There was a time when attacking these three groups would have been political suicide, but things have obviously changed, especially where teachers are concerned (whatever the 'message of Wisconsin' was, it didn't include police and firefighters). It has become easy to demonize teachers, to blame them for the ills of public education, because there is genuine frustration with the fact that teachers' unions make it inordinately difficult to fire a bad tenured teacher. That's an easier thing to explain than the fact that those unions also protect all of the good teachers, and have transformed the profession into one that can give educators a decent living.
But what about police and firefighters? Aren't they the 'heroes,' the first responders who became de rigeur accessories for every post-9/11 politician? How can there be any advantage to kicking those guy in the teeth?
Maybe, maybe not, but the Republicans's treatment of them thus far has shown that they don't expect to pay a price for it. A closer look at what Romney said, though, might give a clue as to who this message is for:
He wants another stimulus, he wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It's time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.
Who does Romney think those 700,000 public sector workers are? Spacemen? And for that matter, who are those firemen, policemen, and teachers supposed to be protecting and educating? Ghosts? Sasqui?
No, they're protecting and educating people that Mitt Romney doesn't care about, at least from a political standpoint. When Romney says he needs to get 50.1% of the vote, he's really only talking about pulling independent voters, who are overwhelmingly white and middle class.
Republicans like Newt Gingrich have already made clear who they think are most affected by failing schools, and Romney's solution for them is to divert funding to those schools into vouchers to subsidize private schools.
Similarly, if you run a Google search on police layoffs, the results make clear who is being hurt most by Republican opposition to the President's plans to help states keep cops on the job. The cities of Camden and Newark, New Jersey, have seen steep rises in crime following deep cuts to their police forces, including a 28% spike in homicides in Camden in 2011. The City of Paterson, New Jersey saw an explosion of gun violence when it shed 20% of its police force. These are not places where Mitt Romney ever hopes to pick up votes.
Contrast that, however, with the challenges that reduced police resources present in a place like, say, La Jolla, California, site of Romney's soon-to-be-car-elevatored beach mansion. Here's what San Diego Police Dept. Assistant Chief Boyd Long looks for in a La Jolla police captain:
'I wanted someone to go to Northern who understood the complexity of the issues involving alcohol and the beach problems. He has a great working knowledge of the region. I needed someone who could hit the ground running,' Long explained.
When then-Lt. (Brian) Ahearn was assigned to La Jolla and the beach communities, he focused on the Children's Pool seal conflicts while also working behind the scenes, particularly with surfers, to deal with burglaries targeting La Jolla Shores beach-users, Long said.
How well do you think the War on Seals would prepare someone to be a police captain in Camden?
New La Jolla police Captain Brian Ahearn's comforting message to La Jolla residents, that in an emergency, 'Chances are there will be an officer nearby,' also explains why there's safety in Mitt Romney's attack on police and firefighters. While Americans overwhelmingly support hiring more teachers, police officers and firefighters, the Romney message is that their absence is somebody else's problem. Romney's target audience might need to get their surfers to be more vigilant, but nobody's going to die behind it. Hell, if you're Mitt Romney, you just throw on a uniform yourself, and have at it.
What Romney doesn't realize, though, is that not only are those 700,000 public sector workers part of 'the American people,' as are the American people they protect and serve, but the money they would be spending if they still had jobs would have gone to support private sector businesses, and private sector job growth. Public sector employees don't shop in some segregated Gov-Mart, they're part of the rest of America. His failure to recognize that is the real revelation.
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Why are public sector employees so afraid of merit pay? The tax payers are the boss and they should decide who stays and who goes. No one should pay for a bad employee. Unions continue to force us to pay for them. Why? I think GOOD teachersand all GOOD employees deserve better pay. Let's try liberal logic here; TAKE FROM THE BAD AND GIVE TO THE GOOD. Got it?
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Yes! Those firemen and teachers should all quit and go to work for Bain.
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to pay devils advocate
how would you decide what counts as bad or good?
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It's a nice sentiment to want more firemen, policemen, and teachers. But who is going to pay them when states can't pay for the ones that they employ now? Also, how will hiring more firemen, more policemen, and more teachers fix our larger economic problems so that people who are not firemen, policemen, or teachers also have jobs?
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Please don't try to apply common sense to Tommy Christopher columns. It will drive you insane.
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Not ONCE in my short life I've had to call the fire department.
I've called 9-1-1 in 3 occasions. Once when a neighbor's home was burglarized. Twice when I witnessed horrific traffic accidents.
This is the gNOpig message.
Cut down the size of gubbimint until your house burns, you get robbed and there are NO gubbimint employees to help you.Oh, don't forget. You and the criminals are allowed to carry .50 machine guns for personal protection.
It is in the constipation. -
The market. You let kids and parents choose their schools and their teachers.
The teacher with the most students is probably 'good.' The teacher who nobody wants is probably 'bad.'
Basically, just take the amount of money you spend per student, and 'attach' it to the kid. So, whatever school he goes to and whatever teacher he chooses gets the money. That injects the profit motive into public education.
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It's no secret that when it comes police and firemen, the republicans support for them goes only so far as how much it will benefit them politically. Policemen are heroes and great americans when, for instance, they are working on rescue and recovery following 9/11 but when it comes to paying for health problems resulting from rescue and recovery''That costs way too much. Besides, how are we going to be able to afford it without raising taxes on the upper class of Americans?'
Teachers? You only need to look at the overwhelmingly republican state of Texas to see how they feel about education. Let's not forget all the 'snobs' who go to college.
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'Divide and conquer'
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