Kathleen Reardon is spinning and spinning HARD. Ignore her words. - Granite Grok

Kathleen Reardon is spinning and spinning HARD. Ignore her words.

This piece in the Concord Monitor had me scratching my head after I’ve been writing, for YEARS, about how former charities dependent on the kindness of the general public for funding and now have all become captured entities  of government at all levels because they almost can’t exist without sucking at the teat of the Public Treasury.  I’ve watched it all all levels – local, county, State, and Federal – with the “hands out” and lobbying for more.  And more.  And more.

So here comes Ms. Reardon holding up non-profits (I guess that’s what we call those former charities nowadays) as models of non-partisanship.  Go and read the whole piece but watch out for the magic hand (watch THIS way as I do THAT with the other hand) and the blatant redefinition of the common language – like this:

However, issue-oriented advocacy is very different from partisan electoral politics.

Er, no it ISN’T.  Prime example?  AARP openly advocating for yet another Leftist / Socialist program to be run by the Government: Obamacare.  Talk about uber-partisanship advocacy.  This was out and out electoral politics because it was clear that unless “their” political candidates became elected, and the majority Democrats in the House and Senate and Oval Office, it would never pass.  I can provide many more examples if she wishes to protest.

She made a couple of other statements that ran counter to what she wanted you to “hear” – so I left two comments

As soon as non-profits start advocating for monies from the Public Treasury, they have self-declared themselves to be partisan.

Oh, btw, Ms Reardon? With your own words, “To sustain the public’s confidence in and support of the nonprofit sector, we need to keep the Johnson Amendment in place. “, you have made yourself partisan. The Johnson Amendment was put into law by LBJ simply because he [the late President Lyndon Baines Johnson] didn’t want pastors in churches to be allowed to speak up about his election – is that not the height of partisanship?

Actually, shutting down CERTAIN non-profits, churches, from doing what Reardon doesn’t want.  I guess only CERTAIN non-profits are the “good ones” according to this “CEO of the N.H. Center for Nonprofits”.  But man, all those other non-profits, they only “advocate”.  Ha!

And you have just self-identified in keeping churches (really, calling them non-profits instead of what they really are is partisan in and of itself) from exercising their First Amendment Right?

Are you going to call out unions for doing the same? Double Standards – good times, good times.

And

Oh, a couple more things:

1) “Speaking up on behalf of an issue is critical to advancing a nonprofit’s mission. However, issue-oriented advocacy is very different from partisan electoral politics.”

What a load of crock, to put it honestly. Because Government is so large, almost all advocacy results in government actions – driven by “persuading” politicians to change. Isn’t this the exact picture of politics?

2) “Nonprofits do not want to engage in partisan politics.”

Really? On one side, you have Granite State Progress advocating for bigger, larger, more expensive, and more intrusive government – indistinguishable from Socialism. At the other end, you have RLCNH – advocating for issues that would lead back to governmental functionality that would place more individual Liberty and Freedom over a burgeoning government.

Now, if your vaunted non-profits went around / ignored government and just acted on their own and solicited funding directly from the general public, I’d agree with you. But how many of your association actually do so? Fairly few, if I were to hazard a guesstimate.

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Full piece:

Every single day, almost every New Hampshire resident benefits from the work of a nonprofit. It might be an after-school program or elderly services. It could be a hospital or a school. It could be a park or it could be a theater.

Not only do New Hampshire’s charitable nonprofits enhance our daily lives, they also take on our toughest challenges. Homelessness, the opioid epidemic, job training – these are just some of the issues nonprofits take on with commitment, passion and expertise. In order to create solutions that address these challenges, advocacy is often in order.

Speaking up on behalf of an issue is critical to advancing a nonprofit’s mission. However, issue-oriented advocacy is very different from partisan electoral politics.

For more than 60 years, an important provision in the federal tax code, the Johnson Amendment, has protected 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organizations from being drawn into partisan politics, such as endorsing or opposing candidates for public office. However, new legislation in Congress and a recent executive order seek to allow nonprofits to participate in partisan campaigning.

Nonprofits do not want to engage in partisan politics. The political neutrality of nonprofits is important so they can continue as safe places where people can come together to solve community problems. Indeed, in a recent letter to Congress, 4,500 nonprofits around the country signed onto a Community Letter in Support of Nonpartisanship.

Nonprofits know how important it is to advocate, and it is expressly their nonpartisanship that makes their advocacy more powerful. Nonprofits promote solutions to problems, new ideas to enrich communities and the preservation of community assets.

Keeping nonprofits free from taking part in partisan politics makes sense. Do we want to see nonprofit budgets take on political campaign advertising? Do we want nonprofit employees to divert their time to work on political campaigns? These activities would cause harm by potentially politicizing the important work that nonprofits do to make our communities safer, healthier and more enjoyable to live in.

To sustain the public’s confidence in and support of the nonprofit sector, we need to keep the Johnson Amendment in place. Advocacy? Yes. Partisanship? No.

 

(Kathleen Reardon is CEO of the N.H. Center for Nonprofits.)

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