Implications of Election Day 2016 for Minneapolis

The world has not ended with a Donald Trump victory and prospective succession as 45th president of the United States. 


We'll survive this latest entry into the dialectic of politics in the USA.  We made it through the Reagan and George W. Bush Being There presidencies (do see that Peter Sellers movie, dear readers, if you haven't already---  and it's so perceptive that you might just want to see it again even if you have) and we'll make it through this one.


The sun is shining brightly in Minneapolis.


Trump actually gave a fairly rational and gracious acceptance speech, and this morning both Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama gave calm and thoughtful acknowledgements and congratulations. I am already thinking about 2020, thrusting both Elizabeth Warren and Michelle Obama to the fore;  I'd also have Joe Biden in the mix, but he just might exceed age expectations, even in times when people seem open to geriatric candidacies. The rebound of the stock market in the bright of day was heartening, after futures plummeted for awhile in the wee hours before calming during and in the aftermath of the Trump speech.


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Locally, I have more work to do than ever before.


I am struck by how voters for the most part returned a Congress held in low esteem while defeating a candidate who represented continuity with a popular President.


I mention this now because a similar phenomenon happened on the local level, at which voters misplaced their discontent:  a referendum passed that should have gone down to defeat, but the currently two best members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education---  Josh Reimnitz and Tracine Asberry---   were defeated by slim margins in the absence of DFL endorsements.


Also, DFL candidate Kerry Jo Felder squeaked by my preferred candidate Kimberly Caprini for District 2/ North Minneapolis.  Reimnitz and Asberry are serious losses;  Caprini would have worked well with those two--- and the referendum should have gone down to thunderous defeat.


Keeping in view that I track leftward on the political continuum but have diminishing regard for the Democratic Party, particularly its DFL iteration, know that the DFL is bought and paid for by Education Minnesota and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers. 


I consider citizen activism to be the current and ever-abiding engine of change:


I am going to be ratcheting up my own efforts and inviting Reimnitz, Asberry, and Caprini to join, urging them to be more like Jimmy Carter (who became hugely effective in defeat) than Corey Booker (who opted for a national profile before his more important local work was done).


My investigation into the inner workings of the Minneapolis Public Schools is at an advanced stage and is clearly yielding my ninth or tenth published work (Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education is also at an advanced stage of writing and production).


The K-12 revolution proceeds apace.


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