For example, the first requirement a scout must complete in order to earn the Boy Scouts’ “Citizenship in Society” badge is that he or she must research the terms “identity,” “diversity,” “equity,” “equality,” and “inclusion.” The organization has a chief diversity officer who is also a vice president, Lisa Schuchart, as well as a DEI manager, Xaviera Henderson. In 2017, ahead of its decision to admit girls, the Boy Scouts allowed girls who identify as boys to join the organization. The organization has also faced scandal and bankruptcy owing to allegations of sexual abuse. The Boy Scouts’ embrace of wokeness has alienated the religious groups that once provided a large portion of the organization’s membership. The organization was hit particularly hard when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that it would break off their relationship; Mormons had previously constituted nearly half a million of the Boy Scouts’ members. As the Boy Scouts have declined, Christian-specific scouting groups have grown in number. For example, Trail Life USA, which only includes boys and describes itself as “Christ-Centered,” has experienced an explosion in membership. The Boy Scouts have come a long way from a group for boys to go camping with their dads and learn how to build fires and tie knots. Last year, when the Washington Post dispatched Anne Branigin to cover the organization’s National Jamboree, she reported: “The third day of the Jamboree featured a Muslim religious service; an LGBTQ+ affinity tent offered Scouts a safe and supportive space; and disabled scoutmasters led activities promoting mental health, diversity and inclusivity. A bronze statue was dedicated to the first class of female Eagle Scouts, and a little more than 1 in 5 Scouts at the Jamboree were girls.” Left abandoned: America’s boys. The post Boy Scouts Destroyed Itself By Accepting Girls appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

WASHINGTON — The Columbia University Apartheid Divest coalition issued five demands: that Columbia divest assets that benefit from “Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation in Palestine”; sever relations with Israeli universities; end “land grabs” whether in Harlem or Palestine; defund campus police; and release a statement calling for “an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza.” Which makes you wonder: Who put this crew in charge? It does not seem to occur to the protest community that such decisions are supposed to be the result of stakeholders pushing for change and officialdom wanting to accommodate them. Not extortion. READ MORE: Macklemore Shows Biden Between a Rock and a Hamas Place College protests have spread beyond Columbia and Harvard to campuses across the country. And if a poll of 719 Columbia students, faculty, and workers conducted by New York Magazine and the Columbia Daily Spectator is to be believed, 58 percent of those at Morningside Heights hope pro-Palestinian demands are met. Hamas should be happy with American academia. Me? I stand with Israel. I also agree that all students and faculty have a free-speech right to express opposing views. But they do not have a right to trespass on campus quads, and they do not have a right to keep students who want to learn from college classrooms. As Steven McGuire of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, or ACTA, told me, “Most if not all of these encampments can and should be shut down on the basis of content-neutral policies.” He’s right. So where do we go from here? Fight hate speech with smart speech. Social media platforms have enabled critics to see just how twisted many of the woke pro-Hamas protesters are. At George Washington University, a small group of students had a bullhorn dialogue about how great it would be to execute — actually behead — administrators. “To the guillotine,” they chanted, apparently undisturbed that they were aligning themselves with the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror. Columbia student Khymani James shared his negative views on Zionism on social media: “I don’t fight to injure or for there to be a winner or a loser, I fight to kill,” James wrote. James, who has apologized, has been barred from Columbia’s campus. Good luck finding a good job if any of you actually graduate. Last year, hedge fund CEO Bill Ackman called on fellow big shots not to hire students who blamed Israel, not Hamas, for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack that left more than 1,200 dead. It’s time the protest class realized that bad ideas and a general lack of judgment can have consequences. Activists who broke laws — by damaging property or trespassing — should face serious consequences. They prevented students who wanted to learn in a classroom from a chance to do so. They also cost their institutions a lot of money. Their privileged status as students should not exempt them. Anyone who’s involved in organizing or leading campus occupations, McGuire offered, “should receive some pretty significant discipline.” That could be a suspension, and in extreme cases “even expulsion.” (I’d add clean-up duty. Make tent dwellers clean up after themselves.) But McGuire cautioned, “I’d be surprised if we see consistent, strong follow-through,” because for too many years, administrators caved to chaos. Now it’s time to grow up. Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X. COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM The post Protest Much? An Academic Reckoning Is Overdue. appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Unions are said to be having a moment. The story goes something like this: Helped by a presidential administration that touts itself as the “most pro-union in history,” labor unions — after decades of decline — are winning big victories against anti-union corporations and extracting impressive concessions for their workers. But is it all true? There has certainly been a lot of union activity. Last year we witnessed a significant increase in strikes and threats of strikes. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the country lost 16.6 million labor days to work stoppages last year. You have to go all the way back to 2000 to find this level of union disturbance. READ MORE from Veronique de Rugy: Will California Hobble the US Railroad Industry? In addition, the United Auto Workers reached an agreement with Ford that included wage hikes of 25 percent. Similar agreements with Stellantis and General Motors followed. Other unions won contract gains at large employers such as UPS and Hollywood TV and film studios. Then there was the much-celebrated UAW victory in a representation election at Volkswagen in Tennessee and progress made at some Starbucks stores. All the same, talk of a union renaissance might be much ado about nothing. Union membership as a share of wage and salary workers has declined steadily from 28.3 percent in 1967 to an all-time low of 10 percent in 2023. Although the absolute number of union workers has recently risen, it hasn’t kept up with the growth of the total number of American workers. National Review’s Dominic Pino has been following unions comprehensively. He never forgets to report both their wins and their losses. For instance, workers at a unionized Nissan facility in Somerset, New Jersey, are in the process of decertifying from the UAW. The same happened at various non-Starbucks coffee shops. These events are in line with the overall trend for UAW, Pino notes, as “membership declined last year to 370,000. It was nearly 400,000 in 2020, and it peaked at 1.5 million in 1970.” To be fair to the labor movement, part of this decline could be because UAW bosses have been pretty corrupt. For instance, National Review reported that “in December 2020, the UAW reached a settlement with the Department of Justice after a yearslong fraud and corruption investigation. More than a dozen top union officials, including two former presidents, were convicted of crimes for embezzlement of workers’ dues.” It could also be that unions aren’t so much about fighting for the cause of blue-collar workers as they used to be. Indeed, 49 percent of union members worked for the government in 2023. Thirty-three percent of public-sector employees are in unions, as opposed to just 6 percent of the private sector. In the case of UAW, about 100,000 members work in higher education, including graduate student workers statistically likely to go on to non-blue-collar jobs. I believe public-sector unions shouldn’t exist. Taxpayers — the ones paying the bills when government unions successfully negotiate pay and benefits hikes — are not adequately represented at the negotiation table. In fact, with their political donations, public-sector unions help decide who sits on the other end of that negotiating table. By contrast, private unions have every right to exist, but this doesn’t mean they’re a good thing on net for workers. A September 2023 National Bureau of Economic Research paper looked at what a unionized workforce does to incentives and investment. While unionized plants pay higher wages and benefits than do nonunionized ones, they also “experience higher rates of closure, reduced investment, and slower employment growth.” In other words, your unionized job might pay more, as long as it doesn’t go away — and good luck finding another like it. The result holds also for partially unionized plants. Introducing more competition to the private-sector union business model could help. For that, my colleague Liya Palagashvili suggests ending the exclusive-representation clause that “provides government-granted monopoly status to a union supported by 51% of an employer’s workers, giving it the sole authority to negotiate. This means that if some workers want a different union — for example a newer one that might raise the bar in terms of what it can offer — they are out of luck.” Today, these workers aren’t allowed to engage in any negotiations with their employers, and they still have to pay the original union’s fees. The bottom line is that unions aren’t really going through a renaissance. All things considered, their failure is most workers’ gain. Veronique de Rugy is the George Gibbs Chair in Political Economy and a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. To find out more about Veronique de Rugy and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM The post Is the Resurgence of Unions Real? Does It Matter for Workers? appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.