Teacher unions smarting after many members vote for Trump

[TomCADem]

Source: MSN/USA Today

WASHINGTON — Two weeks after Republican Donald Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 presidential election, the USA’s teachers unions are wondering what happened to their chosen candidate — and how so many of their members could have voted for her opponent.

Despite early and eager endorsements of Clinton by both unions, the nation’s school teachers and other school workers contributed substantially to Trump’s Nov. 8 win.

How substantially? About one in five American Federation of Teachers (AFT) members who cast a ballot voted for Trump, the union’s leader estimated. Among the larger National Education Association (NEA), which comprises more than 3 million members, more than one in three who voted did so for the billionaire developer, early data show.

AFT President Randi Weingarten, whose union represents about 1.6 million teachers and other workers, said some of the reason for Clinton's defeat was timing — and perhaps sexism.

Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/teacher-unions-smarting-after-many-members-vote-for-trump/ar-AAkFPCx

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Given the support that Trump got from public school teachers, and the chattering on this Board that Trump won because of his focus on the economy and his policies favored by the working class, not racism, you would think that many public school teachers favor the abolition of tenure, dismantling of public unions, and school vouchers designed to funnel students to private schools.

[WhiteTara]

1. Not everyone graduates in the top 10% of

their class.

It is amazing to me that people are so blinded by shiny things that they don't see the monster standing there dangling the shiny thing.

[JHan]

2. If true, the stupid of 2016 y'all..

Vote against your Self Interests!!!

EDIT: Not the first time people do this shit, watch the buyer's remorse sink in pretty quick.

[christx30]

22. I think instead of dismissing people that voted for Trump,

we should find out what was their objection to Hillary, and address that.

I voted for Hillary despite her support of TPP and H-1B visas.
TPP is a terrible agreement that puts too much power in the hands of corporations.
H-1B visas have been abused by companies for years, laying off qualified US workers in favor of foreign workers, especially in IT, just because the foreign workers would be cheaper.

Dismissing people and ignoring issues that people feel are crucial is now elections are lost.

[JHan]

23. I have to disagree..

Her support of TPP was when the trade agreement was in negotiations and when she was in the State Department- she has consistently supported trade deals that seek to lift labor standards to the international level - the TPP has provisions that demand countries in the TPP region address worker rights. if passed, even Vietnam will be pressured to unionise.

It is possible that some aspects in the final draft don't meet her standards, but her position is actually consistent and unfairly demonised.

And yes i am pro-trade, which has also been unfairly demonized all year.

It's possible to address immigration issues without demonizing and denigrating demographics - which is what Trump did. Immigrants are human beings seeking a better life, castigating them without compunction on a xenophobic platform is the antithesis of all the things we say America stands for - and if there are Americans supporting that, yes I will judge them accordingly.

[Kennah]

3. I'm part of AFSCME, and we've got more than our share who voted for Trump

One guy in particular is a complete RW asshat, and he's an activist in the local. He's retiring in a couple of years, and his attitude appears to be one of "Fuck it, I got mine."

[Solly Mack]

4. They're gonna love Betsy bug Devos

Snort

[pangaia]

28. I doubt they will even know who she is or what is happening when it happens...

[FairWinds]

5. The ideologues of the Reich are quite clear . .

that one of their central goals is to abolish public education, and
they work tirelessly toward that end.

Is it asking too much of the Dem party and the teachers unions to
point that out?

[PearliePoo2]

6. You gotta be fuckin' kidding me! One in three voted against their own interests??

How stinking stupid are these people? How fucking dumb can you get?
Hey, dumb-shits! How ya liking the pro-school voucher, anti-gay, Dominionist, anti-union, Amway linked, batshit crazy, billionaire ASSHOLE your "moron-elect" picked for Secretary of Education? Pathetic! Fuck these guys..all of them!

[MFM008]

9. YES

They deserve what's coming.
Probably elimination of the depth of ed.

[hollowdweller]

7. Unions leadership a lot of times is in the bag for the democrats.

Full disclosure: I'm a democrat and have never voted for a republican.

However in my 30 years working for state govt we got the biggest raises and the best treatment from Republican Governors.

I remember we had this one gov, Dem. In like 8 years he gave us 500. We don't get automatic cost of living and back then the inflation rate was higher and at the end of his term I felt poorer than when I started. He did give the teachers a big raise though when they went on an ILLEGAL Strike.

Anyway, a republican governor followed that gave us 3 raises and appointed a head to our agency (most dem governors never even bothered to appoint a director) and he gave us all 5% too.

So when the election comes AFSCME endorses the Democrat, former congressman Bob Wise, instead of the governor who gave us a huge raise. Go figure.

Anyway Wise gave us either nothing or very little and left after he had an affair with somebody.

Then we got another Democrat, Joe Manchin. Manchin was the worst governor to state employees EVER. I won't even talk about it more.

When Manchin left to joint the senate Gov Tomblin, a democrat was appointed and he has given us nothing and increased our insurance cost too.

So even though I'm a democrat, and I'm also a 30 year union member, I think the unions are either out of touch or they fail to deliver for employees. They let the democrats take them for granted and by doing so that means they get nothing for their employees and therefore the members vote however.

[stonecutter357]

8. You are not a democrat you are a member of the Democratic party./

"Democrat Party" is a political epithet used in the United States for the Democratic Party. The term has been used in negative or hostile fashion by conservative commentators and members of the Republican Party in party platforms, partisan speeches and press releases since at least 1940.

[hollowdweller]

11. Right

The GOP does use Democrat party but I used Democratic party but I'm a democrat.

[Igel]

16. You're trying to overachieve

on the 10-point outrage scale.

"Democrat" is a person in the Democratic Party. A "democrat" is a person who holds to democracy.

"I voted for the Democrat, Representative John Smith" is perfectly fine. "Democrat" and "rep. John Smith" are in apposition, both are nouns.

"I voted for the Democratic representative, John Smith" is also fine. One has "rep" as his title, the other as the position. Again, apposition, both are nouns.

"I voted for the Democratic Representative John Smith" is forced. It rather assumes there's a "Republican Representative John Smith" or that you could say "I voted for the Democratic John Smith"--again, there's another "John Smith" around that I could have voted for.

It gets confusing because sometimes people lose capitalization, and say "democrat" when they mean "Democrat." This poster does the same with "republican" (vs Republican), so that's what's happening. Assuming any good will's around to be used. I don't like losing capitalization, myself, at least not in this case because there are times when I think a given Democrat isn't really all that much of a democrat. Strictly speaking, most Republicans are also democratic, and most Democrats are republican.


As for Democrat's only ever being a noun, note that I like that English is a germanic language and sometimes lapse in a nativist sort of way to saying "Turkey president Erdogan" instead of "Turkish president Erdogan." Why? Because I know a lot of Turks who aren't in Turkey, so it's partly ethnicity. But Turkey only has one president. In a sense, JFK was an "Irish President" but in no sense the "Ireland president." It's a quirk, but it's a growing quirk in US English (along with the loss of negative raising and the less/fewer distinction).

Yes, things that look like nouns can be adjectival in form, and adjectives can be dealt with as nouns. A Senate seat is not a senatorial seat, unless you're in the 1940s or before. Similarly, people argue to say you can't use an adjective as a noun (so "illegals" is just ungrammatical), but then they complain about "republicans" (or conservatives) ... using adjectives as nouns. People go language-stupid when they have a point to defend and can't.

(Oh, and don't ask for consistency. I can't easily say "France President Hollande" but can easily say "Russia President Putin." Linguistic change may, according to the Neo-grammarian hypothesis be exceptionless, but it progresses token by token, and in this case it's fed by things like "United States President Obama" where there is no specific adjective form--or "adjectival form"--of the word "US".)

[Jake Stern]

27. As I've mentioned in another OP

Many Union folks voted the way they did because of resentment between them and older members. A guy under a 1990 contract with Cadillac heath insurance and a real pension votes blue while a young pup under the 2015 contract with a worthless 401(k) and shitty Kaiser insurance feels like the union hasn't done shit for them except take their money.

That resentment breeds anger which sometimes manifests itself in votes for the GOP.

Many are bewildered that the union could secure sweet bennies back in the day but now just seem to give the company whatever they ask for.

[bluevoter4life]

10. I'm a member of NATCA

And we have MANY members who voted against their best interst for President Cheeto.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. I guess they must have forgotten about PATCO.

[world wide wally]

13. I am embarrassed to be a teacher now

[cilla4progress]

14. I mean

this is what makes me want to pull up the drawbridges and retreat to only care for my beloveds...

[not fooled]

15. Federal workers, too

2 of the Federal workers in my small office voted for Drumpf. I doubt either had a clue as to what is going to happen to us--hiring freeze, pay freeze, shift our retirement accounts to 401Ks, benefit cuts, roadblocks thrown up to doing our jobs, etc. etc. etc. Both are ignorant Rush lovers. One is retiring and hence will escape the consequences but the other is a religious extremist who voted because Jebus but is probably now scratching his head as the carnage unfolds. Unfortunately, the rest of us will be suffering too.

And, once Betsy gets finished with the country, their uninformed method of voting will be the norm while those of us who understand what's really going on are forced to stand by and watch the nation descend into darkness.

[raging moderate]

21. Yes, millions are brainwashed by right-wing media.

We have the spectacle of United Methodists rejecting the actual United Methodist Church member and her Catholic veep choice for a narcissistic, sociopathic, practicing worshipper of Mammon, and complaining that other people refuse to remember to say Merry Christmas to them but instead insist on saying Happy Holidays to them as part of a mythical war on Christmas, but after January 20th their hero Trump will defeat the war on Christmas so they will be free once more to say Merry Christmas.

[John1956PA]

26. I work for the USPS. Several of my union co-workers here in Western PA voted R.

Most of the R voters feel that their worker's rights, benefits and perks under the contract between our union and the Postal Service will protect us Postal Service workers regardless of what the new administration might otherwise have in mind. Some of the R voters are strong Second Amendment proponents and feel the R administration will protect their rights better than a Democratic administration would. A few of the R voters expressed a dislike for Hillary, which a attribute, in part, to years of R propaganda.

[Sunlei]

17. Those Unions are just for public school teachers & workers? I don't think so?they may want vouchers

and 'for profit' schools.

[rwheeler31]

18. What a horrible example for students

religion or racism are the only reasons I can think of.

[deurbano]

19. Some of the most virulently rightwing of my relatives have been "sucking on the government teat"

their entire professional lives. Like Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy. Total hypocrites.

[mdbl]

20. How could some teachers be so stupid?

Did they really listen in school?

[heaven05]

24. educators for trumpfuhrer

I feel for their students....but a dumbed down ameriKKKa is a playground for racists and fascists. Just ask the new fuhrer who the media is trying its best to apply lipstick to. Ain't enough lipstick in the whole wide world to make this pig presentable.

[YOHABLO]

25. Public school teachers come with just as many prejudices.

Having been through it myself .. most of my fellow middle school teachers were women. Many had critical thinking skills of a nine year old.

[Nay]

29. You forget a couple of realities -- teaching is one of the 'female' occupations that is

acceptable to the RW 'family' oriented and patriarchal ideology, which means that a good proportion of teachers will be RW. Add to that the RW ideology of infiltrating every area of public life to inject their RW philosophy and whammo, you have RW teachers. It's an oxymoron, really, but there it is.

[kebob]

30. I Guess They Want Out oof Their Jobs

Maybe they're figuring they'll get a good severance package when (not if, when) Trump eviscerates our education system. Too bad the Donald has a history of not paying anybody anything!

[Orsino]

31. Must hate their jobs as well as their students and communities. n/t