DC government is broken, it's Muriel Bowser's fault, and Matt Yglesias got us here

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Bowser administration has no shortage of failings, but the absolute lowlight of her tenure was her decision to keep DCPS shuttered for about a year longer than it needed to be. She made that choice for very naked political reasons and we can see very clearly now that it destroyed a full two decades of learning gains and improvements in public safety. It was an unmitigated disaster and the blame for the spike in youth crime and general lawlessness can justifiably lies mostly with that decision.

For the fact that she was reelected we can blame the lack of RCV, Trayon White, Robert White's abysmal campaign, and the failure of anyone with any serious credentials to enter the race.

Unfortunately, there is no one in DC's political scene who is well-positioned to replace her. Of the current crop of council-members, I agree that Christina Henderson is probably the smartest. I doubt she could beat Bowser, though, and probably would also struggle against the likes of Kenyon (who would be abysmal).

How DC gets out of this mess is to vote for RCV in the 2024 referendum (unless the DC DP succeeds in blocking it) and then have Henderson get herself known across the city.

if the teachers were not going to teach in person under those circumstances, then continuing remote learning was really the only option.

[Anonymous]

Robert White would have been even worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Bowser administration has no shortage of failings, but the absolute lowlight of her tenure was her decision to keep DCPS shuttered for about a year longer than it needed to be. She made that choice for very naked political reasons and we can see very clearly now that it destroyed a full two decades of learning gains and improvements in public safety. It was an unmitigated disaster and the blame for the spike in youth crime and general lawlessness can justifiably lies mostly with that decision.

For the fact that she was reelected we can blame the lack of RCV, Trayon White, Robert White's abysmal campaign, and the failure of anyone with any serious credentials to enter the race.

Unfortunately, there is no one in DC's political scene who is well-positioned to replace her. Of the current crop of council-members, I agree that Christina Henderson is probably the smartest. I doubt she could beat Bowser, though, and probably would also struggle against the likes of Kenyon (who would be abysmal).

How DC gets out of this mess is to vote for RCV in the 2024 referendum (unless the DC DP succeeds in blocking it) and then have Henderson get herself known across the city.

if the teachers were not going to teach in person under those circumstances, then continuing remote learning was really the only option.

ugh. this is the latest pathetic progressive attempt to wiggle out of the school closure catastrophe. “well, school closures weren’t great but what could we do? teachers just wouldn’t go back!”

[Anonymous]

So many voters who live in DC consume national political info and little local political info.

And Yglesias informs that set.

In an election where there was very very little info about either candidate, and Ward 3 and wealthy professional voters went to Bowser, Matt Yglesias and GG Wash’s endorsement were both big.

But I agree the real problem is that there’s very little coverage of all the Bowser mismanagement.

How do we get more coverage of stuff like the Falcicchio scandal? Why don’t voters blame the mayor for dirty and failing parks and public facilities?

[Anonymous]

Also please don’t feed the right wing troll line on schools. That’s not what this thread is about. Let’s refuse to engage on schools and COVID— there are other threads for that.

You can tell they’re here to divide us and damage public schools to advantage their billionaire donors. It’s clear by the way the last post throws around progressive as if it’s a negative, not a compliment in a country that needs progress.

[Anonymous]

Robert White wanted the schools to be shut down even longer. And if you looked at the debates, he was against having more police to deal with crime, pulling out the old progressive canard of claiming to want to have evidence based policies to address the root cause of the problem.

Except, schooling is possibly the most important support that is given to families, and the closure of schools (closures he wanted more of) _is_ one of the main roots of the problem. And then after causing more criminality by doing that, he doesn't want more police to protect us from the effects of the kinds of policies he supports.

This seems to be a problem with all of the progressive politicians, they're always claiming evidence based solutions, but they end up pushing whatever craziness their activist base demands. I'm no fan of Bowser, but why should I vote for someone who's even worse.

[Anonymous]

So I refuse to be drawn on the rightwing school / COVID division BS.

But you know what else is bad about Bowser?

She’s in the pocket of the rightwing charter school lobby. People like Murdoch and Paul
Singer who hate DC and our kids, and just want to destroy public schools to enrich themselves, fund DFER and other bundlers and they pay Bowser.

That’s why Bowser appointed a charter guy, Ferebee, to run DCPS. Ferebee doesn’t want to improve DCPS, he got training from Broad on how to weaken and ruin public schools.

Robert White is MUCH less in the pocket of Republican charter donors. Another reason why he’d be better.

Also, Bowser has had Wilson pool closed for months because she stinks at running a government.

[Anonymous]

Your choices were:

Bowser
Robert White
Trayon White

lmaoo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Bowser administration has no shortage of failings, but the absolute lowlight of her tenure was her decision to keep DCPS shuttered for about a year longer than it needed to be. She made that choice for very naked political reasons and we can see very clearly now that it destroyed a full two decades of learning gains and improvements in public safety. It was an unmitigated disaster and the blame for the spike in youth crime and general lawlessness can justifiably lies mostly with that decision.

For the fact that she was reelected we can blame the lack of RCV, Trayon White, Robert White's abysmal campaign, and the failure of anyone with any serious credentials to enter the race.

Unfortunately, there is no one in DC's political scene who is well-positioned to replace her. Of the current crop of council-members, I agree that Christina Henderson is probably the smartest. I doubt she could beat Bowser, though, and probably would also struggle against the likes of Kenyon (who would be abysmal).

How DC gets out of this mess is to vote for RCV in the 2024 referendum (unless the DC DP succeeds in blocking it) and then have Henderson get herself known across the city.

if the teachers were not going to teach in person under those circumstances, then continuing remote learning was really the only option.

So easy to hook up with DCPS teachers on Tinder in that era on a weeknight. Great memories.

[Anonymous]

I'm going to guess around 1 percent of the people who voted in the last election even know who Yglesias is, and probably 0.01 percent of the people who voted did so based on his recommendations. Jfc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It all started when Ygie got knockout gamed and then lied about it.

Huh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It all started when Ygie got knockout gamed and then lied about it.

Huh?

https://slate.com/business/2013/11/knockout-game-trend-it-s-not-real-but-random-street-assaults-are.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also please don’t feed the right wing troll line on schools. That’s not what this thread is about. Let’s refuse to engage on schools and COVID— there are other threads for that.

You can tell they’re here to divide us and damage public schools to advantage their billionaire donors. It’s clear by the way the last post throws around progressive as if it’s a negative, not a compliment in a country that needs progress.

ummm … schools were a massive local political issue in DC. nice try.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So I refuse to be drawn on the rightwing school / COVID division BS.

But you know what else is bad about Bowser?

She’s in the pocket of the rightwing charter school lobby. People like Murdoch and Paul
Singer who hate DC and our kids, and just want to destroy public schools to enrich themselves, fund DFER and other bundlers and they pay Bowser.

That’s why Bowser appointed a charter guy, Ferebee, to run DCPS. Ferebee doesn’t want to improve DCPS, he got training from Broad on how to weaken and ruin public schools.

Robert White is MUCH less in the pocket of Republican charter donors. Another reason why he’d be better.

Also, Bowser has had Wilson pool closed for months because she stinks at running a government.

Seriously no dice. You don’t get to just ignore an issue by claiming it’s “right wing division.” It’s not. I am a lifelong Dem and I will never vote for Robert White due to his stance on schools.

And your anti-charter screed is very early 2000s. Charters are here to stay in DC, give up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your choices were:

Bowser
Robert White
Trayon White

lmaoo

True, too true.

Robert White deserved a shot. I think he would have done a much better job on crime.

Ultimately whoever takes over the DC government next is going to have to fix MPD. The DC Police are engaged in a work slowdown just like other police departments.

Bad cops need to be fired. Bowser won't do that. We need a next mayor who will.