News item: Clark County Democratic Party convention takes a pass on The Education Initiative, opposes Common Core
The state Democratic Party believes the best way to accomplish something – i.e. winning elections – is to stand for nothing.
After this weekend’s Clark County convention, where they bought into Common Core conspiracies and danced away from the margin tax, the Democrats in 2014 showed they will rely on palaver and platitudes over commitment and substance.
I would like to tell you how shocked and dismayed I was. But I was hardly surprised.
This is what the Democrats are willing to do this year to try to protect Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and save the state Senate: Help Sue Lowden and equivocate on The Education Initiative.
This is not a political party anymore with values and principles; it is a soulless political machine. Period.
At least Nevada Republicans are good for a laugh as they blunder their way to ignominy. The Democrats, with a chance to lead on policy, prefer campaign tactics over political integrity.
Consider:
►They have ceded the governorship to an incumbent, Brian Sandoval, whom the state party relentlessly attacked last year as abandoning the mental health system, who vetoed a background check bill they championed and whose obstinacy on taxes led to the defeat of a Washoe school repair bill.
►They are trying desperately and transparently to help Sue Lowden defeat Mark Hutchison in the lieutenant governor’s race because they think she is less formidable against Reid’s anointed choice to stop Sandoval from running against him, Lucy Flores – the same Sue Lowden this party spent a fortune ridiculing in 2010.
►Even though the state and Clark County central committees embraced The Education Initiative, the convention this weekend avoided all mention of it in favor of palaver about wanting to increase education funding.
Per Laura Myers in the RJ: “As adopted, the Clark County platform doesn’t mention the Education Initiative, but instead generally calls for supporting ‘the collection of revenue for the full funding of fundamental public services, including but not limited to education, environmental protection, law enforcement, public housing, social services, and public transportation.’”
Brave.
Make no mistake: I get that platforms don’t mean much and often teem with hollow rhetoric. And I get the politics and admire the ruthlessness of The Reid Party in turning the Democratic operation into a voter registration and legalized money-laundering machine.
Fine. But all actions have consequences.
Democrats began to surrender the high ground on education last session when they promised a real debate and an actual plan and then stiff-armed the one GOP idea (to tax mining) and then failed to produce anything by session’s end. They also would not say a peep about the margin tax during the session, simply allowing it to go on the ballot while avoiding taking a position.
Leadership.
And now this opposition to Common Core: “We reject the Common Core education standards which serve to punish children and their teachers in our underfunded schools.”
So they oppose higher standards in schools that are underfunded because their legislators have done nothing? Really?
That part of the platform passed by more than a 2-to-1 margin, a strong statement that echoes the GOP and contradicts the governor and the state superintendent.
So I ask: Which Democratic legislator will be the one to propose repealing Common Core to comport with the feelings of the grassroots? Hello? That’s what I thought.
Standing tall.
By the time the summer ends and the real general election campaign begins, Democrats will have a de facto top of the ticket in Flores who opposes the margin tax, echoing the top of the Republican side, Sandoval.
And for months only a handful of Democratic elected officials have dared to take a position on The Education Initiative, either avoiding reporters or giving statements that would shame any thoughtful pol.
So the choice in Nevada between the two political parties is between an ongoing comedy show that is spectacular in its ineptitude or a well-oiled but empty political machine that is breathtaking in its calculation.
Clowns to the right of me, jokers to the left…..
The tacit argument by Democratic lawmakers running for re-election often has been that they have to be cowards because otherwise the Republicans will win, which would be much worse.
The state Democratic Party believes the best way to accomplish something – i.e. winning elections – is to stand for nothing.
After this weekend’s Clark County convention, where they bought into Common Core conspiracies and danced away from the margin tax, the Democrats in 2014 showed they will rely on palaver and platitudes over commitment and substance.
I would like to tell you how shocked and dismayed I was. But I was hardly surprised.
This is what the Democrats are willing to do this year to try to protect Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and save the state Senate: Help Sue Lowden and equivocate on The Education Initiative.
This is not a political party anymore with values and principles; it is a soulless political machine. Period.
At least Nevada Republicans are good for a laugh as they blunder their way to ignominy. The Democrats, with a chance to lead on policy, prefer campaign tactics over political integrity.
Consider:
►They have ceded the governorship to an incumbent, Brian Sandoval, whom the state party relentlessly attacked last year as abandoning the mental health system, who vetoed a background check bill they championed and whose obstinacy on taxes led to the defeat of a Washoe school repair bill.
►They are trying desperately and transparently to help Sue Lowden defeat Mark Hutchison in the lieutenant governor’s race because they think she is less formidable against Reid’s anointed choice to stop Sandoval from running against him, Lucy Flores – the same Sue Lowden this party spent a fortune ridiculing in 2010.
►Even though the state and Clark County central committees embraced The Education Initiative, the convention this weekend avoided all mention of it in favor of palaver about wanting to increase education funding.
Per Laura Myers in the RJ: “As adopted, the Clark County platform doesn’t mention the Education Initiative, but instead generally calls for supporting ‘the collection of revenue for the full funding of fundamental public services, including but not limited to education, environmental protection, law enforcement, public housing, social services, and public transportation.’”
Brave.
Make no mistake: I get that platforms don’t mean much and often teem with hollow rhetoric. And I get the politics and admire the ruthlessness of The Reid Party in turning the Democratic operation into a voter registration and legalized money-laundering machine.
Fine. But all actions have consequences.
Democrats began to surrender the high ground on education last session when they promised a real debate and an actual plan and then stiff-armed the one GOP idea (to tax mining) and then failed to produce anything by session’s end. They also would not say a peep about the margin tax during the session, simply allowing it to go on the ballot while avoiding taking a position.
Leadership.
And now this opposition to Common Core: “We reject the Common Core education standards which serve to punish children and their teachers in our underfunded schools.”
So they oppose higher standards in schools that are underfunded because their legislators have done nothing? Really?
That part of the platform passed by more than a 2-to-1 margin, a strong statement that echoes the GOP and contradicts the governor and the state superintendent.
So I ask: Which Democratic legislator will be the one to propose repealing Common Core to comport with the feelings of the grassroots? Hello? That’s what I thought.
Standing tall.
By the time the summer ends and the real general election campaign begins, Democrats will have a de facto top of the ticket in Flores who opposes the margin tax, echoing the top of the Republican side, Sandoval.
And for months only a handful of Democratic elected officials have dared to take a position on The Education Initiative, either avoiding reporters or giving statements that would shame any thoughtful pol.
So the choice in Nevada between the two political parties is between an ongoing comedy show that is spectacular in its ineptitude or a well-oiled but empty political machine that is breathtaking in its calculation.
Clowns to the right of me, jokers to the left…..
The tacit argument by Democratic lawmakers running for re-election often has been that they have to be cowards because otherwise the Republicans will win, which would be much worse.
That argument is no longer viable.
(Image from beforeitsnews.com.)
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