If one wants to examine a case study on how the Democratic Party manages to alienate their base, simply look a their policies and actions regarding education over the past thirty years.
The pattern is familiar: Democratic leadership buys into Republican framing, attempts to propose a third way, ends up with Republican-lite policies and then wonders why folks are unenthusiastic, fail to vote, or vote for real Republicans rather than the watered-down version.
Back in 1983, the Reagan Administration published A Nation at Risk, a poorly written report condemning public education. It was the opening salvo in the relentless attack on public education and on the teaching profession.
The administration of Bush the First commissioned Sandia laboratories to gather statistical data which they believed would support the conclusions of A Nation at Risk. Contrary to the expectations of the administration, the Sandia Report actually found that public education was performing quite well.
What was the Democratic response? Did the Democrats come to the defense of educators and point out that A Nation at Risk was pure propaganda? Did they use the Sandia Report counter the attacks on public education? These of course are rhetorical questions. You know the answer. The Democrats basically accepted the Reagan/Bush premise that American education was failing and joined in the trashing of teachers.
Here in Michigan during the late 1980s, Democratic Governor Blanchard glad-handed the leaders of the teachers union while publicly condemning teachers as greedy. I recall wondering at the time why I had become the enemy. (We weren’t the only constituency that Blanchard threw under the bus. One of his more infamous "tough on crime" ads featured a boot camp drill instructor screaming into the faces of young black men. Not surprisingly, many minority voters stayed home in1990 as Blanchard narrowly lost to John Engler.)
The administration of Bill Clinton bought into the Reagan anti-education propaganda as Clinton promoted charter schools and "tougher standards”, including the closing of “failing schools" as part of his educational reform. Not surprisingly, most of these “failing schools” were in urban districts. I find it interesting that as the number of minority students in urban schools increased and the teaching staffs in these schools became more racially diverse, the pressue increased for charters, privatization, and the closing of “underperforming” urban schools.
When George W Bush presented his educational reform program, No Child Left Behind, Democrats eagerly climbed on, including then Senator Hillary Clinton. Despite continued teacher support for Democratic candidates, the bashing of public education became a political staple of both parties. Teachers had the Democrats’ backs, but they didn't have ours.
The teacher unions backed Barack Obama in both the 2008 and 2012 general elections. In return we got Race to the Top and Arne Duncan. Duncan’s policies were not successful when he led the Chicago school system, but that didn’t prevent President Obama from hiring him as Secretary of Education. One would think that the President would have learned from Bush’s appointment of Rod Paige and would have been wary of alleged education “miracles”. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Duncan, of course, gained further notoriety when he stated that Hurricane Katrina was "the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans”. Disaster capitalism at its finest.
Race to the Top was NCLB on steroids. Using the competitive grant scam, the Obama administration coerced the states to enact "reforms" such as increasing the number of charter schools, more standardized tests, merit pay based on results of standardized tests, and weakening teacher rights and tenure. States scurried to enact these so-called reforms hoping to win federal funding. Republicans, of course, eagerly embraced these changes. Many states, including my state, did not win those competive grants, but the “reforms” were in place and the damage was done.
Hillary Clinton was endorsed early by the teacher unions yet she continued her support of charter schools. She promised a more teacher friendly approach, but given the Democratic Party’s attitude toward public education, teachers and union members had every right to be skeptical. We recall that candidate Obama promised to put on some comfortable walking shoes and join a picket line. Instead he endorsed the mass firing of Central Falls, Rhode Island teachers.
To review, Democrats accepted the Reagan propaganda piece; continually joined the Republicans in promoting the impression that public education was failing; championed charter schools, endless standardized testing, privatization, and merit pay; supported disaster capitalism techniques to implement those ”reforms” in New Orleans; supported No Child Left Behind; gave us the insidious Race to the Top; undermined unions; and applauded when there was mass teacher firings.
Democrats seek our support and deliver flowery oratory when speaking to our unions. After they are elected, they too often change their rhetoric and join in the condemnation of public education.
So now Donald Trump has nominated Betsy DeVos to head the Department of Education and of course the Democrats (and Daily Kos) have responded in typical fashion, correctly condemning Trump and DeVos while ignoring the complicity of the Democratic Party in reaching this point.
It’s rather disingenuous for the Democrats to spend thirty years condemning public education as failing and then to feign shock when Republicans propose sweeping solutions to the so-called problem, solutions that in many instances have been endorsed, albeit in less stringent form, by the Democrats. Once they accept the Republican premise, the Democratic arguments against proposed GOP remedies become less effective and less genuine.
Republicans control all three branches of the Federal government, plus a majority of state governorships and legislatures. Unless the Democratic Party wishes to slide into permanent minority status, it needs to find its soul.
Now I realize that educators are not always right. I also realize that unions are not always right, and working people(of all races and ethnicities) are not always right, and feminists are not always right, and PoC are not always right, and LGBT folks are not always right, and the poor are not always right, and religious minorities are not always right, and those who seek peace and justice are not always right. I realize the world is not binary, but unfortunately our political party system is binary to a great extent.
The rich and the powerful have a political party that speaks for them. It is called the Republican Party. The people listed in the previous paragraph need a party that speaks for them. The Democratic Party needs to decide which side they are on.
Addendum: A comment by ranger995 pointed out that Chicago’s Democratic Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, is one of the worst offenders when it comes to education policy. Hyde Park Johnny and BobboSphere have posted many diaries regarding Rahm’s negative impact on Chicago schools
