Misguided Potshots at the President from the Private Sector

September’s jobs figures offered the first bit of promising news for American workers in far too long. The “official” unemployment rate dropped to7.8 percent. And that piece of good news could not have come at a better time for President Barack Obama.

But for Republicans, anything that makes the president look good — even something like job creation, which is good for the whole country — invites attack. In fact, many in the GOP questioned the report’s validity.

Former General Electric chairman and CEO Jack Welch claimed the growth needed to drop the unemployment rate from 8.3 percent to 7.8 percent in two months was just “implausible.” Welch implied that Obama tampered with the figures, just like Richard Nixon did leading up to his re-election campaign.

Welsh, who sent tens of thousands of jobs overseas as GE chairman, followed up his tweets and television interviews with an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. There his thin skin and defensiveness was displayed for the world to see. And the lunatic fringe found a soul mate – one more ex-CEO whose grasp of reality grows more tenuous with each passing day.

Two other high-profile corporate titans made news when they urged their employees not to vote for President Obama. Perpetually crotchety billionaire David Siegel — who runs a timeshare empire and is trying to build the largest mansion in the country — sent a terse email to his employees in which he all but threatened to fire them if the President is re-elected.

Likewise, Lacks Enterprises CEO Richard Lack shot out a long memo to 2,300 employees explicitly telling them to vote for Romney — no need to include the “or else.”

The nation’s economic elite are, of course, free to support – personally and financially – any politician. But threatening their employees’ jobs and financial futures unless they fall in line behind them is, simply, un-American.

Generation after generation of Americans have fought to free themselves of the economic and political bondage that these CEOs seem to believe is their God-given right to impose on their employees. We vote by secret ballot in order to protect our liberties – our freedom to speak our minds, our freedom to assemble, our freedom to worship, our freedom to bear arms, our freedom to seek a redress of grievances. And even if it costs them their jobs, this and every future generation will fight for those constitutional rights.

To be blunt, what works so well for CEOs in countries like China, doesn’t get them to first base here in the United States of America. So, if they don’t love America’s Liberties and its Freedoms, why not just take a hike – take their companies and their families’ fortunes to where Liberty and Freedom are dirty words – and see if the return on investment is worth the loss of their freedom.

Come November 6th, let’s remember that voting – voting by secret ballot – reaffirms our commitment to small “d” democracy. It is the boldest act of defiance available to a free people.

So vote like your way of life depends on it. Because it does.

And be sure to join our new effort: Bee Mad @ the GOP!