Missing the boat?

When BwD is linking to and re-printing portions of an open letter to President-elect Obama co-authored by Al Sharpton championing school choice and charter schools, one could not be blamed for thinking the same of the G.O.P.

If the pundits are to be believed, the Republicans are wandering around out in the wilderness trying to “find their voice” or “find their way back” to the mainstream of political discourse after relinquishing both the White House and Capitol Hill in just two years time. And we are advised by some within the Party itself that the reason we are on the “outs” is because of our shrill rhetoric regarding abortion, gay marriage and illegal abortion. (In defense of this, we will only say as a simplification to make the point: these aren’t generally issues until the other side makes it an issue).

But, we're pressing forward as we’ve listened to our Party’s apparatchiks’ admonitions to move beyond the reactive and get proactive with respect to the G.O.P.’s flagging appeal among minorities and this we have done with our whole-hearted support of the Freedom Coalition Agenda, laid out at The Liberator Today, which includes a plank supporting school choice.

Here’s some pulls from Rev. Al’s letter:

EEP seeks to ensure that America's schools provide equal educational opportunity, judged by one measuring stick: Does a policy advance student learning? It's an obvious litmus test. Yet the current K-12 school system is designed to serve the interests of adults, not children.

EEP's mission thus turns out to be unexpectedly radical -- and we have run afoul at times of longtime Democratic allies. While we recognize that the No Child Left Behind law has numerous flaws that need correcting, we staunchly support NCLB's core concept that schools should be held accountable for boosting student performance. Dismissing the potential of schools to substantially boost minority achievement, as is now fashionable in some Democratic circles, is ultimately little more than a recipe for defeatism. Like you, we also support expanding parental choice.
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Finally, our coalition also promotes the development and placement of effective teachers in underserved schools and supports paying them higher salaries. By contrast, we oppose rigid union-tenure protections, burdensome work rules, and antiquated pay structures that shield a small minority of incompetent teachers from scrutiny yet stop good teachers from earning substantial, performance-based pay raises.

Folks, you read all that correctly as coming from the pen of Al Sharpton, noted racial huckster and felonious agitator, now sounding like some sort of dammed right-wing nut job. And the usage of language like this ought to scare the hell out of the G.O.P. establishment as it signal a shift in the philosophy and teminology of a reliable Democrat.

For the reasons that Sharpton has mentioned, the Democrats are vulnerable on this one. And because it is absolutely the right thing to do with respect to offering inner-city minorities a real shot at educational freedom, it’s a double-whammy: Win votes/Do the right thing.

So there you have it. We listened to the Party bubbas and did their heavy lifting for them. Unfortunately, if past performance and current luke-warm reception to our championing of educational freedom is any indication, these same “insiders” lack the intestinal fortitude to jump onboard.