Posted by
VBushmills on Tuesday, September 08, 2009 1:18:11 PM
It was a great gambit. As expected President Obama's much-feared school speech was as ordinary a "you can do it" speech as the ones given by past presidents. Nothing to fear.
Not so fast.
First, we all know about the unprecedented (and quite frankly, illegal) attempt by the Department of Education to provide teaching aids to schools directly, circumventing legally mandated methods of instruction. The press and prominent Democrat talking heads omit this very serious fact routinely. But these teaching aids, even if benign, which they were not, were aimed directly to teachers, many of whom are very sympathetic to Obama and his message, and through them to serve as a way to identify students and families who do not support Obama's policies/socialist agenda.
But this was a win-win for Obama, and a lose-lose for schools, and parents who opted out.
First, with all the furor, all Obama had do was change his speech (he had more than one drafted). Had the nation simply rolled over we'd have gotten a different speech, more like the one given to the AFL-CIO.
DOE simply redrafted their teaching aids. They didn't withdraw them, however, validating the precedent.
Now, we know something of the way this gang from Chicago plays, and how you play is by causing your enemies to expose themselves. This is not unlike the Fasco-socialists in Europe in the 1930s by the way. So now, Obama and the DOE knows who its friends are...in Virginia, in Texas, in Florida...school district by school district. Can election challenges and financial punishment be far behind?
Similarly, where private parental option was allowed, to opt out (we believe an opt-in policy would have been more fair), now individual teachers (Obamailis make up 50% or more of teachers in most schools) know by name, students and families who are unsupportive of Obama. This is no different than, in the 1950s in East Europe, finding out who were still secretly practicing Christianity at home.
The chilling effect is easy to understand. A school district in Texas says "no" and suddenly finds itself cut off from certian state funds. Case closed. They either repent or bleed. An A-student in Hampton needs an "A" to bolster his/her application to Johns Hopkins. Guess what?
People are taught to go along with a cattle prod.
As my friend Vassar Bushmills is working on, on this site, this ability to punish students and their families is non-official in most cases, and outside the political or even legal arena to punish. Theres' little the politicians can do about it.
Nor does our side yet have the ability to fight back in the same manner. As Bushmills says, we are years behind the Left in fighting dirty and making those will make what is about to happen, happen, pay.
But we will get better. Let's hope sooner.
BC