Progress With Anti-Bullying Campaigns Nationwide Being Undermined By 2016 Election Campaign

For the first time in twelve years, since I've been teaching high school, there is a perceptible change taking place in my classroom dynamic.  My Muslim students, some whom I have known for two or three years are now telling me for the first time things are being said to them about their religion and who they are.  One young girl whom I've taught for two years told me that this year she's had something said to her about her belief system from several students, including ones she has known since beginning high school and that for the first time they felt uncomfortable about who they were.

I've also picked up rumblings from my students about LGBT's suddenly getting harassment in ways they've never experience before.  This goes for my black students as well who tell me they are hearing the 'N' word more often how than ever before.  There is no doubt something is happening in my school I've never experience before and apparently I'm not the only one:

"I think there's a real danger of harm taking place in all American schoolchildren," Maureen Costello, an education expert at the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC), a civil rights group, told Al Jazeera."We've seen 10 or more years of anti-bullying work get rolled back by a hostile atmosphere in many schools. Teachers describe disillusionment, depression and discouragement among kids who feel like they now know what people have thought about them all along," Castello said.

What seems to be causing all of this?  The data from a Southern Poverty Law Center survey of some 2,000 schools across the nation appears to be unambiguous in its findings:

An SPLC survey of some 2,000 US schools found that two-thirds of teachers described their vulnerable students - including blacks, Muslims, Latinos and other minorities - as affected by rhetoric in the 2016 White House race.
It shows a spike in racist bullying. For Muslims - or even some non-Muslim brown-skinned children - the acronym "ISIS" has become a stock taunt, referencing the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, which is also known as ISIS).

There doesn't seem to be any coincidence with the findings of this study and the 2016 campaign for the White House where a leading Presidential contender is talking about building walls and describing Mexican immigrants as anything but in a positive light.  At the beginning of businessman Donald Trumps campaign he started a firestorm with this opening gambit to the 2016 race for the White House:

“[Mexico] are sending people that have lots of problems, and they are bringing those problems to us. They are bringing drugs, and bringing crime, and their rapists,” the business mogul said.

The damage being done to the classrooms across the country seems to be undeniable.  The anti-bullying campaign being so assiduously used over the last 10 years now almost seems to be for naught with the prevailing atmosphere rolling in from the hateful rhetoric by the Republican side of the 2016 campaign.  The damage being done by the rhetoric of fear, anger and racism spilling out of the Donald Trump campaign is going to make it so much more difficult to roll back after such positive progress that seemed to be so evident with that nation-wide anti-bullying campaign.  I never imagined the source of ugly xenophobic rhetoric you would hear at this level would be rooted in the campaign for the White House.

Elected Florida Democrats Get A Warning From Wisconsin

The showdown taking place in Wisconsin as I post this is starting to reach critical mass for the public sector employees in the state. It’s been quite awhile since I’ve seen elected Democrats take actual stands against their Republican counterparts and not act intimidated or cower in their caucus rooms worried sick about how they will be portrayed in the media. At this moment I wish I was a Wisconsin Democrat joining in the fight. It’s more than just a fight for public employees to keep their bargaining rights: it’s a fight for human beings to be taken seriously for the worth of their labor against the crushing corporate tide rolling over the American landscape.

I seriously hope our Florida Democratic legislators, at least the few we have left, are watching what’s taking place in Madison right now. The reason being is they are going to have to do the same thing. They are going to have to take a stand against the onslaught that’s about to come from a Governor, who by the grace of 50,000+ plus voters is going to pull the same thing as Gov. Walker is doing in Wisconsin. We better get ready. The firefighters, the police and sheriffs’ offices, the communications workers and finally the teachers who all share membership in unions the time is coming. Tallahassee is coming for us and they aren’t going give any quarter. We are about to be in a fight for all we are about. We are about to find out what our beliefs mean to us not only as Democrats and union members but what it means to be a citizen in this state whose labor has worth to our community and our families. We have more worth than nameless corporations who are going to come in and use our infrastructure and our community services and not pay a dime for it. These corporations will take their profit margins and send it out of the state never to be seen again while us, the citizens that call Florida home, give them a free ride through their bidder in the Governor’s mansion.

Get ready. They’re coming.

Gov. Scott's High Speed Rail Rejection An Economic Train Wreck

If anything Gov. Rick Scott is consistent in making sure his ideological makeup doesn’t get its hair mussed no matter what the storm is swirling around him. This past Wednesday when he made a big deal out of turning down federal stimulus monies to build a high speed rail network between Orlando and Tampa he joined in with two other Governors who have chosen the same path to turn down the jobs that went with it: Ohio’s Gov. John Kasich and Wisconsin’s Gov. Scott Walker. Gov. Walker as it turns out is dealing with another firestorm regarding an attempt to strip union bargaining rights from state and public employees which is another story.

Rick Scott ran an ad during his campaign promising from behind the wheel of a pickup truck the usual two part refrain all right wing conservative Republicans regurgitate in their run: making government smaller and cutting taxes. The “will create jobs” rejoinder uttered each time afterwards is almost a throwaway line. This was followed by a grin and a campaign slogan designed to burnish some kind of blue collar credential: “Let’s get to work.” That’s the entire breadth of his so called plans for Florida. His entire campaign could almost be a perfect laboratory study in a stunning lack of vision beyond those two goals.

Confirming this lack of insight for Florida's future is an Economic Research Group study commissioned by the non-partison U.S. Conference of Mayors showing the benefits of the $2.4B stimulus Scott just turned down: $2.9 billion per year in new business, including up to $1.7 billion per year in GRP growth and up to 27,500 jobs. Let me repeat that: 27,500 jobs. On top of that the study also pointed out one other critical feature to this federal stimulus package: […]HSR's projected larger flow of passengers will lead to increased tourism and business travel, generating additional spending at local hotels, restaurants and retail stores. Projections show that by 2035, HSR can annually add roughly $255 million in the Orlando area.

With Scott’s recent inaugural budget seeming to be more of a blueprint for cutting jobs to the tune of 8,800 public sector workers all one needs to do is add the 27,500 jobs that was projected from the stimulus money and you have a total of +35,000 plus jobs gone as a first year achievement for Mr. Scotts “vision for Florida that’s nothing more than an impending economic trainwreck for Florida taxpayers. Meteor Blades over at Daily Kos sums up what these GOP Governors are about perfectly:

Planning for the past is big with these Republican governors. Planning for the future, in their view, is apparently only relevant in Europe, Japan and China.

Already there isn’t enough sugar on the planet to sweeten the bitter taste of the tea these three Governors are brewing.

No Room For Children In Gov. Rick Scott's Vision for Florida

One of the less endearing traits of conservatives is their tendency to not let practicality or the human condition get in the way of ideology. Let’s forget for a moment the GOP/Conservative clarion call to cut taxes and shrink government no matter the economic condition or circumstance. One of the more striking elements of this one size fits all ideological blueprint for economic redress is the lack of a standard for a perfect equilibrium regarding the optimum size of government and just how much taxes is enough for the basic services one might expect from local, state or federal government. This brings us to two elements of this ideology that are counter intuitive regarding the human condition and they both have to do with children.

Governor Scott’s proposed inaugural budget seems to base its virtue on the draconian nature of its harshness and severity especially in regards to government services concerning our states children. The one service and state agency that seems to bear the brunt of this push for austerity at any cost is the Department of Children and Families. This includes the elimination of homeless services, agencies that deal with school suicide prevention and finally domestic violence which always seems to have children as collateral damage. The Governors rhetoric seems only to find compassion for children if a family’s tax bracket rates a tax cut. Overall his budget and tax cut numbers tell us it comes down to $540.00 savings per household over two years. Take it to per month and it equals less than $23.00. Only a politician so disconnected from the people he serves would think that ranks as some kind of tax savings windfall for the taxpayer. These so called savings broken down per month won’t even cover the cost of a tank of gas.

The counter intuitive element of this budget/tax policy brings the centrality of its focus on the social issue at the very core of the conservative movement: its anti-abortion or right to life stance. If one is to cut all meaningful services that would act as a safety net or as an agent of aid for children that would be forced into this world through a rigid social policy that not only discourages abortion no matter the circumstance but education as well about how to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Low income and needy children would be left at the mercy of the vagaries of the market place where under these policies there is no room for compassion or help for the economic and socially disadvantaged.

This brings us to education. The planned per pupil cuts in costs would total around 10 per cent in a state that already ranks as one of the lowest in the nation in per pupil spending (Florida ranks 45th out of 50). This counter-intuitive policy would shackle the state’s public education system with burdens that could only work to undermine the classroom environment to the point where it becomes untenable with the rising school age population contrasted against an ever shrinking budget to support it. How children of low economic circumstance are expected to make wise choices in life when the public education system they rely on fails them economically is beyond me.

These policies certainly tell us all we need to know about Governor Rick Scott the person as he uses the plight of these at risk children as a means to an ideological end.

Rick Scott Goes Orwell

As a Florida resident watching Gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott go all 'Animal Farm' on Bill McCullom in his latest ad comparing him to Sen. John Kerry one can only watch in hysterical disbelief as Bill McCullom is called a "liberal" on any issue. But then again whatever is in that teapary brew they both seem to be drinking its par for the course in this post President Obama election world. I knew the President's election victory would drive the looney's crazy, but this crazy? And while I'm at it for a guy calling "government" the root of all evil with every campaign missive he sure enjoyed the benefits of Medicare largess well enough.

The Florida GOP Debate

First of all, why is Andrea Mitchell (Ms. Alan Greenspan for those who do not know) on my TV telling America that Mittens looked the most Reaganesque? Edward R. Murrow just came out of his grave so he could die all over again. Where do today’s journalist get the ideas that I (we) care what they think about these candidates. Here’s a novel idea, how about embracing a basic tenant of professional journalistic ethics and letting your viewers decide? That would be refreshing.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way I will say watching these country club white boys standing on the stage tonight trying to out “tax cut” the other delivered the most comedic effect of the evening with the exception of Huckabee. The “Gomer Pyle” of Arkansas actually said something that made me flinch because it had the semblance of clear thinking behind it: [paraphrasing here]”…why not take the tax rebate Congress just voted on and put it into job creating projects like highway infrastructure funding to improve and add stretches of highway that will cut fuel costs for working people instead of giving them money that will be borrowed from the Chinese so they can purchase Chinese made products.” I nearly fell out of my chair watching Huckabee’s rare moment of lucidity. He quickly recovered though and veered away from that moment and joined in the fray to out tax cut his fellow debaters.

Obama recently said the GOP for a while had been known as the party of “ideas” [though he tried to clarify himself later by saying not especially “good” ideas]. The only “ideas” I’ve ever heard from the GOP over the last 30 years of my political cognizance is for the administration of a cure all elixir in the form of a tax cut for any economic malady or foreign crisis that could be conceived. The lobotomy required for one to join the “conservative raison d’etra” is something to behold, isn’t it? Good times, bad times it doesn’t matter, either way it always calls for a tax cut. Defunding the process of governance as a cure all for economic, cultural and social malady’s should make for excellent comedic fodder but for some reason it gets a serious nod by people who pretend to be serious on TV.

They had their moments of making nice with one another and it was almost sickening listening to them “question” each other as the mutual admiration society suddenly showed up on stage. But the most interesting moment of the night wasn’t Huckabee’s moment of lucidity; it was Ron Paul’s rant about the illegality and stupidity of getting us into the Iraq war in the first place and the roar of approval from the audience that followed. This after each candidate fell over one another telling America what a great idea the war was and that Bush was bold and brilliant instigating it. I imagine you might get an argument from family members who have lost a loved one since but be that as it may, there is no way that fly’s in the general election.

One of the things that irritated me about the 2004 election was the charge of flip-flopping the GOP hung around Kerry’s neck. I always wondered why he didn’t just raise his hand and claim, “Guilty as charged.” Then followed up by saying if you want a President who believes the same thing on Thursday that he believes on Monday no matter what new information was learned then I’m not your man. Hillary Clinton would do well to try that tactic after several of the GOP candidates this evening made reference to her war vote on Iraq and tipped their hand how she would be attacked in the general.

Overall, the evening was a wash as far as this viewer was concerned. Though I suspect Romney will benefit the most simply because McCain just looks so yesterday beside him. If Romney takes Florida after a McCain win in SC the race will be even more convoluted for the GOP and won’t that just be too bad.