Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos and the GOP are clueless about the tsunami that is going to hit them

[Nevilledog]

https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/donald-trump-betsy-devos-and-the-gop-are-clueless-about-the-tsunami-that-is-going-to-hit-them/?amp;


I don’t last too long in “closed Facebook groups” on community/local issues because usually the admins prohibit political discussion in these forums, on the sensible assumption that these would otherwise degenerate into vitriolic bloodbaths, permanently hampering or killing all discussion. I have nothing but awe and admiration for my friends who manage to navigate such forums with grace and equanimity, but I’ve simply accepted that it would probably be best if I didn’t even try to do that at this point.

Having said that, I’ve managed to lurk around one recently, involving a group of suburban parents—Republicans and Democrats–trying to intelligently address the subject of our township’s plans to open up our public schools in six weeks. After a while you can discern the political leanings of some of the posters, but the one thing they have in common is that they are all very, very concerned about their kids. And they are completely freaked out about how schools will plan to reopen this fall.

I suspect my local “closed group” is being mirrored by other, similar groups in practically every school district in the country. In the context of what we’ve been hearing from the Trump administration—or rather what we’ve not been hearing—I have to think that Donald Trump and his billionaire sycophant, Betsy DeVos, our current Secretary of Education, have absolutely no clue about what is metastasizing in the fevered swamps of American parents of school-age children right now in this country, or its potential to explode in a wave of electoral anger that could dwarf what occurred to the Republican Party in 2018.

I’m talking about a thermonuclear, cataclysmic, event of raw, unbridled voter fury. I’m talking about an existential, political wipe-out of Biblical proportions. A tsunami, if you will.

*snip*

[LakeArenal]

1. I think some do...

But “they have there’s so fuck the rest of you!”

[Cyrano]

2. From your lips, to whatever universal intelligence may exist

[Demovictory9]

21. Plus 1000

[leftieNanner]

3. Let it be so!

My children are both grown and off the family payroll. If I still had school age kids at home, I would probably not send them.

[lagomorph777]

4. I would be surprised if that's not the case. Even most Republicans love their children.

Very few people will tolerate sending their kids into the abattoir.

[essme]

5. I want to kick this to the top- I work in a middle school in the wealthiest district in the county

I have NEVER seen collective anger like this before- and it's swelling.

I promise you that if one beloved teacher dies, or God forbid a student-- and the trace shows the school was the reason--- you won't see a Republican in our county for the next generation.

The Republicans in NC are vocal-- think Virginia Foxx-- so, people know exactly what their stance on opening is.

I agree with you

[A Brand New World]

6. I was so relieved to hear on Monday that my

Son and DIL are going to home-school their 6 who are school-age. They have home-schooled off and on in the past a couple of the kids so they have experience. And they are able to since my DIL is a stay-at home mom and my son works from home. We are so fortunate in that aspect. I can’t even imagine those people who are not able to have a choice between their health and having to make a living.

[Voltaire2]

7. That's the upside of a very grim downside.

As in 100s of thousands more dead people and a completely unknown number of seriously damaged people, likely in the millions.

[empedocles]

8. Suspect 'the whip lash' will be in the for now unknown numbers of seriously damaged people.

[zipplewrath]

9. Watch what happens when the virus surges

About the time the virus starts spreading through the schools, the parents are going to go nuts. Trump will probably have to fire Devos to cover his ass.

[Blue_true]

14. My guess is you will see mostly poor kids in class.

Wealthier kids will likely rely on distance learning. So it will be poor kids taking SAR-COV-2 home to family members and teachers taking it hone to their families. The pattern will simply reinforce what we are seeing. My bet is that Trump believes that he wins on that exchange, because an assumption that more people that vote against him will get sick and/or die. He doesn’t realize that lots of misguided poor White who voted for him will be forced to send their kid to school.

[MFM008]

10. I expect the same

.......

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. I have no school age children or grandchildren,

so this is all somewhat theoretical for me.

However, a friend of mine who lives on the east coast is concerned about her two grandchildren. One would be in second or third grade now, the other in a pre-K. She keeps on saying the kids need to be in school, they need the socialization and the structure. On one hand she's undoubtedly right, but on the other she needs to understand how huge the risk is if they go back to school at this point.

[Skittles]

12. if there was any justice the GOP would be stamped out along with that virus

fuckers

[Blue_true]

13. I think the following is going to happen.

Schools will open with a distance learning option for parents that are concerned about sending their kids to school. What happens next will simulate existing economic inequities. Poor families will send their kids to school, because buying computers needed for distance learning will be difficult for them, as will paying for an internet pipe powerful enough to facilitate distance learning. Kids from middleclass and wealthy families will be kept safely at home or with caregivers that parents have evaluated. Poor kids will face the Covid risk, many will get it and take it home to vulnerable adults. More well off kids will be safely protected at home, so they won’t be bringing Covid home.

What we will end up with is reinforcement of current pattern with COVID19, where People of Color and poor Whites are getting hit hard, and wealthier people are safely learning or working from home.

[Pluvious]

16. It's almost as if that's the (secret) intention all along - Steven Miller stink ?

And thank you for the anecdotal report.

[Blue_true]

18. A lot of poor Whites voted for Trump and seem to be prepared to repeat.

Mask wearing is higher among POC that Whites, by around 10%+. So Trump risks killing off big part of his base to get at POC. Wealthier Whites have been consistently less likely to vote for Trump than their poorer counterparts have been.

[tavernier]

15. A common cold spreads in a grade school

faster than grease in a hot frying pan. It sounds like a TB ward during cold season. I know... I worked there.

You are are right... it’s coming hard and fast if all the schools open like Rump wants.

[Pluvious]

17. Anyone hear about the Israeli parents' reaction from their own debacle ?

It just boggles my mind the lessons of other countries continually are ignored.

I mean, I know America is exceptional, and bad things others experience can "never happen here."

But still...

WTF m8

[Stuart G]

19. I agree completely..K and R

[ecstatic]

20. I think you're right. I saw one of the biggest mass exoduses

from trump's train the day he stated that schools needed to reopen and the ones that didn't would have their funding cut.

I was actually shocked to see that so many trumpers were teachers. Very disturbing. But yeah, they were pissed and many of them declared that trump had lost their vote.

[Wednesdays]

22. Let's pray this is so, but take nothing for granted!

GOTV! GOTV! GOTV!