Ruth Conniff, editor-in-chief of The Progressive, was a passionate Bernie supporter. She attended the Democratic National Convention and was mostly disgusted by the proceedings.
Here is her report on the uneasy truce between the Clinton and Sanders forces.
She writes:
The purest expression of Clinton’s philosophy came when she described how she remembered her own mother, who was cruelly abandoned by her parents at a young age, and how she was reminded of her mother’s story when she met a little girl in Arkansas who sat on the porch all day in a wheelchair, desperately yearning to go to school. Clinton set about fighting for the rights of disabled children to get the same access to public education as their non-disabled peers.
“Simply caring is not enough,” Clinton stated, in what could be her credo. “To drive real change you have to understand both hearts and laws,”
“It’s a big idea, isn’t it?” She continued. “All children with disabilities deserve to go to school . . . How do you make it happen?” Answer: getting heavily involved in policy details.
This is Clinton’s core belief: Life is tough. You want to make things better? Don’t complain, get in the fray, fight, engage, compromise, persevere.
The Bernie delegates, God bless them, are not quite ready for Hillary or the pragmatic, compromising realpolitik she represents. And you can hardly blame them for feeling whipsawed by their experience at the Democratic convention.
On Thursday night, no sooner had the great Reverend William Barber finished his sermon, calling on everyone present to join together to revive the heart of America, and walking off stage to thunderous applause, than General John Allen and his military retinue marched in to declare: “America is the Greatest Nation on Earth.” General Allen endorsed U.S. military ventures around the globe. “We will oppose and resist tyranny and we will defeat evil,” he declared.
The Sanders campaign has already achieved a lot, she writes.
To win, Hillary Clinton needs the Sanders voters. And she knows it.
“Bernie Sanders and I will work together to make college tuition free,” Hillary declared in her address. “We will also liberate millions of people who already have student debt.”
The interesting question now is not whether Bernie Sanders voters will hold their noses and vote for Hillary. Most will.
The more interesting question is whether they will stick it out and stay involved in electoral politics.
“We all know that Donald Trump is a racist demagogue,” said Peter Rickman, a Bernie delegate from Wisconsin and the Working Families Party co-chair in the state….
If enough Bernie people are willing to work within the party, with the suits and the hacks and the phonies they detest, long enough and hard enough to take over the Democratic Party and force it to fulfill its progressive ideals, they could transform American politics.
And when they do, their movements against fracking and destructive trade deals and an end to U.S. military aggression abroad will be edited together with the heroes of the other great social movements of history into a sappy video montage at a future Democratic national convention.
This Progressive cannot support either imperialist – Trump or Hillary.
It’s bad enough that my taxes are used to support the brutal, murderous, anti-democratic U.S. Empire, so I will NOT willingly vote for either imperialist candidate.
I am voting for Jill Stein, whose “Power to the People Plan” represents my values better than any other presidential candidate: http://www.jill2016.com/plan
I hope you have a long life and are pleased with the Supreme Court as reconstituted by Trump…if many Progressives follow your path.
Hillary will nominate a Supreme Court justice like John Roberts.
I’m not so sure that Hillary will appoint John Roberts type justices; her husband appointed Ginsberg and Breyer, Obama appointed Kagan and Sotomayor. There’s no doubt that Trump/Pence will appoint Scalia clones or worse.
@Laura Chapman: Doesn’t that refrain ever get old? Surely there is something about Hillary Clinton that should make us want to vote FOR her. . . right? When I talk to people about Bernie Sanders, I don’t have to mention all the other candidates. I can talk about why he would make the best president since FDR. Don’t hear a lot of that sort of thing about Hillary. She’s simply “Not Trump.” Well, we can say that about anyone on the planet other than Trump. But on that basis, we could all get behind, say, Joe Lieberman, who at least had the decency to switch to the GOP and stop the pretense that he was a Democrat.
So when we’re bombing Syria, or when HRC is pursuing some other aspects of her neoliberal/neoconservative agenda, I hope you’re pleased with that.
MPG,
In my post on why I would vote for Hillary, I said I trust her judgement, her experience, her knowledge, and her temperament. I said she is fully qualified to be president. She won the most votes and the most delegates. You keep trying to delegitimate her. You sound like Trump. Bernie lost. When Hillary lost to Obama in 2008, she worked for his election. Bernie is now working for Hillary’s election. That’s what makes democracy function: accepting victory and defeat with equanimity and grace. If ever there was a candidate who had the right to be bitter, it was Al Gore. But Gore conceded with dignity even though he won the popular vote and the electoral vote was dubious.
Laura and Diane…we older female educators who follow world history have an emerging perspective to confront and process IMO. It seems to me that various governments who have recently elected women to positions of power, all lean toward women who are hardened realists and Centerists…or lean Right. In Britain, the new PM is a woman who is almost a clone of Margaret Thatcher. In Germany, Merkel, who has held on to her leadership role and is the most important European voice, is far from a true Progressive. Today, it is reported that a new female defense minister was appointed in Japan…and she does not believe the Japanese history of WW2 and is aggressive in building their military again . And in France, Marine le Pen, the fascist, is now up to 40% and could well be their next prez after Hollande is ground out.
So it should not be a shock that in America, a woman who is candidate for Prez follows in the Centerist mold of all the male Dem presidents who went before her. Seems that is the only kind of woman, or man, who can be elected.
What does this say about the American voter and the American ethos of rampant (including both Dem and Rep) crying for American exceptionalism?
I guess it all depends on how much you have to lose. It is easy for some who have little to lose to vote on principal. They are both terrible choices because of who they will serve .They will both for different reasons put us perilously close to a nuclear disaster. They will both drive the car down the neo liberal highway to hell. The question is at what speed?. So if you have nothing to lose and have no empathy for those that have a lot to lose. By all means stay principled and vote for Stein. I advise people I used to work with ,to vote as if their pensions and health care depend on it , because it does . Then again they are considering voting for Trump against their own economic interest.
Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.
Ellen.
The women’s voices that are heard, are those that serve the rich patriarchy. Ohio Democratic state politician, Nina Turner, was denied the right to speak at the DNC convention.
Absolutely agree Linda. I too was dismayed that Nina Turner was not a speaker at the Convention. She has been so articulate and has presented the progressive perspective clearly, and without rancor. Glad the MSNBC talking heads interviewed.
It’s amazing how both political conventions had speakers proclaiming that America is the best nation on earth, we are the best, we are the most exceptional, we alone can save the world, the bestest country ever in the history of the galaxies EXCEPT for………..drum roll…………education. When it comes to education, we are not the best and that is proclaimed very loudly at full volume. Funny that.
Isn’t it enough to just say that we are a great nation that should live up to its democratic ideals? Why do we have to insult other countries by saying that we are the best country on earth implying that the rest of the nations are just so much chopped liver. And when did we become such a hyper militaristic country in the style of Prussia or Imperial Japan. We make the Prussians look like boy scouts. It took a gutsy president like Truman to put the military in its place when he fired MacArthur. Sorry for the digression, as regards the election, I will follow the advice of Sanders and Reich.
The DNC more than mentioned education. They brought out students from a New York charter school chain Clinton helped start, Eagle Academy. The 35 high school students, all in uniforms and of uniform race and gender, proceeded to ruin the poem Invictus by barking it rapid-fire as would Marines chanting “This is my rifle. There are many others like it but this one is mine. My rifle is my best friend…” (while standing at attention, in formation). They marched in in line and they marched out in line. Ain’t segregation and “no excuses” grand?
http://watchtheyard.com/election/eagle-academy-invictus-dnc/
And then there was the RNC. Trump doled out a single word about education. He said “choice”.
Agree with Coniff….but with caveats.
It is magical thinking to believe that any candidate will be making college tuition FREE…false advertising by the Dems. As one who started university scores of years ago, when U of California charged only $45 a semester, it is clearly impossible to go to FREE now that it costs in-state student closer to $12K a year, and now that the U of C is putting out-of-state students acceptances ahead of legitimate in-state students…purely for MONEY.
The first thing to accomplish is to take student loans out of the realm of big lenders, and charge zero – 1% interest. Also, credit card companies, yes, the banks too big to fail bums, should not have been allowed to affect (buy) tort reform (under Baby Bush) so that student debt and medical debt cannot be abrogated in bankruptcy. THIS must change under Hillary/Bernie, but it would take a Dem Congress to even make a dent (with corporate Dems like Schumer and Hillary in the lead).
The second thing to bring down university, and city college, costs is to do away with the huge salaries of the administrators. Professors make so much less than the pencil pushers it is shameful. (Same problem with K – 12 school districts.)
Third, professors in all disciplines must work more hours doing classroom teaching and stop relying on adjuncts and/or teaching assistants to do the real job of working with students.
Enough for now…but Bernie and Hillary are flat out lying by saying higher ed can be, and they will make it, FREE.
No wonder the populace generally does not believe ANY pols, Dem and Rep. They lie!!! Our system of elections by sound bites (paid for by billionaires) has diminished all elections and all democracy.
“The second thing to bring down university, and city college, costs is to do away with the huge salaries of the administrators. Professors make so much less than the pencil pushers it is shameful.”
Cutting administrator salaries is not going to bring down college costs much.
Right, higher education can never be free. I mean, no country in the world does that.
Oh, wait….
Good points, Ellen!
FLERP and Dienne, what university line item budgets have you been privy too? And what school district budgets do you read, on going?
Some of us here do this now, and have done this as professional educators and education activists for many decades. I started working on the issue in 1973 (as a professional educational researcher doing a longitudinal study for an educational NGO) of LAUSD overload of middle managers…and now it is worse than ever with so much salary used up by those who have never taught, and some who have gone to online colleges to get their minimalist degrees, when limited budget constrictions have not allowed hiring of teachers and needed in-school site staff. Nepotism here has reigned in the areas of education for scores of years.
When you can show some citations for your comments, they will be more worthwhile. Meanwhile your sarcasm is under whelming.
Public universities and public school districts publish a lot of information about their budget. Many states also publish the salaries of all public university employees. Within 10 minutes, I could tell you who the 100 highest-paid Cal. Berkeley employees are and what they were paid last year. The list will look pretty much like every other major university’s list: At the very top you’ll find a handful of athletic coaches. There’ll be a Chancellor somewhere high on the list, and there’ll be a smattering of deans and associate deans throughout the rest of the list. But the overwhelming majority of them will be professors, not “administrators.” Administrative costs generally have been taking up an increasing percentage of the budgets of colleges and universities in recent years, but that’s mainly because there are so many administrative employees, not because administrative employees are paid “huge salaries” relative to faculty. I don’t know much about community colleges. But you could fire all every single chancellor and dean at every big state university without moving the needle on tuition, because those institutions have enormous budgets.
The main driver of the increased cost of tuition is reduced state aid, which has forced colleges and universities to rely more on tuition as a revenue source. This is a very well-known trend story.
The only K-12 system whose finances I follow regularly is New York City’s. NYC’s school system has more administrative employees than it did 10 years ago, but less than it did 20 years ago. And administrative pay overall is a fairly low portion of the system’s costs.
My comment had nothing to do with line items in university budgets. I can back up my comment. There are seven countries that offer free higher education: http://www.salon.com/2014/11/02/7_countries_where_college_is_free_partner/
Ellen ,
So why is it that the University of California and the City University of New York… … can not do for today’s youth what the CUNY system did for a hundred years even before I attended ,almost half a century ago? They did it when adjuncts and Teaching Assistants were rare . Some of the few non tenured or non tenure track professors I had, were visiting from foreign nations . My Mid Eastern Cultures, Anthropology professor , turned out to be the wife of a Lebanese Diplomat . Fairly safe to say she was not a starving adjunct .
I would argue that it is a matter of how we chose to allocate our resources . How we decide to fund our needs. Of course to accomplish any of this one has to have control over the political process . To do that ,one has to have an “educated citizenry .”
What that education consists of from K-U has a lot to do with why we are all here.
Thank you Dienne…good info. Now we must look at how these seven countries are governed, and at their tax system. Are they all Socialist countries with high income taxes to pay for free education and free health care? Are their student achievements better or worse than the US? Do they have standing armies and look to warfare as their prime industry? Let’s do some more homework.
Joel…I agree about SUNY, and this same history is true of U. of California, and Cal State University, and of our community colleges which were close to free in the 1960s.
My own view is that when for-profit colleges and for-profit law schools as Free Market offerings, became part of the American education system in the 1960s, things started to diminish.
We all know the situation of colleges like Corinthian and Trump U. today…so I will address only law schools in my state, but this extrapolates nationwide. A thumbnail history so to speak.
In California, in the late 1960s, laws changed to allow private enterprise law schools, unaccredited, to open, and they rapidly proliferated. One did not have to even have a BA to enter, only the steep fees which went into the pockets of these vulture entrepreneurs. Thereafter, under the law, these schools which had a law library, could, with some other rules, become accredited. Teachers were a mixed bag, some were struggling lawyers who could not earn a living…others were clunks and charlatans, and some were superb young lawyers who went on to excel in their field.
Some schools were ok, others better than ok and produced good legal minds such as our first Black Mayor…Tom Bradley. Others were like many current charter schools, and were terrible. They ground out so many lawyers, often failing the Bar Exam repeatedly like our former Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa, that it was clear that the students, and the public, were bilked. Some great people are attending some of these which are non-profit, right now.
As a result of this niche law training, we have an over abundance of ill trained lawyers in our state…and the lowest form, the ‘slip and fall’ guys, who are often referred to as ‘ambulance chasers’, advertise 24/7 for clients, in both English and Spanish. Any settlements have these vultures taking the major portion of the award, client suffering be damned. But it has also led to endless frivolous law suits and so much fraud that insurance companies looks askance at all claims and legit claimants often are wounded economically in this battle.
I have not even gotten started on what has happened to Graduate Schools of Ed, and how curriculum has changed due to the Free Market. Another vital issue in how and why there is do much down grading in ed, and so much cost inflation.
There also has been, in Calfornia, and influx of people from all over the world, which strains our public schools where 109 languages are spoken by these students and families. In addition, we know have in LA over 50,000 homeless due to the economic disaster caused by the banksters and politicians. I could gone on and on…but you all know these answers to why public ed is failing to prosper and costs keep rising.
FLERP:
You might want to read these articles on the outrageously high salaries of university admin:
https://www.mainstreet.com/article/tuition-increases-pay-administration-not-educationspiraling costs of college
adhttp://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/opinion/sunday/the-real-reason-college-tuition-costs-so-much.htmlmin
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/06/higher-ed-administrators-growth_n_4738584.html
http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2009/01/15/the-surprising-causes-of-those-college-tuition-hikes
I skimmed three of these quickly (the first link doesn’t work), and I don’t see any of them attributing rising tuition to outrageously high salaries of university administrators. They do mention that that there have been large increases in number of administrative employees, just as I wrote in my comment.
If you’re interested, here’s a link that should go to a list of the salaries of UC Berkeley employees, sorted from highest to lowest. The top hundred or so have a smattering of top-level admins, but it’s mainly faculty. This is more or less what you’ll see at every large state university.
This is common knowledge and common sense.
Thank you Abby for substantiating with links to articles, my comments on the inflated costs of middle managers, aka administrators, that have greatly increased the cost of tuition.
And here you go again FLERP, back to being an overbearing bully.who must have the last word.
The first of Abby’s links did not work, the other three worked well and stipulated exactly as she and I proposed….that the costs of administrators is an unwelcome and generally unnecessary MAJOR cost inflation at almost all universities int he US. Here is part of the NY Times article which clearly spells this out.
“Interestingly, increased spending has not been going into the pockets of the typical professor. Salaries of full-time faculty members are, on average, barely higher than they were in 1970. Moreover, while 45 years ago 78 percent of college and university professors were full time, today half of postsecondary faculty members are lower-paid part-time employees, meaning that the average salaries of the people who do the teaching in American higher education are actually quite a bit lower than they were in 1970.
By contrast, a major factor driving increasing costs is the constant expansion of university administration. According to the Department of Education data, administrative positions at colleges and universities grew by 60 percent between 1993 and 2009, which Bloomberg reported was 10 times the rate of growth of tenured faculty positions.
Even more strikingly, an analysis by a professor at California Polytechnic University, Pomona, found that, while the total number of full-time faculty members in the C.S.U. system grew from 11,614 to 12,019 between 1975 and 2008, the total number of administrators grew from 3,800 to 12,183 — a 221 percent increase.”
I don’t want to belabor the point any more, Ellen, but it seems to me that either you’re not reading what I wrote, or you’re not reading what you wrote. I wrote that administrative expenses are taking up an increasingly large portion of university budgets because universities employ greater numbers of administrative employees. That’s exactly what the Times article says.
The Times article does *not* say that administrators’ “huge salaries” are a meaningful driver of tuition increases, as you asserted in the initial comment that I took issue with. To the extent you’ve backed off that assertion — I notice that you haven’t repeated it in your last couple comments, and that you’re instead referring generically to overall “administrative” expenses — then I think we’ve resolved our disagreement.
I recommend following the link I provided. It’s just one piece of the story, but it is interesting to see how much universities pay their top-paid professors, and how many top-paid professors there are.
Oh, I see that the link I’m referring to isn’t included in my comment. My oversight. Here’s the general link, which is sortable by employer.
http://www.sacbee.com/site-services/databases/state-pay/article2642161.html
Oh for pity’s sake. FLERP! presenting his argument is *not* being an “overbearing bully”. Present your own case, show the flaws in his case if you can, but knock off the insults. Sheesh.
Flerp,
In one of those inexplicable situations, university administrators immediately saw the value of part-time faculty but, couldn’t quite grasp the value of part time administrators.
Thanks, Leftie, for the input of a real working Language Arts teacher re Invictus …and you who have run real public school English depts. know the heart of this poem..
Did not know Hillary helped start Eagle Academy…but the uniformed students were so rigid, it caught the notice of a number of teacher friends who commented…using these black male students rather as set-ups for careers in the military. What a stab for public schools.
Did you see that Tilson is climbing the tallest peaks right now to raise money for KIPP? He is wearing KIPP t-shirts and applauding himself, as a DFER, for his belief and support of charters.
I love the movie Invictus, starring Morgan Freeman and the best actor in the whole, wide world, Matt Damon. Nevermind that Clint Eastwood the empty chair conversationalist directed it. Morgan Freeman knows how to recite a poem. — DAM, come back — Most importantly, the subject of the film, Nelson Mandela, knew how to overcome hatred. Not with militancy.
With compassion.
I love Matt Damon too. He is a great guy.
One of my favorite stories ever: http://laschoolreport.com/matt-damon-takes-the-stage-but-ravitch-wins-the-applause/
That’s a great photo of my two favorite stars. Actually kind of touching, reading that article, even for a sceptic who grew up around TV and movie stars thinking, no big deal.
And I was there sitting in the front row of the packed auditorium at CSUN (which produces the most elementary teachers in the state)…glowing at it all…. lots of stories about that visit.
For Leftie…both Monica Ratliff and Richard Vladovic from the LAUSD BoE were there…and the wonderful Dr. Steve Krashen, emeritus from USC and one of the most revered reading specialists in the country, who a proponent of public schools, not charters. All were so excited to meet Diane…and fun to see her with Matt Damon who gave her a rousing introduction. The cheers and applause almost brought the ceiling down.
Ellen,
I wish I’d been there with you.
Bernie has stated that he plans to continue his “revolution.” whose goal is really an evolution of a new vision for the Democratic party. Bernie has already tapped into the passion of his young followers and astutely negotiated the democratic platform to the left. I hope Bernie’s populist movement continues and grows so that the Democrats will feel accountable to citizens rather than Wall St., Silicon Valley and hedge funds. I hope we can work together to get the money out of politics as it is the only way for a democracy to truly function and be responsive to the will of the people.
Although I agreed with Reich in the debate I posted with Hedges . Hedges brings up some interesting points in Days of Revolt. Not until the economic elites actually feel threatened by mass movements far greater than what we have seen ,will we see any substantial change.
He tells a story about Nixon and Kissinger in the White House a half million demonstrators outside , Nixon asks Kissinger if he thinks they will storm the barricades. Did those protests end the war, probably not. But you can be certain our all volunteer army grew out of a response to the antiwar movement. As I said to left coast yesterday, that movement was too focused on keeping ones butt in one piece to be a true progressive movement. When the draft/war ended so did the activism of the sixties.
The economic assault on working Americans should spur and has a much broader movement. The problem is that this populist movement has a left/right split with racial demagoguery being used to keep it apart. The hopeless part it has been this way for far too long.
Joel…you seem to contradict yourself re our army. In the Viet Nam era, we did not have ” a volunteer army” but rather we had a draft…which Trump got out of five times.
IMO if we had a draft the since the Papa Bush Middle East war in 1990, and if all the legislators kids were exposed to being drafted, maybe we would not have been as involved in so many wars.
I also think that our youth would be better off staying in school and preparing to lead our nation, and the oldsters who vote for war, should go fight them.
I think what Joel means is that the anti-war movement during the Viet Nam war is what led to our current all-volunteer army.
I believe my point was that the the response of the policy elites to the anti war movement was to initiate an all volunteer army (post Vietnam)
At least I hope I did . I am in full agreement with the rest of your statement. My point was that the focus of the antiwar movement was too narrow to be a true progressive movement. Even the Draft lotto cut into that movement taking away substantial opposition to the War. As one third of the youth from 69 on knew what their likely-hood of being drafted was, as of their 19th birthday. Thankfully I was only 18 in 69,or I might not be typing here today. That was a #1 I never wanted to be again . I just told you my birthday, if it is in any historical record.
My problem with Trump is not that he used his deferments. It is that along with his right wing supporters there has never been an aversion to sending American boys off to War. Nor to the carnage of war.
I would vote to bring back the draft in a heartbeat . If I lived in Charles Rangel’s district he would get my vote in a heartbeat for that proposal.
Dienne got it right ,so I know it was not the Sambuca my wife put in the coffee . Perhaps it was poor sentence structure.
Indeed Joel..and Dienne…I misread it.
I don’t know about other places but progressives didn’t do themselves any favors by disrupting the convention. People wanted to watch it. They were mad that it was constantly interrupted. Obviously they have the absolute right to protest, but some consideration of other people doesn’t hurt. It seems to me that consideration of other people and what they want in a large and diverse group is a pretty bedrock “progressive” value.
Because you CAN do something (and, again, they have an absolute right as far as I’m concerned) doesn’t mean you should completely ignore how it might affect others and if you DO that you should expect that people will resent it. There’s no guarantee of no consequences for political speech as far as alienating or angering people. There’s just a guarantee of the right to engage in it.
Well, when you try to silence people, they tend to yell louder trying to get heard. The antidote is listening. I wish Hillary and the DNC would understand that.
How did that fart-in work out? I guess it “back-fired.”
Hillary supporters have no clue how insulting their treatment of Sanders supporters was while the DNC emails broke. They rigged the game and then told everyone to just shut up and like it. Not acceptable. Shamefully not acceptable.
Here’s how the gas passing thing probably went down. Some mainstream reporter overhead someone make a sarcastic joke about farting and irresponsibly decided to go on air saying that was the new platform of the Sanders campaign. Not acceptable.
Darn progressives and their thinking that they were entitled to be heard. After all, it’s not like Sanders got millions of votes, won a lot of states, raised incredible amounts of money from millions of small donors, etc. Where do progressives get off with that attitude? Next, they’ll be expecting black people to have a say in American politics! Doesn’t majority rule?
Agree with you Chiara…and again will comment that both conventions are not much more that political theater, with liars at the helm attempting to infect the uninformed with their own brand of poison.
Bernie’s kids did not make much impact other than disruption, but then, the fully orchestrated DNC theater production left most educated voters dismayed.
Bernie’s breakthrough for all his hard campaigning and his legion of volunteers and donors, was ground breaking. He actually got 5 of his choices to sit on the Platform Committee. I did not approve of all five, and he never heard my, nor our voices as his supporters, asking him to sit down with Diane Ravitch and learn about the dangers of privatized education and the proliferation of charter schools taking over public ed. Our own prolific educator/writer, Susie Lee Schwartz went to school with Bernie, but she could not reach him…his campaign kept him insulated from hearing teachers. So the coin falls both ways. No one listens!!!
I am on campus weekly and talk with the 18 – 26 year old group of Bernie progressives. While some are steeped in knowledge of how our government works, most are NOT. Many cannot answer my two stock questions, “who is the VP of the United States?” and “what does a tripartite government mean?”
Geez…if they don’t know who Biden is, and don’t understand that we are governed by the three branches, Executive, Congress, and Judicial, how can we laud them for “farting” or other disrupting? They are in college to learn, but many see it as an endless frat party, and hate to report that many are in remedial English and Math classes when the enter as freshmen.
Thank goodness, in California, we have the best community college system in the nation. This is where tuition must be lowered first.
“Bernie’s kids….”
Yep, that was convincing. I’ll surely be voting for Hillary now. Keep up the good work!
Dienne..in what magical world do you live to think that every word I write, every thought I have, is directed to getting you personally to vote for Hillary? or to get you to do anything?
I give my views here about why I chose in the past two weeks to vote for Hillary (and all the regulars here will remember my frequent critiques of Hillary over the past year) for with tRump as her opponent, I feel it is only sane to vote for her….since I do not think voting third party right now is anything but wasting my vote, and giving it to the crazed maniacal tRump.
Now that’s a convoluted sentence.
This is purely my opinion. Readers are free to choose to agree or disagree…but your constant snide comments are only self defeating for you. As I have said before, you are too smart to just take potshots.
So….It is my personal goal now to work harder to change the electoral system so this does not keep happening.. In 1997, I taught a 4 part series of classes at city college on ‘A Constitutional Convention for the 21st Century’. Perhaps I will update this curriculum and present it again. It is no longer rational IMO that No. Dakota with its small population to have as much electoral clout as California, the most populace, diverse state in the Union, with the 7th largest economy in the world. I welcome everyone’s opinions on this.
BTW…I work with a Latino American group to register voters on campuses and in barrio communities, as I have done since 1978, and they are so well organized all over the South West that I think they will have a resounding voice in this election…and they are NOT tRump voters.
You are one to talk about taking potshots, Ellen. When you call someone you disagree with an “overbearing bully” and when you refer to Sanders supporters as “Bernie’s kids” (and previously you have said that they’re “too young to understand”), then you are in no position to talk about others. Again, present your case, but knock off the insults and condescension.
The Progressives of Broward County, FL,
Home of Debbie Wasserman Schultz,
Has been trying to pry the power away
From the establishment DEC for 25 years.
There is too much corruption & money
Involved in the operation. They provide
Jobs & work projects in the county. It is
A well-oiled machine.
So your suggestion to work within the Party
to Facilitate change is an empty one.
I will stay in the Party long enough to vote in the Primary for Tim Canova vs DWS.
Then, after 60 YEARS, I will not be a
DEM anymore. They left me. HRC
Terrifies me.
I’ve already said that I’m voting for Clinton but her education spokesperson makes me nervous. These are the same professional political slogans we got from the President’s team for 8 years. They’re meaningless. “Great schools!” means nothing. It all sounds carefully crafted by marketing people. Seriously- enough. Ed reform has been spouting these slogans for the last 15 years. This is a mature “movement” and they’re overwhelmingly dominant in DC and statehouses and policy circles. They need to stop hiding the ball.
Right on, Chiara.
Hillary’s campaign manager is in a video with Jeb Bush and Chester
Finn, presenting a united front in calling for the wealthy to fund politicians who privatize public schools. No public school plan goes forward unless it can put money in the pockets of the influence peddlers. DC is dollar-driven, with no moral core.
People who are willing to SELL OUT THE MOST IMPORTANT COMMON GOOD, to the detriment of kids, taxpayers and communities, are amoral, if not immoral.
I’m concerned that the policies and practices of the unregulated charter industry in my state are now being pushed into public schools.
I don’t want my public school to turn into the garbage for-profit ECOT. I was told I was funding these schools as “laboratories of innovation” but ed reformers have it wrong.
I don’t want my son sitting in front of a screen plowing thru cheap, canned computer programs. They can keep their “innovations”. They’re garbage that is being pawned off on low and middle income schools. Wealthy public schools in Ohio don’t purchase this crap. It’s being marketed to middle and lower income schools.
We will lose our teachers if they continue to cheerlead “online learning” because our bought and paid for legislature would LOVE to stop funding public schools completely- none of their children go to our schools anyway.
This is all I’m asking- stop ripping us off. I have low expectations for the Best and Brightest. Stop stealing from us. Can Hillary Clinton manage that? Great. She has my vote.
This is the goal of ESSA, a cesspool of corporate welfare!
@Chiara, you give fantastic arguments for NOT voting for Hillary, then conclude that she has your vote. I’m sure there’s at least one hidden variable or logical step you’re not sharing. Right?
Conniff’s summation of the Clinton philosophy is as succinct as I have yet seen. And it underscores my ever-changing intent to vote for her (I get queasy at the thought of it). Trump and his followers embody Hannah Arendt’s quote that “Totalitarian solutions may well survive the fall of totalitarian regimes in the form of strong temptations which will come up whenever it seems impossible to alleviate political, social, or economic misery in a manner worthy of man.” But Conniff’s description of DNC floor tactics and its embracing of jingoistic “American exceptionalism” demonstrates that Democrats can also veer toward those temptations.
In any event, should Clinton win, I strongly believe that she will be a one-term president and Republicans will, as they have done since Goldwater (Gerald Ford-excepted), repackage their brand to incorporate some of the more odious positions of Trump into a slicker package that promises more social resentment, unworkable policy simplification, and foreign policy muscle-flexing to appeal to the mob. And that makes Conniff’s advice for progressives to roll up their sleeves and commit to action even more important.
GregF….So glad you brought up the brilliant Hannah Arendt. ..Diane’s members are such great teachers. Arendt, educator/philosopher wrote so deeply on National Socialism and on Republicanism…would love to hear her words today.
Dems did as much ‘real-politik-speak’ as Reps. The system is so broken…but it is all based on the ‘Free Market model’ and ‘audience share’ bringing in the biggest bucks. How can this capitalist system work in any way for the individual? for truth in elections?
It is totally Ayn Rand-ian, and is based on who is the more believable liar and who makes more false promises believed ‘en toto’ by ignoramus voters?
BTW…in Israel, the candidates only have four weeks to state their case to the public, and the TV air time allowances are equal for each person, and cost nothing…with NO advertising. Wish this was the system in the US.
God Ellen we see how that worked out. Trump on steroids. Which is not to say that obscene money in politics should not be replaced by Public financing.
Joel, m’dear…I said I prefer that system of only four weeks of campaigning and no financial payout by advertisers and Koch-like manipulators…not their hawk-candidates who won their last few elections. Do not know other nations which handle elections without a pay-to-play basis, although I am sure some of the Scandanavian countries probably do. Please educate me.
You do flattery so well, but your superior Columbia education, and your penchant for lifelong learning, shines through.
Ellen ,
I would have to educate myself on that one first. On comparative international political systems, I will plead ignorance . However there are certainly some advantages to long election campaigns. Certainly the grueling process exposes candidates for who they really are. As both of these candidates have revealed .Think of only four weeks,or a few months of exposure to either of them. Why if there was any doubt as to the mental stability of “tRump” in November just the last few weeks have revealed a lot more than his demagoguery 9 months ago. . Similarly the battle between Sanders and Clinton has forced Clinton to move to a place she never would have been, without that long effective challenge. Keeping her there will be the problem. That is where the influence of money in politics is poisonous to democracy.
Sanders has proved that it is possible to fund a National campaign on small donations. There is no reason that we should not move to a publicly financed system with low dollar limits on individual contributions. Although there are plenty of rea$on$ that we have not done so already.
But you have touched on a greater issue one that is responsible for the situation that we find ourselves in . The profound ignorance of a large portion of the American Public, about the structure of our political systems, no less the real life !!!! workings of our legislative process, is frightening . That your students can not name the VP at a College level, enables the system to function as it does . That is the one third + that actually attend college. What of the 60% that do not . How many Americans still read anything no less the few newspapers we have left . You don’t want to cut down trees, how many even use the resources available on the net, to keep abreast of political developments.
That leaves for those who avail themselves ,the corporately owned TV media . If there is anything this election cycle has demonstrated in living color ,it is that media is enabling oligarchy. As the total of 5 minutes of the R.Convention I forced myself to watch was revolting. So was the well orchestrated sham put on at the D.Convention. As someone I read today stated. We had the very moving speech of the Reverend Barber followed by a blood and guts speech of Gen. John Allen. The D.N.C. not to be outdone by the Republicans with shouts of USA USA USA . Bring back the draft is right.
So if there has been a failure of our education system. It is that it no longer serves democracy as it should.
I do not know that this was always the case. I do not think that it was, ,even when literacy was at far lower levels .Even when formal education was not as wide spread.
“While the cigar makers rolled, they liked to have someone read to them. The reader had to be smart. The cigar makers kept up with the latest news, had lively discussions, and listened to literature. Sometimes Sam Gompers did the reading.”
But tempers are getting frayed here and I haven’t seen anyone actually on the other side .
Perhaps it is a sign of the level of disgust in a place where people actually do know who the VP is .
By the way that education was the the City University of NY at a time that it was well funded. Had highly paid tenured and tenure track professors. Had competitive entrance requirements and was free. A time when NYU was a safe school for many NYC residents. We should be able as the most fortunate!!! nation on the planet to return to those days. And a whole lot more.
They have a similar restricted system in Scandinavia with all campaigns getting the same amount from the state. It is a better more equitable system. Here our politicians spend more time campaigning and fund raising than governing.
Joel…my respected friend, and GregB, my new respected friend…you both make so many important points. I agree that somewhere along the line, over the past 50 or so years, our education system has, in part, broken down. But also it is in this same timeline, from about Ronald Reagan to today, that poverty in America has increased, and the wealth has moved ONLY upwards. Concurrently, the NRA and the gun manufacturers, have gotten a stranglehold on the government and seem to have more clout than anyone, including educators, union workers, and those who make a society civilized. We are racing backwards to the Dark Ages, it would seem.
Yes, Joel, CCNY was the initial locale of the great 1930s liberals debating all this same stuff, from the four corners of the dining hall. Reading about it now, it is hard to fathom why there is so little change for the betterment of the masses, and why it all recapitulates in each couple of generations. Is this to be the permanent human condition until leaders like tRump and Putin nuke us all?
I agree with your final paragraph GregB. Will the next election be repackaged Hillary and tRump or his like? Yes, we who are concerned activists can only go forward, and as you and Coniff say, “commit to action.”
Thanks Joel for quoting the great ‘non credentialed’ teacher/unionleader who influenced my thinking when I was only in high school…Samuel Gompers. To think, on this stream today we have remembered Gompers and Ahrent…amazing. Love you guys. You give me hope for the future.
Yes, Ellen, we should thank Diane for providing the forum to allow people like you, me, and Joel to discuss real ideas. It’s so rare today. Where else can we be reminded of great minds like Arendt and Gompers as we discuss the issues of the day?
As an occasional/former Californian who credits my great 5th and 6th grade teachers in the early 70s for inspiring me to read, write, and think, I am honored to be your respected friend. But I’m not sure I’ve ever been respected before. It’s a new frontier for me!
Thanks again, Diane. Although we get “tetchy” with each other at times, your site inspires me every day.
GregB,
I appreciate your comments. I enjoy reading the comments, occasionally jump in, and consistently find the conversation to be very informative.
Ellen
Perhaps Gregb can give you hope , Your students are the hope . I am quite the past. Seeing 28,000 mostly young students at Washington Square come out to hear Bernie, gave me hope. Lets hope their energy pulls us forward more than my generation has.
.
Agree Joel…it is the students who keep mosf of us hanging in and hoping for the best…but nice to know that parent types are in the fray and raised these students to be independent creative thinkers. Never thought I would still be teaching in my dotage, but I love it and cannot imagine life without it.
Yes, Diane, for the zillionth time, thank you for making this happen.
Ellen,
Speaking of Hannah Arendt, there is a center, at Bard College, named in her honor. The Center Director joined the attack on public pensions, at the same time that the Koch machine was its most vocal on the issue, a year or two ago. The Director doubled down on his argument, after the alignment with the Koch’s was brought to his attention.
Linda…Did not know that about Bard and Arendt.. I think there is also a building, or Hall, at Yale named after her.
She was remarkable as a philosopher, but had broad knowledge in many subjects. Wonder if current students are influenced by her huge body of work? Hard to believe she died in 1975…over 40 years ago.
Heinrich Blücher, Arendt’s husband, was a teacher at Bard College and also at the New School. They are buried next to each other on the Bard College campus. If I remember correctly, he never received a doctorate, but was still a prominent professor. Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism (which is the source of the quote I cited) is dedicated to him. She and Isaiah Berlin formed the basis of my political ideas.
You chose a remarkable mentor, Greg. Am sure you know that Arendt and Heidegger were lovers on and off for a lifetime. He was her professor when she was 18, and despite having a wife and kids, they got together. She was Jewish, and he eventually became a Nazi sympathizer. New book out on their love story.
“This book is the first to tell in detail the story of the passionate and secret love affair between two of the most prominent philosophers of the twentieth century, Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger. Drawing on their previously unknown correspondence, Elzbieta Ettinger describes a relationship that lasted for more than half a century, a relationship that sheds startling light on both individuals, challenging our image of Heidegger as an austere and abstract thinker and of Arendt as a consummately independent and self-assured personality.
Arendt and Heidegger met in 1924 at the University of Marburg, when Arendt, an eighteen-year-old German Jew, became a student of Heidegger, a thirty-five-year-old married man. They were lovers for about four years; separated for almost twenty years, during which time Heidegger became a Nazi and Arendt emigrated to the United States and involved herself with issues of political theory and philosophy; resumed their relationship in 1950 and in spite of its complexities remained close friends until Arendt’s death in 1975. Ettinger provides engrossing details of this strange and tormented relationship. She shows how Heidegger used Arendt but also influenced her thought, how Arendt struggled to forgive Heidegger for his prominent involvement with the Nazis, and how Heidegger’s love for Arendt and fascination with Nazism can be linked to his romantic predisposition.
A dramatic love story and a revealing look at the emotional lives of two intellectual giants, the book will fascinate anyone interested in the complexities of the human psyche.”
I am too old for an abortion. My career is
in shambles. The Goldman Sachs crowd might tank the economy again. They like to play with fire. Clinton is getting ready to bomb the hell out of Syria. My marching days are over. I protested the Viet Nam War and I picketed my local supermarket for the Farm Workers Union. I am looking for a comfortable chair and a good book to pass my dotage quietly. This country is going to hell in a hand basket. Every value I hold dear has been turned into a commodity. I intend to watch the fireworks from the top bleachers if I can still climb up there.
Regarding the fart-in, it was the idea of Cheri Honkala of Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign: “We are going to take Bernie [Sanders] supporters and poor homeless families here in Kensington [one of Philadelphia’s poorest neighborhoods], and we’re going to serve folks beans,” Honkala tells Broadly. “On the last day of the convention, we are going to surround the convention center and have a fart-in, because at least we hopefully can’t be arrested about that.”
The fart-in was tongue in cheek, meant to be humorous and symbolic and did not occur in the convention center.
https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/cheri-honkala-fart-in-dnc
Actually, both the RNC and DNC conventions were giant fart ins but by the 2 big parties.
Agree with: “Actually, both the RNC and DNC conventions were giant fart ins but by the 2 big parties.”
Both were disgusting. And All that $$$$$ spent for FANFARE, too. Can ya imagine the cost? And people here go hungry. OY!
Word Press needs a like button and an edit button for me.
Some of these halos must be very heavy.
My halo is kaput, it crashed, the software is toast and it’s out of warranty.
If we saved the money we are spending arming and blowing people up all over the planet, we could probably send everybody to college a few times.
I assure you those people would be as happy as our students would be getting that free tuition .
Late to the party, but I know that the idea of eating beans & “farting,” as it were, are organizational tools promoted by the great Saul Alinsky, & explained in the ultimate protester’s handbook, Rules for Radicals, originally published by Random House in 1971. Look in the chapter “Tactics”–it’s on Pages 139-140 of the paperback. (It’s on my bookshelf, right next to Robert’s Rules of Order, & right behind a picture of my then 12-year-old daughter having the book Dude, Where’s My Country? signed by Michael Moore.)
Come to think of it, I must re-read Alinsky’s book again. And–for all of you who haven’t–go out, buy a copy (or borrow one from your local library) & READ!
I’m sorry but you are wrong. Most of us will NOT hold our nose and get in line. Manor us are voting #JillStein. The corrupt DNC rigged this election and then stole our votes and I will not reward that behavior with my vote.