Democrats and School Choice

Democrats are reflexively against anything that gives parents more freedom to rescue their school children from the maw of the failed public education system.  RedState ponders how this may have influenced the elections in Georgia and Illinois this week.

My friend Roland Martin put one of these on my radar. In Illinois, prominent black ministers around the state cast their lot with the GOP. They encouraged congregants to abandon Governor Quinn in Illinois and support the Republican. That made a real difference in the metropolitan Chicago area, where the Republican this time outperformed prior Republicans.
Another one that is a real surprise to me is Georgia. But it is abundantly apparent from the turn out data and the anecdotal evidence. Black voters were turning out for Democrats in early voting. In fact, I’m told that privately the GOP saw Democrats outpacing them in early voting around the state. But on Election Day, black voters stayed home. 

One might wonder why Democrats are so adamantly opposed to school choice when it seems so popular with urban blacks, a big part of their base.  My answer: #unionism and #feminism.

At the end of the day, the teacher's unions donate far more money, "the mother's milk of politics" than the already locked up votes of blacks appear to be worth to Democrats.  The public school system is a way to recycle tax dollars into campaign cash.  Charters and their ilk are often non-union and upset this apple cart.

The more overlooked issue is feminism.  Charter schools are seen as a threat to the public school systems in the white suburbs.  In order to be free to "lean in" and "have it all" suburban moms and especially the core constituency of single moms need the free baby-sitting of the public schools.  Never mind that charters can also provide that function, the mere threat to the established order of government provisioning to their offspring is viewed as a threat by many such Moms. (Married women are far more likely to view the government as competitor for the family resources because married men are outperforming economically, so it makes sense for married women to reduce the competition for resources from the government.)  And don't forget that the public schools are a jobs program for women, much more so than men.  Not to say that there aren't great teachers, but reform of the schools is always attacked as a threat to the "middle class" as if the government creates the middle class.

Finally, the public schools serve as a great propaganda outlet for the left.  The left always is seeking to influence the culture, especially through the schools and universities.  Charter schools threaten the leftist union control of the message.  If you haven't noticed public schools getting more authoritarian with zero tolerance policies and the suppression of free speech, you're not paying attention.

So poor black moms hoping to "win the lottery" and get their kids out of poverty?  Sorry, we Democrats already haver your vote. Or do we?

The Politics of Personal Destruction

To paraphrase the Godfather, you can count on the left doing exactly what of which they always accuse conservatives. In the 90s the Clintons famously complained about the "politics of personal destruction," when in fact it was their alleged misconduct while in office that was the real issue. Fast forward to the Obama campaign, and we have a regular guy, "Joe the Plumber", who has the temerity to ask The One a tough question, when Obama has invaded his neighborhood, who gets his reputation trashed because government hacks in Ohio leaked personal information about him to the media.

Now, we have the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Her most controversial ruling against white firefighters in New Have was recently overturned by the Supreme Court. Now, I believe that Ms. Sotomayor is about as good a nominee as we are going to get under the current administration with 60 Democrat senators. However, it is stil the minority's perogative to point out flaws in the nominee and ask questions about her written opinions and decisions.

This is where the left wing neo-fascist public humiliation of individuals comes into play. The ironically named "People for the American Way" are inviting journalists to smear the reputation of one of the firefighters involved in the lawsuit, as if that will somehow make the legal issues go away. From the KC Star:

Supporters of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor are quietly targeting the Connecticut firefighter who's at the center of Sotomayor's most controversial ruling.

On the eve of Sotomayor's Senate confirmation hearing, her advocates have been urging journalists to scrutinize what one called the "troubled and litigious work history" of firefighter Frank Ricci. This is opposition research: a constant shadow on Capitol Hill.

And this quote from Fox News: "People for the American Way, a liberal advocacy group, and other advocates urged the newspaper to dig into Ricci's background, specifically an earlier 1995 lawsuit..."

Look out ordinary Americans, if you cross the politically powerful, especially those on the left, prepare for your reputation to be savaged.