As anyone who follows Connecticut politics knows, Jonathan Pelto is either running for governor or thinking about running for governor.
I sympathize with a lot of what Pelto has to say. I do fear that Malloy is out to destroy the public schools. I suspect that in Malloy's case his motivation is a lifetime of resentment against teachers that failed to catch his own learning disabilities, but the reason doesn't really matter. His actions speak for themselves, and no one who looks at them objectively can come to any other conclusion than that he and his minions are undermining public schools at every step, with the apparent ultimate goal of handing our schools and our kids over to a bunch of corporate rent seekers. Truly abominable, and none of the good things that Malloy has done (and there are some) can outweigh the harm he is doing to the schools.
Pelto has no chance to win, but he does have a chance to hand the governorship to Foley. That he realizes that, and that he relishes the prospect, is proven by his dalliance with Chris Healey.
Even if he had a chance, it would be too big a chance to take. Our system is designed around the two party system. That's a bug, not a feature. It leads to anomalous results, such as those so common in the state of Maine, whose proud, independent minded voters consistently elect loons and eccentrics to office as a result of three cornered elections. Witness Ron LePage, current Maine governor, despised by 66 percent of the population, but supported by 34 percent, elected by a little more than a third of the populace last time around, with a reasonable chance of doing it again this year. The article to which I've linked describes his links to the “sovereign citizen” movement; it must be read in full, but here's one little takeaway that gives a bit of the flavor.
Why would a governor value the support of such a group when an association with their violent, antigovernment, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories could damage him politically? How could he think that discussing how best to arrest and execute his political opponents with a group of Sovereign Citizen extremists was a good idea?
Is Foley as crazy as LePage? Well, probably no living and breathing New England politician is as crazy as LePage, though he's par for the course in the South. But Foley's right wing enough, and we don't need him installed in office by a purported progressive. What we need to do is pressure our Democratic representatives to push back against Malloy on education issues. With a little effort we can save the public schools without handing the executive, not to mention judicial appointments, to Foley. As for Pelto, if he doesn't like the incumbent governor of his own party, well, that's what primaries are for.
Addendum:
A commenter points out that I got the Maine governor’s first name wrong. It’s “Paul” not “Ron”. I don’t know where that came from. My apologies, particularly to anyone whose actual name is Ron LePage.
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