If I had to pick a moment, I would say the start of Lee Atwater’s Southern Strategy. The early core of the strategy was harnessing white backlash over the integration of public schools. Look at the Gray amendments in Virginia as part of massive resistance. It relied on a strategy of eliminating public education and funding private education. Compare it to more recent Republican tax and voucher schemes. At the same time the religious right became a lot more active in Republican politics following the Bob Jones University case. As they became a core voting base their longstanding distrust of education rose in prominence. At a certain point their role as a core voting base meant that Republicans couldn’t win elections without some degree of attacking the education system. Mix in a bit of anti-union politics and the fact that scholarly research has been attacking the basis for Republican policies for a while and you have our current situation.
I suspect the picture is far more complex than you realize. I can remember when the National Review was all about how every rightist wanted to be as erudite as William Buckley. The day he died was definitely a turn in the road.
Here’s a thought experiment: jut your chin forward into an underbite. Now affect an upper-crusty Princeton accent. Now go pick a fight with Bannon. Use plenty of sesquipedalian circumlocutions. See what happens. (Actually I see this as homework for Project Mayhem.)
Well, to be fair, I’m against any significant wealth redistribution (say 60% tax rate at $40K) that would help the extra-national poor at the significant expense of the 1% (>$34K), so obviously I’m doing my part to keep more money than others. I’m just not as good at it.
Strongly agreed. Much of the bad stuff (and a fair amount of the good stuff) is simply the outcome of systemic factors that have been in play for a long time. Education has been at the forefront of social change and we have been the beneficiaries of this. Teachers are a respected, well-educated, organized, middle class group which has allowed them to to be one of the stronger liberal influences on popular culture.
However, this also means that they’ve become a target by the reactionary movement that almost inevitably accompanies rapid social change.
Whether this targeting has been successful or not is another question. My general feeling is no, teachers still maintain the respect of the general populace. However, I live in a city, which pretty much equals liberal around here, so I can’t see beyond my bubble to the other 50%.
I suspect it is as well. I presented a number of motives and point out it isn’t a uniform group of people with a coordinated reason.
well said.
unfortunately there are other approaches of attack as well, the education system in the USA has been gutted financially and fragmented and the core curriculum and standards undermined. If it can be weakened enough, and undervalued enough, then it will be easier for them to dismantle and replace with private voucher schools.
Has funding for schools on a per-capita basis really plunged? I get a feeling that a lot of our concern is because we’re seeing huge holes that always existed but we just ignored. Things like actually trying to educate groups that we previously would have just ignored until they dropped out (or would never have attended school in the first place).
Did I need a “sarcasm” tag for that first part? I needed a sarcasm tag for that first part.
You needed a sarcasm tag for that first part.
I apologize for the initial version of my comment. Inappropriate for this forum. Thank you for making the sarcasm clear. 
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