Mike Klonsky has been a radical for many decades. Back in the 1960s, he was a key figure in the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
He offers sage advice to his fellow lefties on the current election:
He writes:
Students from Johnson C. Smith University at a rally for Hillary Clinton in Charlotte, North Carolina. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times
Sorry to say, rapacious capitalism will still be here in November. Not only that, but I doubt it will ever be simply voted out. Even if a “socialist” like Bernie were to someday be elected (I wish). But maybe that’s just old-school me.
Whatever the case, come the first of the year, either Hillary Clinton, or Donald Trump, will be our next president and Jill Stein and Gary Johnson will have taken their campaign funds and gone home, a la Ralph Nader and the rest of those perennial presidential spoiler candidates
That’s when the real movement for social justice, peace and racial equality needs to kick into gear again — after the election, no matter who is elected.
NYT columnist Charles Blow, speaking to Morgan State Univ. students, tries to break through the reported millennial political malaise and encourage a large youth turnout for Clinton.
“First — and this cannot be said enough — Clinton and Trump are not equally bad candidates. One is a conventional politician who has a long record of public service full of pros and cons. The other is a demagogic bigot with a puddle-deep understanding of national and international issues, who openly courts white nationalism, is hostile to women, Mexicans and Muslims, and is callously using black people as pawns in a Donnie-come-lately kinder-gentler campaign.”
As an educator, I would also include Trump’s pledge to do away with public education or what he calls, the “government monopoly” of public schools. And here I thought Trump loved to play Monopoly.
Blow continues…
“That person will appoint someone to fill the current vacancy on the Supreme Court (assuming that the Senate doesn’t find religion and move on Merrick Garland before the new president takes office) and that person will also appoint federal judges to fill the 88 district court and court of appeals vacancies that now exist (there are 51 nominees pending for these seats).”
And more…
“You can’t have taken part in a march for Eric Garner, chanting “I can’t breathe,” and risk the ascendance of a man who has as one of his chief advisers Rudy Giuliani, the grandfather of the very “broken windows” policing strategy that sent officers after low-level offenders like Garner.
“You can’t detest racial-dragnet-policy stop-and-frisk policing as not only morally abhorrent but thoroughly unconstitutional and risk the ascendance of a man who on Wednesday reportedly suggested that he would consider using stop-and-frisk more across the nation.
Makes sense. As Bernie Sanders himself said last week: “This is not the time for a protest vote.”
As one of the leaders of the “vote in the streets” 60’s youth revolt and someone who has often cast protest votes or gone fishing on meaningless election days, I couldn’t agree more.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Wake me up when it IS time for a protest vote. I know it won’t be 2020: then we’ll be told we must vote for four more years of Hillary Clinton to keep Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, or some other GOP troll from storming the castle and nuking the rest of the world.
It never ends. Good guys and bad guys. White hats and black hats. And it’s all an enormous game intended to keep us from paying attention to “the man behind the curtain.” Or men. Or oligarchs. We could have had someone who might just have pulled back that curtain for four or eight years. Instead, we’ve got a trash-mouthed, nasty, moron multi-millionaire versus a conniving neoliberal with all the ethics of a scorpion. There’ll be no joy in Mudville. Or anywhere else come November.
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To Michael Paul Goldenberg:
1) Suddenly, HRC is being smeared by GOP who is controlled by the rich that own media.
2) Suddenly, Supreme Court Judge and Ted Cruz publicly apologized for their stand to oppose Donald trump.
3) If educators have the same feeling like yours, eventually all of you will pretend to be deaf, mute and blind in order to be safe than sorry for yourself and for your loved ones. There is no choice. Back2basic
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Knock it off with the poor Hillary is being smeared nonsense. First, Hillary is doing plenty of her own smearing – that’s what David Brock (and others) is for. He’s an expert at that, just as Anita Hill. Second, and more importantly, Hillary is a conniving neoliberal. That’s documented in her history of supporting Wall Street and endless war, as well as all the questionable and outright fraudulent ways she managed to “win” the primary.
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I agree, Mr. Goldberg. Change is always in the future. Until it isn’t, and we get the same “fear vote” pleas. I’ll vote 3rd third party till this nation wakes up to the big money corruption both parties are driven by, and the MSM are silent about.
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In our state, Kasich is already running for 2020. He’s suddenly a moderate, compassionate conservative. Sadly, the gullible voters in Ohio keep voting against their own interests. The new normal has set in and the sheep just keep following.
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And that is the sad truth. The reason Republicans are solidifying around Trump is he is them and they are him. His bogus populism aside. They may not like the image they see in the mirror. But it is accurate.
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I agree. Party over country. The only reason Kasich hasn’t endorsed Trump is he wants to appear “reasonable” for 2020. But any Ohioan can tell you, if they are being honest, that Kasich is just as bad, if not worse as he wraps his extremism in a flag and carries a Bible.
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I agree with you 100%, I have found myself asking the same question.
I asked it in 92, 96, 2000 and 2012. In 2008 I was skeptical but hopeful.
To your point
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_courtiers_and_the_tyrants_20160918
How many times will I ask people I know, to vote for someone I do not believe in. How many times will I my vote be in fear of the other party rather than in support of the party I am voting for?
However the answer I come up with is echoing Chomsky ; as many times as I have to, to prevent the irrefutable harm that will be done to the overwhelming majority of working class Americans, that will emanate from a Republican agenda, no matter which candidate heads their party.
Then as Klonsky said I will “vote in the streets”, to try and keep that lesser evil from doing harm. An option that will be far more difficult under a Trump administration. Trump faced with a Kent State would be giving Medals of Honor to the guardsmen.
So on Monday I plan on making both demonstrations in Hempstead NY. The one in support of Public Schools and the latter one opposed to TPP. In both cases my message is for Hillary and those Democrats that have strayed from being the “party of the people”.
Words and peaceful demonstrations are useless to reach the party of hate, fear and oligarchy. There are no “good guys or white hats” but there are “bad guys and black hats (Brown Shirts)”.
No need to watch the clown show inside Hofstra they will call a debate.
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Joel…I agree that it is too often a fear vote.
However, I am a fan of Mike Klonsky, being a lifetime Leftie of his era. His union support in Chicago to this day has been a major factor in how the undermined teachers there have not only hung in (despite Rahm), but how they have prevailed.
It may be the age factor, but those of us who were marching against the Viet Nam war, and pushing JFK and then Lyndon Johnson for the civil rights legislation, seem to be on the same page today…we do not see Hillary as a savior in any way, but rather we do see Trump as so destructive that we will vote for Hillary to protect the country…but will then actively lean on her to make real change, not war.
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Maybe it is an age thing. My reaction is the same as yours (at 66) and I am a recovered Republican! (Raised in an Eisenhower Republican family. If my parents were alive they would be voting for Hillary as they did when Johnson ran against Goldwater.) We are all shaped by what we have lived.
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2old to teach, I concur. I was raised in an upstate-NY collegetown in the ’50’s/ ‘ 60’s. Locals like my family were Republican, yet tempered by the liberal uni atmosphere: we rejected the John Bircher extremism that prevailed in the surrounding rural areas: we were fiscal conservatives who believed in the common good. Therefore, we like you voted against Goldwater.
My mother was a pragmatic person– yet, mid-Bush’s 2nd term, she became in old age a cynic. It was clear to her how Bush was using the small-govt mantra to rob the elderly like her of whatever goods they had mgd to save. The only thing that saved her from dying in total ignominy (i.e., w/o even hospice care) was a long-term disability policy- among the last so acquired– inthe late ’80’s.
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“with all the ethics of a scorpion”
Well, that would be no ethics at all then, eh!
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I have lived and understood the influence under Chinese colony, French colony, American support, Northern communist Vietnamese, refugee camp, and Canadian society.
My sincere experience is to share with all of educators in this special forum. Please do not MIS-judge my experience. We will pretend to be deaf, mute and blind in order to save our children in school or at work force and to avoid being harassed due to our religion, skin color and transgender.
Theoretical knowledge is easily misled. Therefore, educators need to put themselves in the shoes of people so that they can experience the choice that they decide to support.
In this particular Presidential Election in November 2016, American electoral system ONLY offers voters two choices regardless all vocal expressions.
The ONLY choice that voters have is to HAVE A CHANCE to modify this current electoral system from a hopeful Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton with her conscience from her ideological dream and 40+ years of working experience in both American domestic and foreign policies.
The other choice that voters have is to live with REGRET of being vulnerable, gullible, and bullied by the obviously shown coward, liar, cheater, dictator who loves to threaten the opponents with retaliation, and most of all who did not care for the welfare of American people, his own republican colleagues, his own military commander and the Supreme Court Judge.
In unity, Americans can have a chance to restore their democracy.
With division, Americans will GRADUALLY experience their lives UNDER TERRORIZED BY their own obvious PUPPET LEADERSHIP that is totally controlled by China and Saudi Arabia (according to the news). Back2basic
Please substitute the word Cherokee with HUMANITY in the song from the link as below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caCvDB9ivOE
Cherokee Nation (Indian Reservation) lyrics – Paul Revere and The Raiders
Humanity, freedom of expression and woman rights will be gone with the wind if China and Saudi Arabia influence or control Donald Trump.
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No possible good can be gained with Trump being elected. Whereas Hillary’s election will mean a liberal Supreme Court, support for public school teachers, and
respect for women, the handicapped and immigrants…not voting is a vote for
Trump…with all of Clinton’s flaws, this is the alternative…those not voting are
spoiler’s and will not listen to Bernie or Klosky …this kind of thinking might lead
to election of the most dangerous person in the history of the U.S.
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Yes. No matter how complicated or difficult the task, I believe that Clinton can be pulled left. I simply cannot say the same thing about Trump.
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If not pulled left prevented from going further right??????
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oh my, yes
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YES….
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“Hillary’s election will mean. . . support for public school teachers,”
On my jokemeter that ranks a 9.9 out of 10!
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Sometimes there is an issue big enough that many voters are compelled to protest. Slavery was such an issue back in 1848. The new anti-slavery party “The Free Soil Party” drew 15% of the vote from both the Democratic and the Whig Parties and shook the world. Given the dismantling of the public schools, the criminalization of the poor, the mass imprisonments, the privitization of all public service, and the brutality of the hedge funds, this is such a time.
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I will vote for Hillary because having a president Trump is just unimaginable but an all too real possibility. I wanted Bernie, voted for Bernie but sadly this country is not ready for a democratic socialist. This country in 2016 is not even ready for universal health care or improved Medicare for all; that’s a sad commentary on the state of affairs in the US. We have a huge chunk of the population that are very conservative and buy into the tea party sludge. They keep voting against their own best interests and for people like Kasich, Christie, LePage and Cruz. The big problem is money in politics, the tsunami of cash that crushes any attempt at true reform (not Rheeform). The Citizens United decision opened the flood gates to unlimited amounts of cash drowning our democracy. Hillary will not appoint more right wing nuts to the supreme court. Her husband appointed Ginsburg and Breyer.
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Perhaps the problem is not cash. perhaps the problem is not having a real alternative. Cash may cause that problem more than it buys elections. Bernie did not lose because he was too far to the left. He lost because of the internal dynamics of the Democratic party and of key constituencies of that party.
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YES again…the Dems killed off Bernie’s remarkable winning movement with their email, caucus, and Convention shenanigans, and in many states, including mine, California, they used the contrived ballot language to disenfranchise the tens of thousands of Independent and other non-Dem stated voters who all wanted Bernie. Can’t blame this on the ignorant, devious and petulant Reps. Blame Schumer and Debbie W-S (and she got re-elected). The process stinks and is vastly undemocratic.
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But there is no equivalency between the anti-slavery Free Soilers of 1848 and
the libertarians or the Greens of 2016. A vote for the Libertarians or Greens is a vote
for Trump and a small percentage like Nader in Florida 2000 can swing
election to Republicans…not 15 per cent but two or three percent can change
results of swing states…explain how the election of Trump can reform
anything, it can’t, and that’s why Klonsky and Bernie are strongly backing
Clinton. I don’t see a flaw in their argument.
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“. . . a small percentage like Nader in Florida 2000 can swing
election to Republicans. . . ”
Total horse manure. That has been debunked many many times over.
Reasons #354-360 why that is not true:
Pages 152-164 of Ch 5 “Electile Dysfunction” of C. Seirce’s “Proofiness: How You’re Being Fooled by the Numbers”
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Well done Michael and Diane. I sure hope we don’t end up with the situation like Richard Nixon being voted in because some people did not see Hubert Humphrey as different. Humphrey (like all of us had flaws. But he would have been a far better President than Nixon.
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How could one not have seen the difference between those two, Joe?
Even being in the 8th grade at the time I could easily tell the difference. But then again my folks at the time got both the dailies, The Globe Democrat (now defunct) and the Post Dispatch so that I had access to two almost diametrically opposed points of view.
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Thx for your note, Duane. Sadly pollsters found that some people on the left insisted that they was no major difference between Humphrey & Nixon – so a significant # of these folks did not vote.
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What? Did somebody call me? I thought I heard ‘Leftie’.
Well, now that I am awake, hello from the Left coast, where states are always reliably blue and presidents elect are always celebrating their victories by the time our votes are counted.
I am voting for Hillary Clinton, not because I am afraid to protest, not out of fear of anything or anyone. I’m voting Clinton to stick it to the man, to stick it to the Donald. He is all about bashing teachers nowadays. He’s feeding the beast on the Right. At this point, I am voting for a yuge, slap in the face Trump loss.
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I want the big dummy to lose by 20 points
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Again laughing Big Leftie…muah.
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A year from now one of two people will be President of the United States. Hillary Clinton or Mike Pence. If Trump wins he gets impeached. Any of Trump’s shady business practices will do nicely as grounds for impeachment. If they could impeach Bill Clinton over an affair Trump’s easy. And Pence is quietly worse.
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Great suggestion…start impeachment proceedings on day one of a tRump presidency.
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My point was that the Republicans would impeach him. Pence actually scares me more. He’s an anti education, anti choice, anti gay true believer. And he’d appoint far worse Supreme Court justices. Vote for Hillary.
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Amen,May he be destroyed in the elective and popular votes and public school teachers who are sitting this out or voting for Green or Libertarian are not brave,
courageous or bold, to quote the Wyaat Earp song. It’s more like we are on Dylan’s
watchtower “no time to speak falsely know, the hour is getting late.” To gamble and
think a Trump and Clinton presidency to be the same is to ptactice self deception to the
nth degree.
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“think a Trump and Clinton presidency to be the same is to ptactice self deception to the nth degree.”
I know of no Stein or Johnson supporter that states the the presidency of those to crooked SOB’s, as my mom would have stated to be polite, would be the same. We used to make strawmen as kids and then shoot them with bows and arrows. Real world training for the duplicitous times in which we live, eh!
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“a la Ralph Nader and the rest of those perennial presidential spoiler candidates”
For an avowed leftie Mike sure has swallowed that hook and line from the status quo plutocratic oligarchic duopoly.
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