Democratic theory is actually pretty simple; voting is a substitute for physical struggles for power, but it only works when the fight is fair. The loser in any election abides by the decision because the winner abides by the rules.
What we are seeing now is a situation where the losers refuse to play by the rules.
In Washington, the GOP’s antics have been the equivalent of a big “screw you.” The party has said, in effect, “we don’t care that the people voted for this President, despite our best efforts to keep his supporters from the polls. We are taking our ball and bat and going home–we are refusing to play the game.” In this case, of course, the “game” is governing the nation, and their childish behavior has made that nearly impossible.
In Indiana, where the Republicans won almost every office, they are determined to strip the one Democrat who did manage to win office of the authority to do her job.
Most recently, in yet another in a series of power grabs, the State Board of Education voted (8 to 1, with Glenda Ritz being the 1) to authorize Dan Elsener to spend money from the Board’s budget and work with the Governor’s office to hire the Board’s staff. According to several people, despite the fact that the Superintendent has often come from a different political party than the Governor, this is the first time in Indiana history that money budgeted for the State Board will not be controlled by the Department of Education.
As one observer wrote, “Obviously, a State Board with its own staff using a budget of $3,010,716 each year could become a power center independent of the State Superintendent and the Department of Education. Apparently, the Governor has quietly put this seismic shift into motion.”
Ever since the voters elected Glenda Ritz (by a margin exceeding that of Governor Pence, it might be noted), the administration and the Republicans have worked to overturn the results by reducing the powers of the office.
Like the current Superintendent or not, this is most definitely not the way the system is supposed to work. The message being sent is clear: we’ll respect election results and the democratic process when we win.
When we lose, we’ll play dirty.
We should be studying juvenile psychology, not political science.
Combine this with the ongoing gerrymandering that’s creating precincts that are statistically unwinnable by Democrats and it’s clearly a game of “if we can’t win by following the rules, we’ll just re-draw the lines and change the rules” by the Rethuglicans.
The Republicans hate education because if Indiana voters had a good education and understood what they were voting for, they might actually vote in their own interests. That would be BAD for these folks. Keep ’em stupid. Keep ’em working for peanuts. Keem ’em voting for the party of hate.
So as a life long Chicagoan, the bluest of the blue states, the Dems do the same thing. THe irony of it all, in Chicago and Illinois there is NO elected official on the Boards of Ed. All are political appointees accountable to no one but the person that put them there. Also ironically, their agenda concerning education is in lock step with Indianas GOP…….. So tell me again how we are a republic ??? Because we are not a democracy
Another scary prospect is related to the fact that so many right wingers love their guns so they can “fight the government” and protect their freedom. After reading the above entries, I wonder if they plan to be on the offense or defense in that conflict. This group is totally comfortable with the top 1% earning the money and running things, while consolidating their power and excluding the opposition, and designing conditions which will keep people poor, unorganized and uneducated. Meanwhile, they are collecting their weapons to fight a government that may disagree with their definition of freedom? Doesn’t look hopeful unless one is some sort of Orwellian revolutionary.
James, maybe I misunderstood what you said, but Chicago has an appointed board of education, and most boards of education in Illinois are elected. Chicago is strange in that it also has its own pension rules/system, and as I understand it, if you build a pension by working in Chicago, it won’t transfer to other districts. Chicago is sort of a trap. On the other hand, Indiana has its own mess that it has created over the years, having essentially “stolen” millions of dollars from the Teacher Retirement to fund the state. The state owes a huge debt to the Teacher Retirement Fund. That hole gets deep, too.
The Republicans in Indiana and elsewhere are mainly concerned with rigging the educational system so that those schools with impoverished students will fail. The state will then take over these “failing schools” and give them to their buddies to run, pass legislation enabling charter schools and vouchers, and all the while making sure these new schools, with a lot of government assistance, end up with stellar pass rates (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/29/tony-bennett-indiana_n_3672196.html). Rupert Murdoch, among many others, sees a fortune to be made off taxpayers (http://www.salon.com/2013/03/11/getting_rich_off_of_schoolchildren/ and http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021846170). That these “reformers” will make schoolchildren dumber is just an extra bonus in their eyes.
Governor Daniels forced Suellen Reed from the Superintendency of Public Instruction, and
now it appears Gov. Pence is trying to neuter Glenda Ritz in the same office. These two Superintendents were of different political parties but were both women and both public school educators. Little respect was accorded either.