Ding! Ding! It’s plainly obvious that, since the 80s, there has been a major shift in how people vote as the GOP has moved to racist dog-whistles, dominionist dogma, and (debunked) trickle-down economic theory. A broad swath of the electorate have completely deviated from voting in their own best interest and vote instead on a small cluster of single-issue talking points that have zero to do with their own well-being.
Reality would beg to differ:
Given that you’re talking to someone there who lives with it on the receiving end I don’t know what to tell you.
So you have no actual evidence to back up that fallacious claim, in other words.
If you DO believe that, not only do I have a nice orange bridge in SF to sell you, but you’re probably a person who is blinded by their own unearned privilege.
Considering the rest of your comments and the glib-ass tone, that would not surprise me at all.
Oh, don’t be silly; the lived experiences of people like me don’t matter to someone who thinks like that.
In my Democratic Party controlled US state, I would happily vote for any politician who would reverse this trend, but I can only vote for who is on the ballot. Counting the write-in vote was made illegal years ago!
EDIT: and on that note, I’ll bow out myself. Good night everyone, be well.
So, are you saying that the voters don’t have any voice in determining education funding, or are you saying that voters ought to be persuaded away from voting on partisan issues and towards voting for education by educating them on how universal quality education servers their own best interest? I’m not sure if you’re agreeing with me or disagreeing, or if you agree with my substance but don’t want to be seen doing it.
Look, the foundation that you’ve built your whole assertion from is that, in contrast to the post-WW2 era, public education is less supported by voters, because fewer are parents and thus the majority of voters, who are voting based on their own self-interest. That foundation is fundamentally flawed, because 1. the majority of Americans support public education, up to and including free college tuition, 2. the neoconservative movement has led to a disconnect between the will of the majority of voters and actual public policy, 3. your assumptions about birth rate = # of parents is flawed because, over the same time span the number of children per household has decreased proportionally. If it’s about # of parents, that hasn’t decreased with the decrease in birth rate.
So I’m still disagreeing with the foundation of dry sand that you’ve built your house of cards upon, way back in your first post of the thread.
I know a number of childless boomers who aren’t driven by racism for their contempt of school supporting taxes. They just figure that since they don’t have children, they shouldn’t be subjected to “theft by the state” to pay taxes into the system.
I’ve argued to these gits that since Social Security is a generational transfer, that if you don’t have children, you don’t get to collect. Same fucking mentality. They always defend both their childless status regarding their ire at public school support and that they got that monthly check coming!
Neoliberalism check: An educated populace should be enough of a motivation: ceteris paribus living in a society where the average reading level is 12th grade gets you mugged less often and having to step through homeless tent cities less often than living in a society where the average reading level is 4th grade.
Education ≠ simply jobs training.
By that logic the voters have demanded a federal budget prioritizing military spending be orders of magnitude greater than educational spending.
What’s that smell? Did you step in something?
People get so damn invested in the mantra “I am not a racist!” that they forget that the whole damn system is predicated in hegemonic white supremacism, and that we are all—even the most effective and beloved of anti-racists—literally made out of systemic racism.
The answer to the question “Is one a racist*?” is “Yes.” The answer to whether one is doing anything to change the system that made us this, however…
Legacy of Jim Crow indeed.
* Sexist, homophobe, classist, xenophobe, transphobe, etc.
I wouldn’t categorise them as members of the Know-Nothing 27%. Short-sighted, entitled and selfish Boomers – childless or not – are just as likely to vote for a Third-Way Dem touting neoliberal-lite policies as they are for whatever turd the GOP is offering up. As long as their SSI cheques keep coming and their property taxes don’t go up the choice rests on social issues.
That’s that ego and ‘personal mythology’ at work; everyone sees themselves as the heroes of their own stories. Which is fine and even understandable, until that mythos inhibits one’s ability to be honest with oneself.
You mean back when people of color, including Natives, as well as poor families and most girls weren’t allowed to fully access that ‘well supported’ public education?
So then you’re agreeing with @anon61221983, that support for public education has a racist foundation. OK then.
Like, I get that “Hey, am I being a racist douchebag?” is a worthwhile question under many circumstances, but more or less the answer to that question is not going to change institutions of racism, which is the prize upon which the eyes must alight, I surmise.
The right has very successfully peddled the “public schools as government or liberal indoctrination camps funded by tax dollars” meme. I could post references, but the vast majority are vile and racist as you would imagine. Google it if your prilosec has kicked in good. In red areas, the schools are being starved intentionally. In blue areas, it’s almost worse, as I see way too many parents who honestly do not believe that the schools actually need the tax revenue. There is truly no delusion like self delusion.
My ‘impotent rage’ quote has already been exceeded for the day.
Exactly my thought process. Started to look, thought better of it, will sleep better for that.
What conservatives call “capitalism” these days is more of an oligarchy and kleptocracy. Not free markets, but monopolized closed ones.
Wealth extraction of the middle class to the uppermost wealthy, peonage of the poor through usury and use of debt.
The death of taxpayer public college has led to middle class debt slavery with out of control student lending.
One of the memes I was referring to earlier. These people are infected by an idea that makes them unable to ratiocinate from any other viewpoint. Such ideas can be very pro-survival - for example, being a devout member of a dominant cult has helped many people survive who would have otherwise perished - or they can be self-destructive. The person who is in the grips of the meme cannot evaluate it objectively.
That’s a meme too, usually referred to by those who aren’t subject to it as “classic liberal guilt”. Again, the fact that it’s a meme complex does not make it good or bad, false or true. People transmitting the meme usually aren’t acting on any desire to cause harm, but they can sabotage their cause due to their inability to share the perspective of those outside the meme’s influence.
As much as I hate the word kleptocracy (it’s the starring concept in anti-taxation memes beloved by American racists and “sovereign citizens”) I still have to completely agree with what you’re saying here.
It seems to me that the wealthy believe they don’t need a large educated workforce any more, since we’ve moved so much domain intelligence into machines. Welders are expensive to train, and their health costs are high, so welding robots get the job done cheaper.
Perhaps, but the reality is that many people are just never that introspective about themselves, or their own behavior to even ask that question.
Suddenly deciding to have that conversation right in the middle of discussion about inequality is the height of self-absorption, IMO.
