Dakota Beacon

I recently attended a League of Women Voters debate between Republican Kevin Cramer and Independent Pam Gulleson. At the beginning, the moderator identified the League as a “non-partisan” organization, a premise that I remember to have been largely true 50 years ago. So I visited their website…

http://www.lwv.org/news-and-media/press_release

…to insure that it remains a reflection of “left wing ideology” since my last annual visit, with the following observations:

LOWV Supports Quotas in Higher Education:

The League joined the Brennan Center for Justice in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, urging the Court to uphold the University of Texas at Austin’s admissions policies, including the university’s reasonable efforts to encourage diversity in its classrooms. The amicus brief urges the Court to recognize that diversity in higher education is crucial for the success of our multi-racial democracy.

LOWV Supports Restricting Constitutional Freedom of Assembly:

The League joined coalition partners in asking members of the U.S. House to honor new congressional ethics rules prohibiting Members from participating in parties at the national nominating conventions that are paid for by lobbyists or lobbying organizations and are held to “honor” the Members.

LOWV Opposes “Model” Voter Identification law Implementation:

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) made news this week when they announced that they were discontinuing their Public Safety and Elections Task Force. This Task Force was responsible for the promotion of ‘model’ voter identification and stand-your-ground legislation that has recently been in the news. This announcement came after many organizations put pressure on corporations to withdraw their support from ALEC.

LOWV Opposes Ryan Plan:

March 27, 2012

REJECT REP. RYAN’S DRACONIAN FY 2013 BUDGET RESOLUTION

Dear Representative:

On behalf of the undersigned organizations, we write to express our strong opposition to the Fiscal Year 2013 budget proposal offered by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). We urge you to reject this draconian proposal and instead pass a budget that does no harm to the most vulnerable Americans and that ensures there is enough revenue to sustain our country’s recovery and invest in the future.

Conclusion:

As you can see, the League is NOT the non-partisan organization I remember it to have been in the 1950s through 1970s when I attended grade school, high school, and college.

So it was with the “League Recruited” audience, dominated by the left. After Cramer’s closing statement, applause was withheld by his supporters on the right, in full compliance with the direction of the moderator. After Gulleson’s closing statement, however, the left wing supporters chose to applaud immediately rather than politely wait until the moderator asked for universal applause from the audience as a whole.

I encourage you to view the debate…it was very revealing of the positions of the two candidates. After viewing it, ask yourself if you believe Gulleson to be an “Independent Voice”?

Lastly, the League of Women Voters, like so many other elements within our “society”, appears to be woefully ignorant of the difference between “society” and “government” or “taxes” and “tithes”, as eloquently explained by founder Thomas Paine in his “Common Sense”. The most vulnerable Americans, during our nation’s founding, were helped by “charity”, an important element of “society”; our founders would roll over in their graves if they saw how “government” has usurped the responsibilities of “society” and the counterproductive results that such ignorance has produced.