Sometimes, the ad hominem attacks, along with the strawmen attacks are too much not to respond, just for the sheer lack of information or justified research.
Not only that, but as one reader commented earlier this week, the fact that trolls and liberals (sometimes both are indistinguishable) are taking the time to write negative attacks, that just lends weight and authority to the arguments augmented on this blog.
The pandemic progressivism of the Obama Administration has done a far better job of exposing the very core folly of that political philosophy, far more than any conservative-libertarian-free market think-tanks every could. Not that those institutions should stop researching, publishing, training, teaching, and impacting their communities.
Still, this lengthy commented appeared on my latest Patch.com post about Lawless Democratic Lawmakers in CA. There was just too much not to respond, refute, and reject out of hand, while making the case all the more for the limited government, constitutional rule, and individual liberty principles which I support.
Roger Hawkins
Mr. Schaper, I have read several of your rambling screeds on Patch over the past few months and my observation is you basically favor an imaginary 1950s version of society.
If they were rambling screeds, that Mr. Hawkins never would have been able to read them. When he talks about an imaginary 1950s society, that is an impossible statement, for he speaks of imaginary yet at the same time mentions a specific time.
You seem quite uncomfortable with life in these United States–California, particularly–and i wonder why you haven't relocated to the South, whose religious and cultural mores mirror your own. No one likes politicians whose hands are out, but I ask you–what are your beloved Koch Brothers, other than GOP politicians' benevolent sugar daddies?
Criticism with one's government does not mean discomfort with one's country or state. If I was so resigned about affecting or influencing the current state of the this country or this state (California), I would not bother writing anything. Mr. Hawkins engages in some hollow stereotypes, painting every Californian and I suppose every Southern in one culture brush. Who is demonstrating a profoundly unreflective bias, then?
How many GOP politicos have been caught behaving badly throughout your lifetime? Many, Mr. Schaper—many—one of whom, you may recall, resigned the presidency in disgrace while many of his bagmen went to prison. What's that about glass houses, again?
I have never said that Republican politicians have never behaved badly. My article has pointed out not just the rapid spate of Democratic lawmakers exposed in connection with corruption and wrongdoing, but also an entire statewide political party which does not seem pressed to do anything about it.
And as to your charter school whining–as a retired public school administrator, I have yet to hear a cogent case made for the redirection of funds away from the public school system to a slapped-together patchwork of systemless mush called "charter". After at least a decade of significant charter school growth, research and experience from around the country show that these schools are failing to serve students with the greatest needs, are disrupting communities, increasing racial segregation of schools, and introducing new kinds of corruption into education, all while producing similar or worse educational outcomes than public schools. The evidence is mounting that placing education in the hands of unelected privately run organizations is a disaster for students, teachers, and communities.
Then Hawkins wants to change the subject and attack my support for charter schools and I suppose school choice and even vouchers. Why he decided to swerve away from the original discussion about the poor character and conduct of the California State Senate Democratic Supermajority in Sacramento makes sense: he cannot justify the outrageous conduct, and rather than join in the effort to remove those lawmakers and hold them accountable, he wants to change the subject entirely. For all of his comments about discomfort with specific cultures, I wish Hawkins demonstrated a profound discomfort with the culture of craven corruption among Democratic legislators in Sacramento.
The fact that Hawkins is a public school administrator neither diminishes nor augments for or against charter schools, although his advocacy for public schools is more suspect, since the state pays his salary and his pension (since he has apparently retired). Also, the guiding principle in education reform should be choice, and charter schools offer that option. Never have I offered that all charter schools are perfect. I have even documented that some charter schools opened up under false and corrupted pretenses. Yet unlike the traditional public schools which stay open and engage very little change (besides parent revolts through the parent-trigger law, or if the parents can afford it, move out of the school district), charter schools can be shut down, and often are when malfeasance, fraud, or misconduct is reported.
I do not waiver from the notion that parents deserve a choice, as do students, regarding where the children receive an education.
And still Hawkins cannot justify the rampant corruption emanating (or oozing) out of Sacramento, where Supermajority Democratic Dominance has stalled on really education reform, including State Senator Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar) legislation SB 451 and SB 452 which would have expanded school choice to all public schools as well as grant parents more power and authority to reform/change failing schools.
Mr. Schaper, if you dislike these United States so, move elsewhere. At the very least, stop your damn, incessant whining.
Why he goes off on whether I like or dislike the United States is the most hollow of distractions. I love this country, and I enjoy living in California. The current politics and policies in the state legislature need to be exposed and expelled, and there is nothing wrong with my doing that. It's called the First Amendment.
To quote Frederick Douglass:
He is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins.
Thanks again, Mr. Hawkins!