I've seen this movie before... and it's not a good one

^{[first time I've written here, please bear with me... thanks]}

Being a new resident here in central Raleigh, I've been observing the wrangling surrounding the schools in Wake county. I joined a Triangle-area online forum that's part of a big site even before we moved here because they had a lot of useful info, 'intel' that even helped with the decision where in the area we wanted to live after our job-mandated move from California. So I would read about parents' frustration with long bus rides, frequent schedule changes, disruptive reassignments... and also why some of it was worth the inconvenience. My own daughter is almost done with college so thank gawd this stuff was not an immediate concern anymore, but I could understand why some folks would be unhappy with how school assignments were handled here.
 

I had some vague idea why children were being shuttled around... I thought it was half balancing racial/economic student populations around the district, and half an attempt to handle the huge influx of newcomers to the area, and it seemed to me that accommodating the constant flood of new students created most of the seemingly arbitrary (to the parents who were unhappy) school assignment changes.
 

After learning a bit more (and knowing I knew little even then) about the history behind why students of different backgrounds were being shifted to different schools, I could see there was more to the whole situation than I realized. Then came the school board election. I had not changed my voter registration to my new address yet, so I did not participate. In the midst of endless tasks relating to moving, I followed what happened kind of in the background. The folks on the local forum had discussed the issues in mostly civil and constructive manner, which was nice. But they were sure surprised by the vehemence of the election results, and the news outlets echoed the shock.
 

I heard about that first meeting of the new school board on NPR. Wow, those new members seemed motivated! Like, true-believer-type motivated. For some reason I was disturbed by what I heard of the meeting. Couldn't put my finger on it though. Remember, I thought half the problem with school reassignments stemmed from too many new students straining the capacity of an existing system. So I thought well maybe this new group would have some new ideas on easing that stress. But no, it appeared they were bent (dare I say 'hellbent') on dumping the whole school diversification project without even trying to fix it first. Like I wrote above, I could sympathize with those parents who wanted to simplify their children's school situation by having them go to whatever school was closest... but the feeling I got was these new board members had more of an agenda than just helping children and their families get a good education without so much angst.
 

Forward to this week and the stunning resignation of Superintendent Burns. After learning why he felt he needed to leave, my feeling of disquiet increased. But I was still unaware of why this bothered me so much, I mean more than in the context of my interest in politics and 'which way the wind is blowing' in my new home.
 

The phenomenal and indefatigable MsSpentyouth (who I first met virtually on DailyKos, then in real life at Netroots Nation) posted a superb diary on DailyKos yesterday: Sad news for desegregation and Wake Co. Public Schools. Boy oh boy, I couldn't have asked for a better primer on the history behind what was going on. While I don't think her piece includes some of the valid complaints from parents I had heard and read about, she certainly explains the reasons behind the situation that generated the complaints. Complaints that served to mask what was really behind the extreme behavior of this school board, it looked like to me.
 

Later yesterday evening, I watched some of the Olympics programming... NBC 17 did their late night news after the evening portion of the games program. That newscast had a report on the fallout of the Burns resignation announcement and interviews where the Superintendent further explained the motivation behind his resignation. Part of the news story had people on both 'sides' explaining why they did or did not believe Burns should leave sooner rather than later. One of those 'arguing' for sooner was someone I could only describe as an ideological blowhard, a Mr. Dallas Woodhouse, state director of a group called Americans for Prosperity. Woodhouse was surrounded by posters and placards, all of the same design which matched the large sticker stuck to his lapel (and much of the rest of that side of his suit jacket)... the headline which read 'Meet the NEW School Board.' He went on about this outrage... about how Burns is "hold[ing] taxpayers hostage. WTF?
 

Americans for Prosperity... wow. Maybe you may already know who and what was behind the school board campaign that was ostensibly based on 'neighborhood schools' but this was my first exposure to this fact. I'm all too familiar with this group and others like it.
 

Now I know the source of the agitated disquiet lurking in the background in regards to this issue. What the frak were these guys doing agitating in a school board election? This group is a major player in the lavishly funded constellation of right-wing astroturf campaign backers. And now I am seeing proof of the idea that doing things like politicizing school board elections are what got the wingers where they are today.
 

This all is a long-winded way of getting to the point of my title... now I know why this all bothered me so much. I have seen this before. I saw it in the lead up to Proposition 13 being passed. I saw it when we recalled a governor and ended up with a cheesy movie personality instead. Look where my native state of California is now.
 

The pattern: There exists legitimate grievances about an issue. Maybe the property tax system is corrupt and elderly homeowners are being priced out of their homes? Or the governor is ineptly dealing with a mess left to him by his GOP predecessor? These outside astroturf shit-disturbers use the frustration of the citizens... the astroturfers whip it up to the point where the aggrieved citizenry will will vote against their own long-term interests to fix the original problems... slipping in as much of their real agenda as they can into the 'solution.'
 

I think where I live now is a good place... I don't want to watch this process denude another good community for the benefit of the billionaire wingnuts who fund this crap. The term 'All politics are local' means more to me now. Again, you all maybe know all the background I eventually learned (and more). I wrote this anyway, hoping perhaps to be told this is not as bad as it seems... that my imagination is running amok... again, heh. Even knowing my penchant for taking the scenic route to the point of my writing, I needed to just get this out of my head.
 

Lucky you ;-)