I have been trying to find a way to smack down the loony right on Obama's
Sept. 8 education speech to students while also smacking down the overly pompous attitude of the eduformers. As usual,
Jim Horn finds the words:
I guess it was inevitable that the Far Right eventually would be pushed over the edge of their own flat Earth, when the Oligarchs' latest acquisition, the Democratic Party, moved into the territory that Reagan and Bush had previously made safe for Big Business and Wall Street. With Obama now promoting the education causes championed by the Wall Street Journal's editorial board, there is nowhere for poor anal retentive nutjobs to stand except somewhere over the cliff. And thus the new theory now being advanced by the wingers is that the socialist, Obama, is using the noon September 8 speech to indoctrinate children into the camp of the Reds.
The screaming irony, of course, is that Obama will not use this speech for socialist subterfuge, but, rather, to advance the reform schoolers' "No Excuses" message that he tested out during his speech at the 100th anniversary dinner of the NAACP. That was another huge irony that went unappreciated by those who obviously believe, now 55 years after Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, that the new reality of educational apartheid is no excuse, either, for poor families living in abject poverty without decent housing, jobs, or any health care. No excuses, indeed.
So while the Hoper-in-Chief will no doubt give a good speech with many uplifting riffs aimed at instilling personal responsibility in students, there will be no mention of school counselors let go, librarians eliminated, psychologists gone missing, roofs unfixed, windows still broken, buses that don't run or that have been sold off, teachers furloughed or fired, schools displaced by corporate welfare charter outfits, benefits cut, retirements diminished, salaries held hostage to test scores, schools shuttered because of an insane federal testing policy, children who must dodge bullets to get the schoolhouse door--hungry, without glasses, dental care, or even a grocery store where a decent apple may be bought.
The hoper-in-chief will inspire, not socialism on September 8, but a false belief in a fix-it-yourself-or-die system based on unrestrained corporate control that has replaced civic responsibility and caring within a democratic republic dedicated to improving the lives of all citizens. Obama will be as inspiring as Reagan, for at last it will be Reagan's message delivered by a man we had, for awhile, hoped would be something different. Who knew the Democrats would destroy the Republicans by becoming them?
Update: But when it comes to making students and parents take more responsibility for their own educational futures, Obama and Duncan have little more than their bully pulpits—and now a $1,000 cash prize.
So maybe the title of this post should be:
Obama Will Preach Socialism Bribery To The Country's Children