"They may want to think twice about arming teachers.”

The phrase being used by teachers in West Virginia is "Remember in November". Their objective was to get revenge on the Republican politicians who opposed their demands during the strike.
However, Tuesday was primary day, and some teachers didn't have to wait that long.

Meet WV state Sen. Robert Karnes.
karnes.jpg

Karnes is a typical Republican asshole.

He’s a longtime political foe of the state’s unions — he once referred to union members who were assembled in the legislative gallery as “free riders” as he advocated for right-to-work legislation. During the teacher strike, he had complained that they were holding kids “hostage.”

In late March, he told a local newspaper that he couldn’t imagine there would be much political fallout from the strikes.

“I can’t say that it will have zero effect, but I don’t think it’ll have any significant effect because, more often than not, they probably weren’t voting on the Republican side of the aisle anyways,” he said of the state’s teachers.

His primary opponent, Bill Hamilton, on the other hand, was a moderate.

Hamilton is a moderate Republican who opposes right-to-work and was sympathetic to the teacher strikes, breaking with those in his party who wanted to offer only a smaller raise.

On the night of the election Karnes trolled his primary opponent on Twitter.

Just a few hours after these tweets, Karnes lost. He lost BIG.

Karnes was facing a primary challenge from fellow Republican Delegate Bill Hamilton, who beat him, with all the votes counted, 5,787 to 3,749. It was a blowout.
...“I heard one teacher today say … after yesterday they may want to think twice about arming teachers,” she joked. She told The Intercept that a number of teachers chose a nonpartisan affiliation so they could vote in the Republican primary on Tuesday; under West Virginia’s rules, you either have to belong to the party or be an unaffiliated voter in order to vote in the primary.

Karnes forgot that even working-class Republicans like public school teachers.
I'm interested how this plays out in Oklahoma and Arizona.
Speaking of Arizona, wearing a RedforEd shirt at school can be expensive.

The law (ARS 15-511) governs the use of school district resources for political purposes and states that an employee who uses school resources "for the purpose of influencing the outcomes of elections" can be hit with a civil penalty up to $5,000.

Employees are prohibited from using their position to influence subordinates on an election issue, per the statute. They also can't give students written materials to influence an election, nor can they voice an opinion for or against proposed legislation in the classroom.

From the point of view of district administrators, this law has new relevance because teachers have turned to the ballot box to achieve their goals since the strike ended on May 3.

#RedForEd leaders have started pushing a ballot initiative, the Invest in Education Act, which would raise income taxes on wealthy Arizonans in order to increase teacher pay. The measure, sponsored by the Arizona Center for Economic Progress, needs more than 150,000 signatures by July 5 to make the November ballot.

North Carolina will have a one-day teachers strike this coming week.

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Way too many unions are being guided by leadership whose purpose is to serve democratic party first, and their members second. And they end up with the democratic mayor of Baltimore who vetoed a bill to raise the min. wage.

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phillybluesfan's picture

@MrWebster Damn straight

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Few are guilty, but all are responsible.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Prophets

snoopydawg's picture

whose whole family are red necks. Speaking of “free riders”. Like people who join congress and then get a "free ride" on the tax payers dole?

IMG_2054.JPG

Just saying ...

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Wink's picture

is what it's going
@snoopydawg
to take to win the war against the (Beltway) Establishment.
The effort from Teachers shows it can be done!
"We" vote "we" win.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

@Wink we win the booby prize.
The teachers did have influence, but down the road, will it really improve circumstances for the 99%?
I hope so.
But I have no reason to believe so.
The 99%ers would not be 99%ers if government officials had told the truth and acted in our interests.
They lie, and metaphorically burn us on the pyre.
Teachers get retirement benefits and then see a tax hike that washed it out, and then property taxes, then increases in health insurance costs, and on and on.
This is a Phyrric victory, sorry for the misspelling.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Wink's picture

will spark others.
@on the cusp
That's the significance.
Whether taxes ate up their pay raise gains.... moot. A victory against TPTB is a victory nonetheless, and I suspect and expect that leads to even more.
Here in my neck of the woods it's the local Fire Department that's taking on the city for a pay raise and more bodies. Not the same as a teachers strike but they have the support of the community, knowing their taxes are going up if they win.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

@on the cusp still great to see some opposition to the screwage making headway.

I hope that this spreads to places like Amazon and Walmart.

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dfarrah

but this might be how Manchin won - all the true progressives voted in the R primary. If so that might have left them, and us, with a 2016 style problem - a Republican or an even worse DINO.

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On to Biden since 1973

The Aspie Corner's picture

What teachers say is happening

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsoEf8Yqe3I]

What's really going on

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smyWATJ1ZqU]

Think I'm lying? Look at how quickly the teachers capitulate after getting a few more crumbs.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.