Ed Notes Online: The Democratic Party: Left, Right and Center

Sunday, June 18, 2017

The Democratic Party: Left, Right and Center

My School Scope WAVE column didn't make deadline for last week but here it is anyway.

The Democratic Party: Left, Right and Center

By Norm Scott

Recent articles in journals and the mainstream press (https://tinyurl.com/y6v5we34) have been addressing the splits between a chunk of the Democratic Party base and the leadership of the party. For those optimistic about making headway against the agendas of the Republicans and Trump – if someone can figure out exactly what the president’s (gag) agenda really is --- these are dangerous warning signs of even more internal conflict to come.

The wings of the party have been simplified by terming them as the Bernie and Clinton wings. Even if Hillary and Bill are not around, their wing of practical centrists – do what you have to do, say what you have to say – to win elections – seemed to be discredited by the Trump victory. But, “No”, they argue. “We really did win since we got more votes (as Gore did in 2000), Russia hacked and Comey did his damage and if we eliminate these factors we are back in the saddle.”

Well, not exactly. Without all the other stuff, the Dems still have very little power in the states, which are overwhelmingly controlled by Republicans, who can use their power at the state level to gerrymander all over the place while also engaging in voter suppression. Astoundingly, even the conservative leaning Supreme Court has been smacking down the North Carolina laws, though I’m sure the North Carolina legislature will work them out to their advantage in time for the next election round.

So something must not be registering when so many people have deserted the party by voting for Trump or not voting at all or voting third party. The Bernie wing – the resisters – are not as practical as the Clinton wing (only challenge where you have a chance to win, don’t be too left, etc.) They want to fight on the beaches and anywhere else where there can be a battle. Their theory is that even if you know you will lose in a very red state or district, being in contention with a progressive platform will win some people over, whereas not being there at all, leaves the field to one ideology.

A recent battle in Wyoming where a Trumpy won, although by a much lower margin than expected, brought this battle to the fore. The Democratic National Committee(DNC) refused to fund what they viewed as a lost cost, while the Bernie wing tried to make up for it with enthusiasm. “What was accomplished,” ask the practical wing? To my mind, the Bernies were able to cut into the red state dominance and this is a long war. Mainstream Democrats are always looking for short term victories. What they are doing now is identifying the fuzzy red state districts where they feel they have a shot, not engage in hand to hand combat everywhere. That is going on in the battle in the Atlanta suburbs, where a centrist Democrat (or what used to be the now extinct moderate Republican) is running on a moderate platform – basically Obama light. No single payer health care on his agenda.

And that seems to be the defining issue between the Bernie and Hillary wings. How bold can you dare to be?

Last weekend a whole batch of people I know headed to Chicago for the THE PEOPLE’S SUMMIT: BUILDING THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION, where the Bernie wing of the party – potentially the basis of a new party. Think of what Emmanual Macron did in France. In one year he created an entirely new party and undermined the traditional right and left. But he did it from the center – he might be viewed as being in the Clinton/Obama wing and in fact Obama has a bromance with him.

On the other hand, in the recent election in England, the Labor Party, led by the far left Jeremy Corbyn who some say make Bernie look like a centrist, made a massive comeback when it was predicted they would be headed for oblivion.

My sentiment is with the Bernie people and believe his message resonated with a lot of people, including many who ended up voting for Trump. What is missing from the Democrats, no matter what wing you are in, are a deep bench of dynamic potential candidates, though word is that is beginning to happen at the grassroots level.

This is why my favorite two hobbies are sports and politics and I spend my days listening to either WFAN or NPR. Any chance Aaron Judge would run on the Democratic ticket?

Norm indulges his fantasies at ednotesonline.org

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: The Democratic Party lacks a message. Hillary is out there foaming at the mouth. Losing twice has not brought her to her senses. Opposing Trump despite being a full time job does not a party build. Health care and free college for all are not happening folks. I refuse to contribute one more cent to the DNC. They are lost in the wilderness. Leadership is required to bring us to the Promised Land.

Abigail Shure; Sunday, June 18, 2017 at 11:55:00 AM EDT

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/cory-booker-clear-and-present-threat-public-education

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Of course for another view, check out the review at New Politics of the Kahlenberg Bio on Shanker by Vera Pavone and me: Albert Shanker: Ruthless Neocon

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:
http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/
I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You can sign up for this free series at :
http://act.bcfed.ca/online-campaigning-for-union-activists/

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

Ex-HSA Teacher has left a new comment on your post "Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire ...":

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy Tyson
Professor of African American Studies and History
Duke University

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.
- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Full article with charts here.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

More at Substance

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.
Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/12/on-growing-use-of-corporate-test.html

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

Published on Sunday, March 15, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

SEE MY VIDEO ON HARLEM SUCCESS RALLY 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEp7rg_L5JI

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Ed Notes Extended

Sunday, June 18, 2017

The Democratic Party: Left, Right and Center

1 comment: