Reblogged from GADFLYONTHEWALLBLOG
The decision has been made, teachers.
YOU WILL ENDORSE HILLARY CLINTON IN THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES.
Your union has spoken.
Now please donate to the Political Action Committee (PAC).
The National Education Association (NEA) represents 3 million educators. It is the largest labor union in the country. However only about 180 people made the decision to back Clinton.
The NEA Board of Directors voted today 118 to 39 in favor of the endorsement with 8 abstentions and 5 absences.
Thursday the 74 member PAC Council voted to endorse Clinton with 82% in favor, 18% against and some of the largest delegations – California and New Jersey – abstaining.
Check my math here. So 61 PAC votes plus 118 Directors plus one President Lily Eskelsen Garcia equals 180 in favor.
That’s about .00006% of the membership.
And we call that an endorsement.
But wait. It can’t really be that simple. All of these people are voted in by members. Surely they polled their constituencies to gauge how individuals wanted them to vote.
Nope.
To be fair, some NEA directors may have polled state union leaders.
Ronnie Ray James, NEA Director from South Carolina, wrote in to this blog saying he took a straw poll of the South Carolina Education Association (SCEA) board about an early endorsement. He said the vote was close but came out in favor of making the endorsement.
However, that’s a far cry from asking actual card carrying members of the rank and file! Moreover, it is unclear how widespread these straw polls were, if they polled board members about outright support for Clinton and if the leaders of state boards have the pulse of their constituents.
…A union is not made of leaders. It is made of members.
Lily is not the NEA. I am.