Harry Jaffa once wrote, "Persuasion means turning potential friends into actual friends. In identifying yourself with the man you would persuade, you lead him to identify himself with your cause." This email sent out by William O'Dea of the South Dakota School Superintendents Association is an excellent example of how not to persuade people.
O'Dea's email drips with contempt for what he calls "the majority" in Pierre. This is a thinly veiled attack on the Republican majority in the legislature. As I have said before, if one hopes to achieve legislative success in Pierre, alienating the Republican caucus is not a smart move. A Republican legislator told me this past year that they have meetings with certain groups of the education lobby, the education lobby spends their time attacking and belittling Republicans, and then the education lobby wonders why the legislature doesn't enact their agenda.
The letter also expresses frustration with various aspects of the conservative agenda.
We do not need legislators who spend their time on lions, deer, guns and moral issues (better left to the individual)...
Agreed, the mountain lion issue was kinda stupid, but is Mr. O'Dea aware that he lives in a state with a lot of hunters? That being the case, hunting and guns are going to be issues. Also, Mr. O'Dea should not be distracted by what he reads in the news. Legislators did not spend as much time on "lions, deer and guns" as news reports might indicate.
It is reasonable to suppose that the "moral issue" that is "better left to the individual" is abortion. This statement by Mr. O'Dea (along with the NEA's long standing support of abortion rights, or, as they term it, "reproductive rights") only feeds the impression by some that the education establishment is as interested in pursuing a liberal social agenda as it is the education of our children. Why does the head of the Superintendent Association even have a public position on "moral issues"? Talk about distracting. And, of course, in a relatively socially conservative state, he isn't winning any friends, which is just what he needs.
I am with Mr. O'Dea on the need for our state to spend more on education. But he loses more friends than he gains when he gratuitously attacks Republicans and whines about "moral issues." And then next year he'll wonder why the legislature doesn't cater to his every desire.
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