My Candidate for President
To Readers of This Blog:
I have been consistently even-handed in the Presidential race in dealing with the candidates of the Democratic party. I oppose the Republican party candidates because I don’t agree with their corporate-friendly agenda and their positions on social issues, as well as their embrace of privatization as the solution to the problems in public schools.
As between the Democratic candidates, I have supported neither. I have published posts critical of both Sanders and Clinton. Neither is especially good on the issues that matter most to supporters of public education. Clinton said when campaigning in New York state that she would not want her grand-daughter to opt out of the tests, and she waffled on the issue of charter schools. Sanders voted for the Murphy amendment to the “Every Student Succeeds Act,” which would have retained high-stakes accountability under federal control (fortunately the amendment did not pass). Sanders also is confused about charter schools, having said that he favors “public” charter schools but not “private” charter schools, not realizing that all charter schools are publicly funded but privately controlled. Education has been a non-issue.
I like Bernie’s ideas (and I share his outrage), and I like Hillary’s experience.
What I don’t like is the passionate denunciation of one or the other of them, by them or by their partisans.
The overwhelming majority of denunciations are directed at Hillary. Some of our readers are as vicious towards her as Donald Trump is. If you read the comments, you would think that Donald Trump is much to be preferred over Hillary because she is allegedly dishonest, corrupt, a war-monger, a tool of Wall Street, etc. The demonization of Hillary is often times over-the-top, angry, and hateful.
This internecine warfare is not admirable. It should stop. It helps Trump. One candidate will emerge from the Democratic convention in Philadelphia. It will be the candidate who gets the requisite number of delegates. It will be either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton. When the convention chooses the candidate, I will support that candidate.
I will not sit home. I will not vote for a third party candidate. I will not write in the name of someone else. That is irresponsible. Throwing your vote away is a vote for Donald Trump.
I am afraid of Donald Trump. He is not qualified to be president. He knows nothing about foreign affairs or domestic issues, other than those that affected him as a real estate developer and businessman. His statements during the campaign inflame passions, divide Americans, and make us a laughing stock around the world.
Does Trump really plan to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants? How will he round them up? Will he expand the Immigration and Naturalization personnel so they can go door to door, searching out families to deport? Will they be placed in massive detention camps pending transfer? Will babies born in the camps on American soil be citizens? This proposal is as mad as anything else he has said.
Does Trump really expect to build the Great Wall of America across the U.S.-Mexican border? Will it be 50 feet high? The New York Times My Candidate for President | Diane Ravitch's blog:
