A clean break with Clintonism would be a good start for Democrats on the road to 2020

"I voted numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in." --  Hillary Clinton. 

Last week on Hitting Left, brother Fred asked me and our guests for our takes on the so-called Democratic "blue wave". I responded that while the midterms represented a big victory for the Democrats, I wouldn't call it a blue wave, but rather an anti-Trump wave.

The wave came primarily from youth, women and people of color, many running or voting for the first time. The Democratic Party leadership had no single unifying or inspiring message or program besides anti-Trump, around which to mobilize voters. Apparently, that was enough in many races and could be again in 2020.

This election sweep was mainly a mass response to Trumpism and the threat his regime represents to democracy, world peace, economic stability and human rights.

Will that wave continue and grow through 2020 and beyond? Most likely, it will. But never underestimate the ability of the Democratic Party leadership to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory like they did in 2000, 2004 and 2016.

Here's one way they could blow it in 2020. The same way they blew it in 2016. Follow the Clinton road again.

Trump sends 6.000 troops to the border with Mexico.

On Thursday, Hillary Clinton, emerged from the woods to dip her toes once more into presidential campaign waters.

In an interview with The Guardian, she urged European leaders to "get tough" on immigration, a la Donald Trump, by sending a message that they will no longer offer “refuge and support” to refugees.

She blamed immigrants fleeing war, violence and oppression in their home countries for "opening the door to political turmoil" and for the rise of the European neo-fascist, anti-immigrant movement. Not to mention, Britain's decision to withdraw from the European Union. A clear case of blaming the victim and putting the cart before the horse.

HC's anti-immigrant warning was first pitched before the United States midterm elections this month. Maybe she was caught short by the overwhelming defeat served up to Trump and his caravan scare tactics. Her appeasement rhetoric however, played right in the hands of Republicans who took a licking in the elections, but who can now quote her when making their anti-immigration pitch and demanding $52B for Trump's wall.

Before Hillary Clinton says another word about shutting the door on refugees in Europe or anywhere else, she and the Democratic leadership should look back on their roles in driving the global refugee crisis, from  support for the invasion of Iraq to the destabilization of Libya and Syria to her backing for the military coup in Honduras.

Aviva Chomsky writes in The Nation:

It was, after all, President Clinton who oversaw the draconian Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. It drastically increased all levels of immigration “enforcement,” enlarging the Border Patrol, criminalizing numerous types of low-level immigration violations, and facilitating and expanding deportation procedures. (A similar emphasis on casting blame on individuals for structural and systemic problems was also at the heart of Clinton’s welfare reform of that same year.)

In many ways, Donald Trump is only reiterating, with more bombast, ideas and policies pioneered under Clinton, that then became a basic part of Barack Obama’s approach to immigration. Those policies drew directly on racist “tough on crime” and anti-terrorism police tactics that also helped foment white racial fears.

Putting the lack of morality of it aside for a moment, Democrats can't win in 2020 by appeasing Trump and by running point for his anti-immigrant platform. A clean break from Clintonism would be a good start down the road to a real blue wave.

April's fools

Finn, far right.

No joke, Finn is stil a teacher basher

Always tops on my list of April fools is Checker Finn, wing-nut-in-chief at the Fordham Institute's stink tank. His April 1 riffs are never as clever as he and his mentee, Mike Petrilli, would like to think. This year's spoof features a faux Finn book cover with this description:

In this inspiring motivational book, patterned after some of the more celebrated works of Tony Robbins and Deepak Chopra, Fordham’s Chester E. Finn, Jr. walks hand-in-hand with America’s teachers down the path to self-discovery and self-actualization (reuniting with Diane Ravitch along the way). Through the book’s pages, emotionally-abused teachers will confront our nation’s long history of teacher bashing and overcome bullies who assert that collective-bargaining rights “should not be sacred” and that “ineffective teachers should be let go.” Come step with Fordham and the universe and let us heal your karmic soul. 

Apparently Finn thinks thousands of teachers losing their jobs, health benefits and collective-bargaining rights at the hands of T-Party governors is a real knee-slapper. Notice how he even tries to drag his old pal Diane Ravitch back into the ditch. Oh stop please, Chester. You're killing me. 

More April folly

It's hard to tell whether this one is a bad joke or simply for-real Libertarian goofyness (it's always difficult).  Something called the Sam Adams Alliance has made Michelle Rhee a finalist for their National Activism Award.

The fact that we can't tell if this is a spoof or not, shows how far to the right Rhee has drifted since she was run out of D.C. by the voters. Rhee is now splitting her time between a consulting gig with T-Party governor Rick Scott in Florida and running her supposed billion-dollar, anti-union Students First campaign  (look out kids) with Gates and Broad money. While her bank account may be growing, her political capital is dwindling rapidly following USA Today's exposure of her fraudulent test-score gains in D.C. and her insulting responses to her critics during her Tavis Smiley interview. She even embarrassed long-time Rhee apologist Jay Mathews. Not funny, Michelle.

Then of course, there's that power wedding to worry about.

Good read--No joke

Tom Hayden on Samantha Power, the voice behind Obama’s Libya action.” Bombing for human rights. Remember, Obama shelved her after she called Hillary Clinton a “monster” during the 2008 presidential primaries. Now she's a member of Obama's National Security Council.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Marcus Yam for The New York Times

A sign at 168th St. and Broadway in Manhattan announcing enrollment for KIPP Star Elementary, a charter school.

Educator Takes On Charter Chain

"There is a quiet but fierce battle going on in education today, between the unions that represent the public school teachers and the hedge-fund managers who finance the big charter chains, between those who trust teachers to assess a child’s progress and those who trust standardized tests, and occasionally it flares out into the open over something as seemingly minor as the location of a school." -- Michael Winerip, NYT

Biden visits Delaware high school

Biden acknowledged that “beating up unions” had become en vogue for some, but credited the key role unions were playing in improving Howard High. “Do you know what these guys did?” Biden asked. “They said, ‘We’ll take a chance.’" -- Education Votes

Experience makes teachers better

"Having $40 billion or $50 billion does not mean you know how to engage, entertain, inspire, motivate and educate a classroom of 25 10- and 11-year-olds for 6½ hours each day. Have any of these people even set foot in a classroom in the last 20 or 30 years, other than for the occasional photo-op?" -- Edward Johnson, teacher at West Elementary School in Sycamore, Il 

Al L.A. rally

"This is a direct attack" on all unions and the entire middle class, Mitchell shouted, warning that similar policies could soon be introduced by politicians in California, which is grappling with an estimated $26-billion deficit. "An injury to one is an injury to us all!" -- Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin.

Florida for sale

"The Florida Legislature proved this past week, once and for all, that it is the utter Whore of Babylon." -- St. Pete Times columnist, Howard Trolxer