It’s sometimes hard to know whether candidates for the State Board of Education (SBOE) in Texas really believe the crazy things they say. Today, for example, the Texas Tribune quotes Eric Mahroum of Fort Worth explaining one of the reasons why he’s running for the District 11 seat on the SBOE:
“You have CSCOPE teaching our children that communism is okay, that the 9/11 terrorists were freedom fighters. That does not need to be in the curriculum.”
Oh, for crying out loud. Mahroum — who is challenging incumbent Pat Hardy of Fort Worth in the May 27 Republican runoff — is basing his campaign on a discredited political witch hunt hatched by wackaloons who see communists and radical Muslims hiding behind every tree (or school door)? Yeah, apparently so.
For two years political extremists, politicians (and here) and for-profit political consultants (hmmm…) have been screaming that the CSCOPE curriculum management system is filled with anti-American, anti-Christian, pro-Islamic and pro-Marxist lessons. More than 800 school districts across the state have used CSCOPE, which includes lessons written by current and retired Texas teachers (all well-known Marxist Islamic radicals, of course). Superintendents in those districts have publicly condemned the witch hunt and the implication that local school districts can’t be trusted to decide for themselves what materials are appropriate in their own classrooms.
An SBOE-sponsored review of CSCOPE, released in February, found that those wild charges about political and religious bias were baseless. But that hasn’t stopped fanatics from repeating the same lies and distortions in their witch hunt. And Mahroum, who has the support of many of those anti-CSCOPE fanatics, seems to think beating that dead horse is good politics.
Of course, he might be right in this case. Runoff elections are notorious for attracting mostly true-believers and fire-breathers to the polls. And they don’t like that Hardy has defended the right of local school districts to make their own decisions about CSCOPE. (Imagine that — a Republican who really does support local control has to defend herself in a GOP election.)
People who voted in the March Republican Primary or didn’t vote in any primary are eligible to cast ballots in the GOP runoff. The winner will face Democrat Nancy Bean in the November general election.
morons
That’s so 50 years ago…
Were all of these people forced to live under a rock until they were old enough to start a career?
This reminds me of the John Birch Society (JBS) circa 1965 in the small Tennessee town where I grew up. Closet communists were everywhere (NOT). One got the impression from such people that everyone in the town was under suspicion of being a deep Soviet mole planted to subvert operations at…what… the local cream cheese plant or tobacco warehouse sales floor. I mean—com’on folks.
Maybe Gomer the meat cutter down at the supermarket is a commie? Maybe Goober at the Kuhn’s 5 and 10 is a commie? Maybe Mrs. Jones who has 8 kids and takes in clothes to iron for extra money is a commie? Well, she looks like she could be pressing Leonid Brezhnev’s pants, which could be picked up weekly by a Soviet submarine that sails up and the Cumberland River for drop offs and pickups.
Let’s get real here folks. In every society you are going to have a handful of paranoid nutballs who believe this sort of nonsense, right along with their blood-brothers and blood-sisters who believe in ancient gods from outer space, UFO abductions, the Lost Continent of Atlantis, the Lost Continent of Mu, spontaneous human combustion, etc. If you want a governmental body comprised of people who honestly believe in this sort of mindless piffle, then go ahead and vote for them—and get the kind of government you deserve. I wouldn’t—but then again—I am not into mind-blowing political fantasies formulated in “The Twilight Zone.”
In fairness, most Republicans today are stuck in the 1950s.
Of course, these nut-jobs think that everything they don’t like or agree with is communism, no matter what it is.
Even some stuff they like but could not be open about due to taint. The crypto-fascists try to redefine Nazism as left (and gay) because the name is tainted and they do not want their beliefs publicly connected with it.
‘I am Right, so I cannot be a Nazi because those are Left despite me agreeing 90% with them (the 10% disagreement being about the token welfare for the poor that the original fascists seemed necessary but I want to get rid off)’
—
Btw, I am aware that there are some differences between classcial fascism and the specific German Nazism but that’s something for specialists and of litttle relevance here.
Only the loonies run for the school board? Texas needs intelligent, well educated candidates and board members!
Such people don’t run for office because of the many Texas citizens duped by these paranoid bozo types. One has to keep the people whipped up with revolutionary fervor while Texas continues its struggle to free itself from Mexico.
Yeah, I know, that happened two centuries ago, but someone needs to inform these people that Texas is free. They can go home to their wives, children, and ranches now. C’mon. It’s safe. The Mexican Army has gone now. Hey, let me tell you about the Oil Boom and SUVs.
Texans. Should I really be having to write this stuff? Why am I having to write this stuff in 2014 for cryin’ out loud?
“… pro-Islamic and pro-Marxist lessons”
I still haven’t figured out how it can be both.
I think they would say that it is the enemy of my enemy is my friend thing. They think Marxists (as if the few left in the world are relevant) want to bring America down. The Islamists want to bring America down. So, even though they are ideologically opposed to each other, they meet secretly for fondue on Saturday nights to discuss how to jointly bring America down, and then they will worry about who gets it at a later date.
The people who are stupid enough to believe this nonsense—well—we used to have places known as asylums to house these nutballs.
When did schools become public enemy number one in this country.
Schools became PE No. 1 when the content of American history started disagreeing with the content of late 19th and early 20th century pulp novels and kid’s magazines about the Wild West. If we had stuck with the pulp mantra that the “only good Injun is a dead Injun” and other such tripe, the extreme right would be fine with American history right now. They started getting upset when REAL historians began pointing out inconvenient truths in American history, such as “American Indians are human beings and other similar liberal lies.”
In other words, the extreme right in Texas is made up of many incredibly ignorant and just plain stupid human beings. Some of them may even have college degrees—but given post-modern academic grade inflation, when did college ever stop a person from being incredibly ignorant and stupid. Just sayin’.
McCarthyism is still alive in the bible belt, it appears.
Because that’s a problem American schools have ever had ever.
Furthermore: What’s wrong with teaching about communism, socialism, etc in a free society?
As if my job as a teacher in Texas isn’t hard enough…