Rand Paul Appeals to Democratic Base in Obama’s Hometown

[Purveyor]

By John McCormick Apr 22, 2014 1:53 PM ET

U.S. Senator Rand Paul, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, called for... Read More

U.S. Senator Rand Paul, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, called for expanded school choice for poor and minority children while visiting President Barack Obama’s Democrat-dominated hometown of Chicago.

“We’ve been trying the same thing in education for 50 to 100 years,” Paul said today. “Education, particularly in our big cities, has been a downward spiral, so I think just throwing more money at the problem hasn’t fixed the problem.”

It’s the latest venue the Kentucky lawmaker, a favorite of the limited-government Tea Party movement, has picked in the past year to try to showcase himself as a different kind of Republican as he pushes his party to grow beyond its base.

He spoke last year at historically black Howard University in Washington, to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and at the Detroit Economic Club, where he argued for “economic freedom zones” for blighted urban areas. He also called for income-tax cuts to a flat 5 percent in areas with unemployment more than 1.5 times the national average.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-22/rand-paul-appeals-to-democratic-base-in-obama-s-hometown.html

[msongs]

1. 5% tax rate? yeah unemployed people pay lots of taxes nt

[Blue Owl]

2. Windbag Visits Windy City

n/t

[Blue Idaho]

3. Privatization of Education is his goal.

If Rand Paul has his way - corporations would run everything on a for-profit basis. He would guarantee our young people fall into two camps - winners and losers - based on maximizing corporate profits.

[1StrongBlackMan]

4. I realize the title came from the article; but ...

I saw no evidence that paul appealed to the Democratic base ... Oh, I get it ... Appeal as in begged for recognition or appeared; not a descriptor of the crowds reaction!

Nevermind.

[Blue_Tires]

5. +1

The story also neglects to mention his appearance at Howard was a disaster...

[1StrongBlackMan]

6. Well ...

the article appears to give paul an "A" for effort.

[greatauntoftriplets]

7. LOL, I think that Bloomberg is about the only media outlet that covered it.

I had no idea that he had been here. He certainly doesn't appeal to this Chicagoan.

[dionysus]

8. the problem with inner city failing schools isn't the teachers, it's the terrible cycle of

poverty that creates a sort of sub society with no chance to get ahead. if your family has lived several generations in the ghetto, the odds are heavily stacked against you. there's usually drugs, broken homes, broken families. or you could have a single parent working 3 minimum wage jobs just to stay afloat, and little time to raise their kid(s). not everyone is "bad", they're just destitute.

when I went to school in a small town.. maybe someone would get beat up for being a "nerd", now and again. out of my graduation class of 207, I think 203 graduated. in the city districts here, you can get beat up just for *going* to school. and our graduation rate in the city districts is well below 50%

and when people realize they can make more money with selling drugs or other crimes than working at mcdonald's, the cycle repeats.

here's a true story; my friends husband works as a middle school teacher in one of the city schools. all of the students are extremely poor, and for the various reasons listed above, aren't really interested in learning (there are exceptions, of course). nott uncommon for a kidin middle school to straight tell the teacher to fuck off.

in one particular middle school class he was teaching, his favorite student was about the only one in that particular class who really wanted to learn.

but the kid, a 5th grader, was so depressed about his home life he scaled a chain link fence and dove into the river gorge over 100 feet below. the biggest shame? the authorities could not find the parents and the school principal had to identify the body.

it's a very complex problem, with no one single fix, but eliminating the cycle of poverty entire neighborhoods suffer from would be a good start, I think...