Education, The Political Pawn That Could Lead To The Downfall Of America

Education, The Political Pawn That Could Lead To The Downfall Of America

April 27, 2012  By D. DiFrancesco

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." 

Thomas Jefferson

President Thomas Jefferson

For all of his faults, Thomas Jefferson was a huge proponent of free public education up through and including university education.  He viewed educating the populace as one of, if not the most important safeguards to preserving our democracy.

Why is it then that education is always one of the first things that gets put on the chopping block when budget discussions occur.

1786 August 13. (to George Wythe) "I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised, for the preservation of freedom and happiness...Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils [tyranny, oppression, etc.] and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance."

Thomas Jefferson

For the first time in our history, our children are receiving less of an education than previous generations did.  In a country as great as ours, this is an absolute disgrace.

If you want to see examples of this, you need to look no further than this weeks headlines. Contained within you will find examples of our nations educational system being used as a pawn for political gain, and in some cases profit.

The Washington Post reports, House approves student loan plan; White House vows veto over health fund depletion,  Please tell me how bankrupting college students before they even get to truly contribute to society is in this nations best interest!  What we are looking at is the Republican Party tying their student loan plan to an attempt to destroy the President's health care initiative.

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Has President Obama Overstepped His Constitutional Authority As Republicans Claim?

President Barack Obama

Read the complete article at my new blog site!

April 25, 2012

By: D. DiFrancesco

We Can’t Wait - President Obama's slogan signifying the administrations unwillingness to wait for Congress to decide on domestic policy issues.

President Obama is not letting congressional gridlock slow our economic growth.

"Without a doubt, the most urgent challenge that we face right now is getting our economy to grow faster and to create more jobs…. we can’t wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job. Where they won’t act, I will."

- President Barack Obama, October 24, 2011

Is President Barack Obama's willingness to use all of the tools at his disposal, and in the process bypassing Congress, appropriate in light of the ongoing gridlock caused by the extreme partisanship and inflexibility that exists in the right wing of the Republican Party?

Selfishly, I would say yes, but does history support this?

Read the complete article at my new blog site!

Hatred Has No Place In American Politics Unless You Are A Republican

April 23, 2012

Hatred Has No Place In American Politics Unless You Are A Republican

Like anything else, when you repeat something often enough, there will be an element in society that starts to believe it.  This is the case with the repeated statements that try to portray President Barack Obama as anti-American.

Rocker and Republican Mouthpiece Ted Nugent

Symptomatic of the problem would be comments made recently by rocker Ted Nugent at the NRA convention in St. Louis on April 14, 2012.

Nugent's statement that the Obama administration is a "vile, evil America-hating administration" that is "wiping its ass with the Constitution" and his claim that "If Barack Obama becomes the president in November, again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year", were not uncharacteristic seeing that he has spewed similar hate talk in 2007.

What is disturbing, and should be to everyone regardless of party affiliation, is that this type of commentary is tolerated.  Lets look at the words and actions of those who portend to speak for the Republican party.

In a prepared statement, Romney's campaign, in response to Nugent's comments said that, "Mitt Romney believes everyone needs to be civil."

Read the complete story at my new blog site.