There is hope for a change in Kentucky politics.
FOX News says that Governor Matt Bevin is in trouble in his re-election bid because he picked a fight with teachers.
“Matt Bevin is Kentucky’s third Republican governor in the last half-century – and if he’s re-elected this year, he’d be the first in party history to win a second term to that office.
“It likely won’t be easy.
”Bevin gained national repute as a conservative reformer, but made an enemy of the state’s powerfulteachers’ union. He’s the least popular governor in the United States, according to a Morning Consult poll in January. Also, the most recent head-to-head poll found Bevin trailing two Democrats vying for their party’s nomination in the May 21 primary.
“Bevin’s trouble comes largely because he has a reckless mouth,” said Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky and veteran political reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal. “He goes after teachers in a sometimes outrageous way. A lot of teachers are Republicans, and a lot of Republicans are teachers. Teachers are still well thought of in rural Kentucky. If not for teachers, Bevin would be a prohibitive favorite for re-election.”
Kentucky teachers! Get out there and organize to protect your students, your community public schools, and your profession!
“A lot of teachers are Republicans, and a lot of Republicans are teachers” And there is your problem.
Nobody ever accused me of taking it easy on Democrats, especially NYCPSP. But seriously the Republican Party has almost been on a 70-year war to gut the New Deal and the protections it offered workers. On a 30 year war to attack Public Schools specifically because of the Union Teachers they employ. And of course Earl Warrens betrayal. As a kid riding down to Florida. I never knew why the billboards read “impeach Earl Warren save our Republic” I think he only made one controversial decision in 1954.
So tell me how a teacher votes Republican or a Union Construction worker? 70% of second voted for the Puke in the WH. In spite of his calling for Right to Work and a refusal to back prevailing wage.
Perhaps the people of Kentucky are getting just what they deserve. When I talk to a worker and he runs out of reasons to explain why he is voting against his economic interests. The inevitable answer of last resort is “sometimes there are more important things than your job”. Okay, what would that be? Answer: “American Values .” A code word for everything you were taught are not American values. Or at least what we like to pretend are American values. Because our history reveals that what we pretend to believe is basically a myth. And it is reflected in the political map.
Matt Bevin must be a member of ALEC.
CORRECTION: the UNIONS did NOT back the sickouts. They worked to undermine them, and to discourage teachers from swamping the Jefferson County (KY) School substitute system with sick-out call-ins. It was the “rogue groups”, vilified by the unions, which stood up and carried out the protest. The unions proposed what turned out to be a failed “delegate” compromise, which had no perceptible positive effect: in fact, a terrible bill, HB 489 which eliminated oversight of pension investments, was passed as the few delegates who showed up (about 200, whereas there had been many 1000s of teachers in the capitol rotunda before the “compromise”) looked on, slack-jawed. SEE: https://www.courier-journal.com/…/jcps-unions-…/3287669002/… https://www.foxnews.com/…/republican-gov-matt-bevin-kentucky
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Signed, Dr. Randolph Wieck Teacher Retirement Legal Fund, TRELF ________________________________
rwieck
I don’t claim to have been there or even know very much about Kentucky. But I think I have a bit of an Idea how Unions are forced to operate. There is only one reason that Unions refuse to go on strike when strikes are warranted. The laws that they are operating under constrain their actions. Usually, the wild cat is undertaken with a wink and a nod; to avoid fines that bankrupt the union holds the leadership criminally responsible and levy fines on individual members. So if the Teachers were allowed to take sick days and not face any liability. It would be stupid to have the Union be seen as backing it.
Grassroots movements are at times not what they appear to be. Having spent a year and a half in one in NYC against the largest Real estate developer in the country. Even with the Unions at arm’s length it still resulted in massive lawsuits under the secondary boycott provisions of Taft Hartley. But like I said I don’t know Kentucky.
How many years of DEFORMS in America? Answer: Since Reagan.
Sometimes I think Americans want a stupid potus. This way they can feel better about their own ignorance and just claim, “I am an American not a commie.” HUH?
Sadly the two smart ones were only marginally better than two of the three stupid ones. Part of the reason we have the third and most stupid one.
Bevin deliberately exposed his kids to measles. If complications had ensued, he would be liable.
Bevin called for kids to be endangered by being in school on days when the weather was so cold school buses wouldn’t start.
Bevin is an adoptive parent. I hope someone is looking out for the kids.