If that’s you being harsh, you must surely be among the most level-headed posters on this board.
“Scam” was itself perhaps a bit too hard of an edge. I guess what I meant to say was… not universally a scam—many, even the ones that don’t produce extraordinary results, come from a good place and just lose out on the law of averages—but as a movement they seem roughly in line with something like school choice vouchers. So my principle concern with this isn’t that they charter schools as an industry are taking money and putting it towards an illegitimate purpose (not always, anyway), but that they—like school choice vouchers—seem ripe for exploitation by bad actors, seeking to enrich private industry or religious institutions at the expense of public schools with our tax dollars. Also like school choice vouchers, while they might on the surface be depicted as increasing choices for everyone, in many cases they only increase choices for relatively privileged households to get their children out of what they imagine to be a failing public school system, then leaving behind those who are in the most need of help (and now getting less money to support their own education) because charter schools and private schools alike aren’t necessarily required to accept them. But the public education system is (which is a good thing, but hobbled by the lack of funding due in part to the aforementioned scheme of vouchers and charter schools: diverting so much funding from public schools, then, leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy as the public education system is thus hindered by the diversion of funds).
Anyway, it sounds like your charter school isn’t one of those. I painted with an overboard brush and I apologize for that. My main point is that, even among the good charter schools, there is enough of an undercurrent of anti-government, anti-public education sentiment within some segments of the charter school movement that, while by no means universal, at the very least makes it unsurprising to me that you might find the odd Trump supporter prominently placed from time to time.
There are a lot of politically liberal folks whose philosophy of primary education boils down to “public schools or GTFO”. A lot of fuckery has been done in the name of alternatives to public education, so the suspicion is somewhat justified.
But throwing out the baby with the bathwater is demonstrably excessive.
The last time I mentioned something like this, that was what others were saying. But, the fact of the matter is, I didn’t know, and I suspect a lot of others didn’t as well. Maybe it’s because I live in the midwest and not New York, maybe it’s because I’m in my 40s and I was a kid when he was getting popular. Maybe I just had my head in the sand. I don’t know, but I don’t think I’m alone here.
But why would I have any reason to venture into whatever bubble he was in? I’d see him on the cover of a magazine at the grocery store or making a cameo in something, but that’s about it. There was no reason for him to be on my radar before he ran for president.
Having said that, once he was running, the media I was exposed to taught me a lot of this stuff. If you were permanently glued to Fox, you may have missed it.
There’s a good example, the first time I heard any of that was either while he was running or after he was elected.
Before he ran, there wouldn’t have been much reason for me to know that he didn’t pay his contractors or had some failed businesses.
When he first ran, a very conservative facebook friend of mine announced that he couldn’t bring himself to vote for Trump so he was voting libertarian. His wife commented that since we live in, what is essentially, a two-party system, he needs to understand that he has to vote for Trump in order to vote against Hillary. From his POV, a vote for the libertarian is a vote for Clinton.
Yes, the Dope is full of “everyone knows this” posters. When in fact, most people don’t. Why would I care about some NYC real estate “mogul”? He was just one of many. There’s a lot of stuff that seems of immense importantance to some people, such as New Yorkers, that doesn’t affect anyone west of the Hudson at all.
I’ll admit that I had always assumed Trump was a successful real estate developer and really hadn’t heard anything different until 2015/16. Even throughout the election, I was unaware that his entire image as a successful businessman was just a facade. I don’t think I had a full appreciation of just how big a fraud Trump was until his civil trial with Judge Merchan.
As someone who grew up in Michigan, Trump was just always this symbol of 80s wealth and glitz. No more than Robin Leach or Miami Vice or Tammy Faye Bakker or Leona Helmsley. He had some books that were aimed at people that weren’t me, had a show that was aimed at people that weren’t me, and lived a lifestyle that I didn’t really care about. I figured he was an asshole, but I just assumed that about most people from NYC. I didn’t know it was all one big fraud, though, because I just didn’t pay that much attention to him. At least not until 2015/16.
I was once a regular watcher, and no they never did mention his failings on the show. Watching “The Apprentice,” you’d get the impression that he was the richest, handsomest, most successful, most well-respected real estate developer of all time.
I will say, though, that even on his own show, he always came off as an asshole.
And that’s sorta the point I was getting at. If that’s how you were, as I think a lot of us were, before he ran for president, and your main source of information is right wing websites and Fox, you weren’t likely to hear about a lot of this. I think a lot of people that went through life with no reason to think, or even care, that he was anything other than a successful businessman, still assume the same.
I’ve heard people, as recently as the past few weeks, mention that he’s a ‘good businessman’ as part of why they voted for him. Leaving aside the concept of running the government like a for-profit business, they have no idea he’s anything other than that.
But that ‘the information was out there’ doesn’t matter to people that didn’t know they should’ve been looking for it.
Rhetorical question: What pseudo-celebrities should we be paying attention today so that we know all about them when they run for president in 30 years?
Rhetorical questions: How many months are there between the parties nominating someone and the election for people to do a little research into the two people the race has been realistically narrowed down to before voting on the most powerful person in the world? Or if you don’t have the time to do some research, to decide not to make an uninformed seat-of-the-pants vote on the most powerful person in the world? And do people who vote for president by the seat of their pants also pick their doctor, plumber, HVAC repair, or car mechanic in a similarly blithe fashion?
I hadn’t thought of this. That show was barely (very barely) on my radar. But if it showed Trump in a positive light, that could explain some of his support.
On the day Trump announced for the 2016 campaign, my wife and I got into a taxi in Las Vegas. The driver was so excited. Trump was so rich, he wouldn’t be corrupt like all other politicians. He would self-fund his campaign, and be beholden to no one. He would only be interested in what’s best for the country. I wonder whatever happened to that cab driver and what he thinks now.
That is a very good description. Does not mean he was a particularly successful businessman. But because of his wealth - and the countless protections afforded such wealth - he was able to remain an apparent symbol of wealth and glitz whether or not any specific project of his went belly up.
He was just one of many beneficiaries of inherited wealth - and one who preferred a more public profile than most.
Not much. That’s when he started talking about all the websites he reads. I kind of got the impression he was hinting that, if it were true, he’d have heard about it before…
I don’t think he ever bothered to actually look into it. They never do. I had a similar discussion with another Trumper, and I asked him how he reconciled his pro-union support with supporting Trump, who is notorious for screwing over working people. He, again, had never heard of such a thing, and then found cheap excuses to refuse to even look at every link I tried to show him that discussed the issue. He had his head firmly planted in the sand, and simply refused to consider anything that might get him to pull it out.
That was largely my impression of him. Sure, he was rich, but that was mostly his father’s doing. Trump was a hundred-millionaire who tried to claim to be a billionaire, and who had awful taste in just about everything. He lost money a lot of the time, but never enough to go broke, because that’s actually quite difficult when you start off sitting on a mountain of inherited cash. But he bullshitted enough to muddy the waters on exactly how rich he was.
I didn’t know it was all one big fraud, though, because I just didn’t pay that much attention to him. At least not until 2015/16.