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The Campaign Spectator
The Left’s Education Divide
At the Democratic convention, a choice between children and teachers unions.
There are plenty of canyons running between the Democrats at this week’s convention. The left is angry at President Obama for selling them out on a raft of issues. The Blue Dogs (what’s left of them) are glancing uneasily toward the election calendar. And of course that tattered emblem of Democrat disunity, Bill Clinton, is on the speakers’ list.
But there’s something else threatening to disrupt the Democrat hive mind. As Jon Ward reported at the Huffington Post, convention-goers were treated to a special screening of the movie Won’t Back Down. The film, which stars Maggie Gyllenhall and Viola Davis, is about a single mother who tries to reform her daughter’s dismal public school. The villain is the obstructionist teachers union. It promotes “parent triggers,” which allow parents to vote to overhaul schools.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, fired off a letter calling the film “divisive” and saying it doesn’t focus on “real parent empowerment.” (And if anyone knows “real parent empowerment,” it’s the stridently anti-school-choice Weingarten.)
But her letter ignores the elephant in the rubber room: Won’t Back Down director Daniel Barnz is a Democrat. For that matter, so is reform hero Michelle Rhee and Davis Guggenheim of Waiting for Superman fame. All three have issued a call to arms over education that transcends party lines. The reality of America’s public schools is finally cracking through the liberal eggshell.
At the state level, Democrat governors and mayors, wrangling with drained budgets, are battling the education establishment. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick backed a law that tied teacher layoffs primarily to performance rather than seniority. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo also took on the unions over evaluations and declared, “It’s this simple: It’s not about the adults; it is about the children.” And Mayor Rahm Emanuel cranked up his famous pugnacity after the Chicago Teachers Union refused to budge on compensation and benefits issues.
That might seem like small comfort to school reformers. And it should. Most of the clashes between unions and Democrat state officials have been waged out of necessity. Governors and mayors must balance their budgets; organized labor won’t give an inch.
But given the Democratic Party’s fundraising, it’s a miracle to see party leaders taking on the teachers unions at all. The third-largest contributor to Democrats in 2010, and the fifth-largest contributor overall, was the National Education Association (NEA), which spent $40 million to push back the Republican tide. Add in contributions by AFSCME and the SEIU and the three titans of organized labor spent $171.5 million in 2010, more than the dreaded U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Crossroads combined.
The Democrats owe the NEA. If not for it, the Republican sweep might have been even wider.
And yet many Democrats turned around and fought back against Big Education’s intransigence. It’s created an uneasy imbalance and it’s sowing discord among the union rank-and-file. The party’s apple-polishers at the NEA voted to endorse Barack Obama last year. But the vote count was 72% in favor; a step down from 2008 when 80% of delegates endorsed Obama, and the vote twelve years ago when 90% supported Al Gore.
This is the same Barack Obama who made the heinous decision to shut down the Washington, D.C. school voucher program. But even he’s committed apostasies that irked the unions.
So why are some progressives changing their tune? Well, it’s not as if the unions have anywhere else to go. Mitt Romney’s education plan requires states to offer school choice and many Republicans want to eliminate the bureaucratic wreck that is the Department of Education. Democrats must wager that they can nip at the NEA without losing its support.
But more importantly, the problem with public schools has become impossible to ignore. Interest-group liberalism requires the left to support the teachers unions. But more and more, that’s put Democrats in conflict with inner-city students who need vouchers for a shot at even a passable education. Confronted with the evidence, some progressives are finally siding with the students.
Eventually education may become one of those issues, like the Second Amendment, on which Republicans extract an all-out surrender. At this year’s Republican National Convention, Condoleezza Rice declared that education is the civil rights movement of our era. Progressives pride themselves on being civil rights geniuses. Do they really want to be on the wrong side of history here?
Until they answer that question, there’s still plenty of hysteria to go around. A smattering of protesters showed up when Won’t Back Down was shown at the Democratic Convention. Confirming that the progressive bestiary is running out of monsters, one left-wing blogger tried to tie the movie to Bain Capital. Randi Weingarten is still doing an elaborate dance, talking up reforms while simultaneously making sure nothing meaningful gets done.
But it’s becoming clear that unions have overplayed their hand. Mitt Romney should press the advantage when he gets into office. Perhaps then we can finally energize our classrooms and empty the rubber rooms.
About the Author
Matt Purple is The American Spectator’s assistant managing editor.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (51) | Leave a comment
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TLP| 9.5.12 @ 6:44AM
What is Wrong with Public Education?
How about - Corruption? From the School Superintendent, to the Janitor and his Union.
How about the Über Liberal Leftist Gay Centric Curricular? Condoms and Cucumbers? Mary has 2 Mommies? David has 2 Daddies and sometimes Daddy's "Friends" put their hands in his pants but that's okay?
40+years of Sex Education has brought us Day Cares in our Middle Schools. We have a School safety Czar, in this Administration, who likes to WRITE BOOKS about The Joy's of Anal Sex, and Sex with Adults, like the guy next door with the Telescope trained on your bedroom window. (I bet that Alan, Purp and Pelleas were all Valickdicktorians) And a President who sends HIS KIDS to Private School, while taking the Private School Vouchers AWAY FROM poor Minority Kids, in DC, and Forcing them back in to the same Filthy, Failing, Dangerous D.C. public Schools, that he said "Do not come up to my Daughters' Standards".
Instead of those Poor Kid's Education? He chose The Teachers Unions Money.
Did you know that Saul Alinsky's - Rules For Radicals - was on this Years' Recommended Reading List, put out by the Department of Education?
Did you know that Randi Weingarten sends HER KIDS to Private Schools? Do you know how many Liberal Leftist Politicians send THEIR KIDS to Private Schools, even as they fight, Tooth and Nail, to keep YOUR KIDS in Public Schools?
Did you see these people RIOTING in Madison, Wisconsin?
What's wrong with Public Education?
Everything.
LindaF | 9.5.12 @ 7:27AM
You are right - it's the imposed from on-high agenda, plus administrative mis-management, that have caused schools to crash.
We need strong conservative leadership in schools to improve them; it is impossible in today's public school atmosphere.
Therefore, choice in schools is imperative.
Later, once schools have rooted out the villains, ideologues, and incompetents, public schools might be a decent choice.
Von Mises Jr| 9.5.12 @ 10:03AM
What's wrong with Public Education?
All one needs in an IQ higher than an rock and you could see it in the eyes and faces of the liberal gals and girly men watching poor Michelle last night with gasps and tearful eyes.
Granted it was a well delivered speech. Unfortunately it was all lies. Poor Barrack was born in Hawaii to a middle class family and went to the finest school on the island paradise. Then he lived with his commie mommy and Lolo Soetoro who was politically connected and well off in Indonesia. Lolo was shunned by mommy commie when he took a crony capitalist job for an OIL company.
Then Barry went to Occidental (it wasn't accidental), Columbia and Haaaavad. Then he joined the political machine in Chicago where he palled around with the rich kid terrorist, slum lords and political insiders and got his honey bunny a $300K no-show job.
But honey bunny could not tell that story. It didn't work for the stupid and victimized public school grads.
TLP| 9.5.12 @ 1:33PM
She's a Pig, and the door can't hit her in her Fat Ass, soon enough.
MK48| 9.5.12 @ 3:55PM
I heard they both got into college through affirmative action ......their grades were sh*t.
Let's see if the RIGHT calls her out TODAY...
TLP| 9.5.12 @ 7:28PM
Don't hold yer breath.
Jack in Wi| 9.5.12 @ 6:58AM
I come from a family with many educators. The problems today can be placed in many instances on the unions. It is time to do what we did in Wisconsin. The liberal politicians in the states like New York, Illinois, and California can never get the unions to give them enough back to make them solvent. You have to attack the unions with a meat axe not an olive branch.
Doctor Right| 9.5.12 @ 7:50AM
Guess folks will have to vote for Romney to get the change in education you desire, right Jack?
Glad to see you're finally on board!
CJW| 9.5.12 @ 7:56AM
I believe that at least one third of the delegates at the convention are union officials and members, mostly with the SEIU and teachers unions that deal with public employers.
Jack in Wi| 9.5.12 @ 8:12AM
Education is the business of family, locality and the states. The Federal government has no business in that. If Romney wants to get rid of Federal involvement good for him. I don't read him that way. He is just another Bush Republican who likes to stick his nose where it isn't wanted or needed.
Bob K| 9.5.12 @ 9:32AM
Jack,
Not to defend the idiots running the Department of Education but the real reason the lunatics are in charge of the asylums is because local and state governments have been in the back pockets of the Teacher's Unions for decades.
The local people elected to local School Boards by local parents are responsible for the lucrative contracts that Teachers receive. The Teacher's Unions then pay off the State Legislators to see that they pass laws enabling this state of affairs to continue. You saw how this was properly handled and corrected in Wisconsin by your current Governor. This has to be corrected at the State Level.
Romney doesn't have to get rid of the Department of Education, which is probably impossible to do in 4 years. What he has to do is put a limit on it's policing and regulatory powers where it can withhold funds to states for not complying with it's zany regulations. If Romney wants to start laying off Federal Employees this is the place where he has to begin in all Federal Agencies. Cut back on the legal and enforcement sections first.
DTOM| 9.5.12 @ 9:50AM
BobK
Don't think for two seconds that school boards are populated with concerned parents and concerned citizens. They are mostly populated with out-of-district teachers who vote in solidarity with their in-district brethren. They stack the deck against taxpayers, in the guise of doing things for the children...
DTOM
And if you think that is a coincidence, you might want to finally take all those teeth from beneath your pillow, no quarters are going to replace them...
Bob K| 9.5.12 @ 11:05AM
You missed my point. These directors were voted onto these school boards by the people who live in these school districts. We have school board members where I live who are retired teachers and school administrators and even some who teach in other school districts than where they serve on the School Board.
This is democracy in action in America!
DTOM| 9.5.12 @ 11:32AM
Bob;
Are you appreciating my point that putting teachers on school boards to decide compensation and benefit issues is like having the fox guard the chicken coop?
It doesn't feel like you do...
DTOM
Bob K| 9.5.12 @ 1:15PM
Of course I do! How many ways do I have to say this? Running for a School Board position when one is a teacher is a conflict of interest and should be illegal. It isn't. Many of our neighbors who vote can't see that it is conflict of interest.
Hell, most of the electorate can't see that being a legislator/lawmaker and also keeping a private law practice in the Legal Profession at the same time is also a conflict of interest! Clinton was a lawyer during most of his political career and so was Obama. (Note past tense in both cases.)
How many times have you voted for a lawyer when you had a choice not to?
TLP| 9.5.12 @ 1:36PM
Who cares who's on the School Board, when the SCHOOL BOOKS are being written by a buncha Bill Ayers wannabes?
DTOM| 9.5.12 @ 1:47PM
Good - we got that settled.
As to voting against lawyers I sense a small problem: name a profession that is NOT influenced heavily by legislation. Then only the practitioners of that profession should be suitable for public office.
I think that this makes the lawyer - ban impractical. However, I, too have long argued that whenever a profession can set its own rules, the public is routinely victimized. Lawyers, accountants and educators are prime examples. Engineers and medical professionals are inconvenienced by having to work around the laws of physics and nature. Until legislators get involved...
I offer an alternative: wasn't it Robert Heinlein whose science fiction works featured a civilization that had military service as a prerequisite to legislative candidacy? His idea being that only those who have either been there or at least had the real possibility of direct, personal involvement in military action could be counted on to appropriately decide matters of war and peace. For a long part of our history we have elected experienced military men and done pretty well under that leadership.
That'd provide us some level of sanity...
Keep the faith,
DTOM
Bob K| 9.5.12 @ 4:55PM
I don't think it has to be complicated. I'm talking about people elected to legislatures which make laws and to the executive offices, like Governor and President, which enforce them. Not Attorney Generals, District Attorneys nor school boards or other local governmental offices.
A simple law requiring these people to resign from the firms where they are employed and to put their professional licenses into escrow during the period they serve in these offices is all that is necessary. They would be prohibited under criminal statutes from working or doing any business or receiving any recompense whatsoever from their professions while carrying out their elected duties. It would be an "Ethics in Government Act" with real teeth in it.
I don't like Heinlein's Dictum. I spent enough time as a draftee during our Vietnam misadventure to come to the conclusion that time in the military prepares you for very little in civilian life unless your rank was high enough to make connections or you had an "M.O.S." that had a civilian use. The one useful thing is that it taught one self discipline if one was inclined to use it.
Bob K| 9.5.12 @ 4:55PM
I don't think it has to be complicated. I'm talking about people elected to legislatures which make laws and to the executive offices, like Governor and President, which enforce them. Not Attorney Generals, District Attorneys nor school boards or other local governmental offices.
A simple law requiring these people to resign from the firms where they are employed and to put their professional licenses into escrow during the period they serve in these offices is all that is necessary. They would be prohibited under criminal statutes from working or doing any business or receiving any recompense whatsoever from their professions while carrying out their elected duties. It would be an "Ethics in Government Act" with real teeth in it.
I don't like Heinlein's Dictum. I spent enough time as a draftee during our Vietnam misadventure to come to the conclusion that time in the military prepares you for very little in civilian life unless your rank was high enough to make connections or you had an "M.O.S." that had a civilian use. The one useful thing is that it taught one self discipline if one was inclined to use it.
mike 3/505| 9.5.12 @ 6:49PM
Actually...Heinlein's book, Starship Troopers (much better than the movie BTW), required "active federal service" in order to gain the "full voting franchise." It's a great read. Good politics and great treatise on small unit leadership.
RonRonDoRon| 9.5.12 @ 2:12PM
It has always appeared to me that school boards, particularly in large districts, are populated by people looking for a start on a political career (regardless of what their profession or former profession is). Their primary concern is neither students nor teachers, but how their position can get them to the next rung in local politics. (But, of course, the teachers unions have the most money for political contributions, so they end up being catered to.)
DTOM| 9.5.12 @ 4:31PM
Excellent point. Been staring at it for years and it never hit me. Thanks RonRon...
DTOM
TeaPartyNow| 9.5.12 @ 3:14PM
Hey there Doctor Wrong, the story shows that Democrats are opposing the teachers unions, dipshet. Romney/Ryan will never speak against them in public. Did you even read the story?
DTOM| 9.5.12 @ 9:12AM
Matt - you have forgotten to 'follow the money.'
The leaders of the public employee unions have built themselves a 'rent' producing machine. It works like this: Democrat governors and mayors negotiate with public employee unions with the implicit understanding that a portion of the union dues will be returned to the Democrats' future campaign coffers. So the opposite sides in those labor negotiations actually are colluding in fleecing the taxpayers.
The union members may or may not be aware or in concurrence with this cozy arrangement. It is falling apart because the unions have gotten so greedy in their pay, benefits, and pension requirements that the politicians can no longer find enough funds to meet the unions' demands, and payback their other constituencies. So what happens? The union rank and file find out that they have been robbed - the promises made to them (pensions and healthcare, primarily) are not going to be kept and it is obvious to them that their own leaders and the politicians have fooled them. They are madder than any worker who has paid into Social Security for forty years who suddenly learns that that money has already been spent on someone else and if the worker wants it he may or may not be 'entitled' to it, at some politicians' whim.
DTOM| 9.5.12 @ 9:12AM
But as you point out, Matt, where are they going to go? Will they follow the African American voters who have had their families decimated by 'well-intentioned' welfare policies and remain committed Democrats to this day? Will they refuse to recognize that it was the Democrat Party that founded the KKK (Sen Byrd, Grand Dragon...et al) that tried to stop the Civil Rights Act of 1963, and a host of other initiatives to keep AA Americans down? Will they recognize the evil that Margaret Sanger promoted in her support of abortion for 'the inferior races?' (Yes, black America, she was talking about YOU!) That Hillary Clinton is still proud of her Sanger Medal?
Will the government employee unions follow? Not if they can help it! Look at government union membership when the states of Indiana and Wisconsin gave government employees an escape route! A huge percentage took it.
So in short - we have to win this election and then go "Right to work" in every state. Then we can get back to two normal political parties...
DTOM
TinaB| 9.5.12 @ 9:12AM
It must really suck to be you Jack, with no one to support this November.
TeaPartyNow| 9.5.12 @ 3:21PM
It sucks to be any one in America this time around, with no one good to support this November.
Those who support romney, do so solely out of hate for obama and the left.
Those who support obama, do so solely out of hate for romney and the right.
It just flat out sucks in America in 2012. Our choices are two different flavors of evil.
Jacob McCandles| 9.5.12 @ 3:29PM
I'd much rather hear from a committed leftist than this Bulls--- about both sides being horrible. There is a HUGE difference in 2012.
Louis Jenkins| 9.5.12 @ 9:25AM
Ever wonder why your young children have to share desks with other children in school? Remember when we were in school and we each had our own desk, old chewing gum and all? The plan (part of Dewey's plan) is to make sure that no one builds his own tower of genius, to be smarter than the kid next to him. It's easier to cheat if you're sharing communal desks. Schools no longer give out Fs, in fact, they probably take away part of the good grades to help pull up the failing students.
We received a letter from our local school yesterday that stated a particular teacher did not meet the Bush Kennedy's No Child Left Behind rules. Did they fire her? No. Her NEA dues must be paid up in full. She will continue to teach.
The communist agenda is alive and well within our educational system. The NEA fights hard to preserve the progress (or regress) that they, and Dewey who studied Russia's educational system, have brought to public education.
Derek Leaberry| 9.5.12 @ 9:27AM
Although the teachers' unions deserve an enormous amount of criticism, it is sad that more Americans don't think outside of the box and consider that the idea of public education is flawed. Prominent Republicans still bow before the god of public education. Look how foolish Condi Rice is when she declares public education a civil rights issue. Only someone with a big government mindset would agree with Miss Rice that public education is a civil right. Of course, one shouldn't be surprised that a Bush flunkey would declare public education a civil right. Norman Thomas would agree.
TeaPartyNow| 9.5.12 @ 3:25PM
Absolutely baby! Rice was disasterously statist in her comments. Bleeding heart liberal all of the way. I was truly sickened by her. I'm glad to see that at least one other person in the world noticed it.
DTOM| 9.5.12 @ 4:35PM
Yes, Hillary with her Muslim Brotherhood personal assistant (Anthony T.H.E. Wiener's wife) is so much more effective at looking after our interests in the world....
Look into it, people...
jaytrain| 9.5.12 @ 10:01AM
I live in Birmingham Al . The school system is broken , utterly and completely broken . Superintendents come and go , unable to deal with hack politicians that are the BOE . And these hacks are returned year in and year out , other than they lever up to a higher office . Therefore , one can only assume that the voters/parents are content with a school system that mostly turns out welfare mothers and gangbangers , year after year , generation after generation . These are the same interests which drove Michelle Rhee out of DC and drove Artur Davis out of the democrat party . There are no charter schools the union and the BOE are opposed . There are no Teach for America teachers , the union and the BOE are opposed . And The Children suffer and suffer . If there is no justice in this world , there will be justice in the next . As Christ said of those who would corrupt children " Better that a millstone be placed arounf their neck and thrown into the waters "
Derek Leaberry| 9.5.12 @ 12:10PM
Did you ever think that the children of Birmingham are just plain stupid and no amount of money will make them smart? But look at the bright side. They are smart enough to play on the Alabama football team.
TLP| 9.5.12 @ 1:50PM
You miss the point.
The Founders of the KKK want these people right where they are. On their Knees, with their hands out.
In 2012, on America's Liberal Plantations, it is Still Illegal to teach a Black Slave to read and write.
They are Still considered Property. The Liberals Feed them, Clothe them, and House them like you and I do with our Dogs.
If they wanna keep Sleeping til Noon, and Breeding like Animals, without any responsibility to actually Raise them? It's easy.
Sit.
Roll Over.
Beg.
Vote for Democrats.
It's really no more complicated than that.
Who Knows?| 9.5.12 @ 11:14AM
Like the health care debate, the one about unions owning public education long ago entered the twilight zone. They are both similar to the global warming manmade brouhaha.
After a while, reading the same old same old words about the same old same old “problem”, for years and even decades, gets---old. When did that study come out about how bad America’s schools were doing? Thirty years ago?
I’m old enough to remember when my father, in the fifties, paid ALL his taxes on April 15th, because there was NO withholding, in those benighted days. Ah, what a great “progressive” advance automatic deductions was!
Just so, following the money, the problem could be instantly solved, if, and only if, teachers no longer had an automatic deduction taken from them and given to the union, to be used for stuffing into Democratic pols’ pockets. Talk about an illegal taking!
As a retired teacher, it always appalled me to have to work part time for the union, who used MY MONEY to advocate for political causes I hated.
The average Joe and Jane should be asked if THEY would like to be forced to send, monthly, part of their earnings to the political party they despise. Unless and until this kind of protection racket is FINALLY exposed, and stopped, well---why bother reading about school unions, bad schools, reform efforts, etc?
There’s a lot of ruin in the union run school systems.
Only a fool would expect much change, even in a decade.
DTOM| 9.5.12 @ 11:43AM
Who knows:
One thing you don't seem to know is that withholding was instituted in The Revenue Act of 1942 and then applied universally in The Current Tax Payment Act of 1943 with the assessment of a 5% income tax on EVERYBODY.
If your dad, WK, was paying his entire tax bill on April 15 in the fifties, it was because he was not a regular wage earner - he must have been one of those evil business owners!
Anyway, Milton Friedman was somehow involved in helping this happen in the forties. I know later in life he probably heartily regretted it.
And it is the automatic extraction of union dues that makes sure they get paid.
I am with you, WK: To end the unions' influence, we must stop employers from collecting dues for them, by law...it worked in Wisconsin...
Better yet RIGHT TO WORK!
Don't Tread On Me!
Who Knows?| 9.5.12 @ 11:50AM
You're right, DTOM---
Now you correct me, I remember he must have been the owner of good old Boyers Meat Market, not an employee, in Portland, Oregon.
ansonheath| 9.5.12 @ 11:15AM
I have felt for a long time that 'school choice' will be the first step in breaking the Dem monopoly of the inner city vote.
Slacker| 9.5.12 @ 12:00PM
“The problem with public schools has become impossible to ignore.”
I think not. Everybody ignores the reality that some kids have hopelessly low IQ’s.
I don’t think conservatives will win this issue because doing so would entail tipping over some sacred cows.
TeaPartyNow| 9.5.12 @ 3:31PM
Conservatives will win nothing in 2012, the presidency included. "Conservatives" is a term being used by liberal medias to describe Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. Romney/Ryan will say zero out loud about anything in 2012 but money, money, money money money.
Conservatism got sold down the river by establishment republicans in 2012. And the right didn't even notice how much of a fool it made of itself, being the lapdog for such a disgrace upon America. Perhaps after Romney/Ryan loses, they will see the error of their ways.
JFGalt| 9.5.12 @ 12:41PM
I'm curious - couldn't Bush have dissolved the Dept of Education? Granted he had the Demoncrats in the way but it's a cabinet level dept - couldn't he have just made it go away? But I never saw that he did anything in that direction. It seems that once govt is intrenched into something that it takes on a life of its own regardless of what party is out there. I think talk needs to be eliminated about getting rid of this deptartment because of money - it needs to go because it has done a very poor job. Throwing more money at them has never helped. Give the power back to the states where it used to be. Test scores seem to have been higher back then too and not just that - the kids weren't as dumb.
TLP| 9.5.12 @ 1:54PM
Let's not forget that the Department of Education was created by the 1st Jimmy Carter, as a Sop to the Teachers Union, for Supporting him, in 76.
That's reason enough to get rid of this Debacle.
DTOM| 9.5.12 @ 1:55PM
JFG;
He was too "compassionate" to put all those good government employees out of work.
GW was a strong argument against electing governors President. States have a lot of authority that the Federal government is not SUPPOSED to have. They assume that power and we are left holding the bag.
There also does not need to be a Department of Energy, a Department of Homeland Security, and so on...
I don't think kids today are that much dumber - I think they have very little incentive to learn. No parental pressure, no fear of hunger or homelessness, no peer pressure...
And there is very little directed incentive (we used to face a hardwood paddling...) from the education establishment.
When educators expend all kinds of energy to keep the students interested, the students will instantly divine that this not being done for their own good - it's being done to please somebody else...
DTOM
TeaPartyNow| 9.5.12 @ 3:10PM
Romney/Ryan will never comment on and/or fight for better schools in America. Just like Romney/Ryan will never stand up and fight for what creates freedom, whole, healthy, natural families.
They put out this insane republican platform that promises to make abortion illegal, and make all of these statements that promise a right wing extremist admin, but never ever talk about any of it, fight for anything, or win anything.
Romney/Ryan must have to lose. They are far worse for the cause for freedom and conservatism than anyone else running, except for Ron Paul would have been. They pretty much have their heads up their donkeys, Romney/Ryan.
We will have obama for four more years. People who can't fight, don't win. The right can't ever talk about what is killing America out loud. Thank God at least the left will now.
shoffman| 9.5.12 @ 3:55PM
Let's get this straight. You are a Ron Paul supporter and supported him against the liberal left. Your tag is TeaPartyNow so I am guessing you are a conservative and I assume dedicated to the removal of BHO. However you are still upset that Ron Paul lost the nomination. By the way, he did not carry a single state primary.
However, because you can't get over that you will not vote Republican. Even though a vote for the GOP will likely result in a conservative vote. But you will claim "Thank God at least the left will do it" I don't want to be impolite but I cannot get my arms around the ignorance of that approach........
The GOP needs all the votes it can get to remove BHO.
Respectfully
SH
DTOM| 9.5.12 @ 4:39PM
shoffman - that's a pretty generous read of TPN. Actually TPN is more of a troll whose main objective is to suppress conservative turnout by arguing that Romney is no real conservative and that real conservatives should stay home.
Which is clearly not your thinking -you get it right when your arms won't go around TPN's ignorance.
Not to worry - just don't let TPN go unchallenged or answered.
TPN! I am about to shine this very powerful light on you, silly cockroach! Back into the dark, where you belong!
Don't Tread On Me!
shoffman| 9.5.12 @ 3:16PM
Is Rahm Emanuel a Democrat who chose to fight the unions? Mayor Emanual's surface bluster creates a smoke screen that masks reality. He managed to add 90 minutes to the shortest school day in the country at 7.5 hours which includes 30 minutes for lunch. The result a 9 hr. day less 30 minutes for lunch or an 8.5 hour day including breaks and lesson planning time. To the teacher's union this was unconscionable. An 8.5 hour day in a 10 month school year with a Holiday break, a Spring break and more. Inconceivable that this could be perpetrated on the poor dedicated teacher. Mayor Emanual paid for this concession by promising to hire 500 more. Today while the Mayor is speaking at the Dem convention and making the rounds on the morning talk shows the teachers are days away from striking and 500 new hires was never enough. Work 90 minutes more, unthinkable, even though millions of people regularly work a longer day and a 52 week year as condition of employment. So did Mayor Emanual really care or did he enagage in a year of Kabuki theater to disguise continued union appeasement? The teachers are threatening to strike. Fighting to continue an unsustainable system while hiring 500 more teachers.
I live in the Chicago area. We currently have a huge problem with gun violence.........We need 500 more policeman not more teachers to pick up the slack of a 90 minute increase in the school day. Mayor Emanual did not take on the teacher's unions and had no intention of doing it.
TeaPartyNow| 9.5.12 @ 3:42PM
The American People control almost none of their government functions. What we have now is a nation where the taxpayer money gets exploited in any and all ways without restaint from anyone because the American People are kept in the dark by all of their medias, left and right.
This teachers union, Chicago Mayor scene that you just described culminating in Chicago is merely one of the lowest points here in America. This whole nation is in severe decline. Your gun violence in Chicago is a result of our collectivist despotism complaint lifestyle that is all that we live by today. America is a dying nation. Chicago is one of her most diseased areas. But make no mistake, the cancer has spread throughout Americas' body, it is encasing her as we speak. And America will soon be gone from us.
Only the American People unanimously rising against tyranny can save America now. Romney/Ryan is a false hope, and the death knell for freedom. It is up to we the people or no one.
DTOM| 9.5.12 @ 4:45PM
For Illinois to resolve its crime situation it needs what the other 49 states of the union have- Concealed Carry Laws.
Really - it sounds counterintuitive but it has worked all over the country.
But good luck with the likes of Mike Madigan, Pat Quinn, and Rahm Emmanuel running things.
Chicago want to see your future? LOOK AT DETROIT - they are ten years ahead of you.
The gangs will drive out the businesses, the additional cops and teachers will drive up property taxes and drive away business. You'll have decreasing population, business, prosperity, and more desperate criminals.
Good luck with all that...
DTOM