Indiana's Vanishing Democrats

...In a classic example of "Randian villain see, Randian villain do," the Democrat contingent in Indiana's House of Reprentatives has aped their fellows in Wisconsin, fled the state and blocked passage of a "Right To Work" bill.

Of course they went to Illinois.

Without a quorum, the bill died; it might come back as an amendment. I'm sure unions will stand House Dems gas money if it does.

It's not at all a new ploy in U.S. politics. This kind of thing isn't uncommon when one party has a majority insufficient to form a quorum and opposition wants to block legislation, though in recent years, it's become something of a Democrat specialty. (Our Republican governor, who in 2005 referred to a Democrat walkout as a "carbombing" of bills he'd been pushing, pointed out this time it was, "a perfectly legitimate part of the process." I tend to think of as more of a last-ditch but legal move.)

Right To Work would have made for interesting times in Indiana and might have helped balance our relatively high corporate taxes when new industry considered locating here. As the down economy continues, the proposal is likely to come back, sooner or later.

The bill would not have outlawed unions, only "closed shops." It made union membership an option instead of a requirement. If your local wasn't keeping you happy, you'd've been able to vote with your dollars; conversely, if your union can't attract voluntary members by the good it does for them, maybe it's not much of an advocate for the membership. But I guess the concept of getting people to shell out by providing some benefit to them in exchange, which works fine for endeavors from churches and Scouts to cosmetics manufacturers and fast food chains, is just too foreign to the thinking of union bosses.

And that should be a message in and of itself.