Would You Rather Have a Revolutionary in the White House or a Tweaker?

Since my post about NYSUT inviting the pantsuited Republican to lecture teachers on Andrew Cuomo's sterling leadership garnered about 500 more page views than usual I guess I'm going to go to that well one more time. The fact that Hillary Clinton was handed union endorsements of NEA and AFT with virtually no input from rank and file is odious enough in itself. Pair that with NYSUT's spineless acquiescence to said endorsements and you have a mini lesson on the troubling democracy free paradigm that currently disconnects many union leadership types from the will and the wants of the dues paying rank and file. This glaring disconnect allows so called leadership to make large scale decisions like Presidential endorsements that do nothing to benefit the vast majority of dues paying members but are sure to reward a small handful at the top with career advancements, financial gain and other perks those of us at the base of the pyramid will never enjoy. How many comments have you read from steaming pedagogues who've suggested Weingarten will be the next Arne King if and when Hillary is returned to the White House? What plum lies in store for Lily? Or for any number of the tuned out NYSUT hacks in their hideous Educators for Hillary t-shirts? If and when that dark day should come to pass what can the rest of us expect from Randi and Lily and Karen McWho's gal Hill?  If you don't know you should and if you do you should not be very happy about it.

The only way we're going to get any of this crazy train derailed and rebooted is by way of what Bernie Sanders is calling a Revolution. Not by tweaking anything in the hilariously clueless argot of Madame Secretary who, like the farmer in the A.A. book emerges from his basement to a scene of complete devastation and chaos as far as the eye can see only to holler "Aint it grand Maw, the wind stopped blowin?"  Hillary Clinton likes the notion of "tweaking" things. I once worked for a notoriously inept Principal whose capital in City Hall was so low she read about her own transfer in the Buffalo News. She too was a huge fan of both the phrase and concept of "tweaking." Things you can tweak usually include stuff like throwing your steak back on the grill for a few more minutes or wedging in one more shim on that pre-hung door you're installing. You can tweak that little strip of growth along the driveway with your weed whacker and you can probably even tweak your crappy home brew by laying off the yeast next time around. In short tweaking is the kind of thing we can just as easily blow off but we do it because it's easy and it seems like we've accomplished something. Does Hillary have even the slightest clue that tweaking is what meth heads call their favorite activity? You know -- the one that burns up the enamel in their teeth and causes their vitamin deprived skin to give way to those hideous mugshot ulcers we see on Mobil Patrol pics from the county lockup? 

Which Would You Rather Have as President? 

No Hill we don't want to settle for tweaking. Not this year or next year or the year after. And when you hear the Clown Prince of UFT's Unity Caucus Punchy Mike Mulgrew bloviating about all of his "victories" you can see how these disconnected union people would like the sound of "tweaking" some shit too. They embrace nothing radical-- nothing that would actually demand union activism beyond wearing a sticker or a button, clicking a selfie or mouthing some crappy new slogan while mousily suffering every  outrageous sling and arrow Cuomo and his heavy hearted legislators care to fling at us. They will countenance nothing as outrageous as a strike or anything remotely resembling a job action. Those kinds of things can get them errr you in trouble. And they don't want trouble these effite union leaders. They are so busy trying to downplay and ignore all of the trouble our psychopath Governor has created for teachers to date that it would simply shatter them to stand up and fight for anything but the most ridiculously immaterial issues. One can visualize Mulgrew exiting the stifling negotiation bunker with his chest puffed out, storming into a crowded holding pen filled with anxious  nail biting teachers announcing "They're going to start hanging teachers after 3020a hearings -- but we ARE NOT buying the rope!" To be met with raucous applause and chants of Mike! Mike! Mike! from his zombie goggled Unity Caucus trucklers.

So many teachers I talk with and interact with online seem to grasp the difference between a Revolutionary and a Tweaker. Yet those entrenched in the very power cone of our union pyramid have the unmitigated balls to tell us that we need to stand down with all of our hopes and dreams revolution talk to embrace their Goldman Sachs funded tweaker. Why? Because Hillary purposely screwed with us at the RA in mentioning Beelzebub Cuomo's name then grimaced and said C'mon, C'mon when met with a wall of boos and raspberries and possibly a dead cat or two? I agree with the commenter who said it was all scripted because Hill the Tweaker has a lot of donors watching what she says and where she says it and looking too cozy with a teacher's union could cost her. So she brought up Cuomo, drew on the pre-existing hostilities she knew the crowd harbored and let that be the headline, instead of the one where she was warmly greeted by her friends in organized labor. 

Can I ask what strain of Stockholm Syndrome plagues our union leadership in their pigheaded insistence to give money and support to politicians we know are trying to bury us? That John Flanagan was ever given a nickel of VOTE COPE money borders on an impeachable offense by the jackasses who cleared the way to make serial donations to the cause Flanagan.

John Flanagan, the senate majority leader in the New York State Senate, and the former education chairperson in the senate has been another friend of Unity Caucus.  Yes, the same John Flanagan who has declared opt-out parents a problem, claimed that charter school parents are the best parents there are, and whose highest campaign contributor is an ed deform group.  While NYSUT did not vote to endorse Flanagan when he last ran in 2014, that didn’t stop Unity Caucus’ Andy Pallotta from giving Flanagan money anyway.  Flanagan, who has received over $40,000 in VOTE COPE dollars over the years, received $7,750 in 2014.  (from PJSTA blog)

So why is it then when we say we want Revolution -- knowing nothing short of it will make a damned bit of difference--  do I get browbeaten and lectured when I say "Come hell or high water I am NOT voting for Hillary?" 

• Well it's the Trump. No 
• It's the Supreme Court. 
• No it's the Congress. 
• No it's because you aren't showing loyalty to The Party -- sorry Harris -- 
• Or we will never survive the Trump. 

No matter what Vote for Hillary excuse people give me when they say they will vote for her if Bernie doesn't win the nomination I will argue just as forcefully that voting for Hillary is voting against Revolution and voting to continue bloated CEO salaries, off shoring jobs, attacking unions and workers, growing income inequality and proliferation ofCommon Core.  What makes the de facto Hillary camp think Hill is going to install Supreme Court justices who are a damned bit better than what a Republican would appoint? And when they tell us Bernie will have Congress against him do they realize what they're saying when they tell us Hillary will be able to cajole them along? The Trump? Do they honestly think the GOP -- who we're learning just today has been quietly funding a Super PAC that's already blown through over $200 million working specifically against Trump-- is ever, ever going to allow him the nomination? I don't get it. And I hasten to remind them we survived 8 years of Kennebunkport's worst fratboy run wild so I doubt there's much left in the GOP chamber that can scare us. 

If you've read anything about Revolutions you know they are messy. Switching your allegiance from the Revolutionary to the Tweaker isn't messy. It's lazy. It's also as myopic as Mr. Magoo. If they're out of Prim Rib do you ask for salisbury steak? Do you trade in your high mileage Porsche for a Lada just to make sure Toyota doesn't get the sale? Focus, people, focus. And remember nothing short of a revolution is going to get us where we need to go. Expect to be uncomfortable. Expect pushback from the establishment. Be willing to eat rats if you gather my drift.  As they say in AA Half measure availed us nothing, we stood at the turning point... I'm voting Revolution over Tweaking every damned time.