2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Does Sanders' college plan really rely on governors to release funds? [View all]MineralMan
(146,308 posts)is not always possible in a given set of conditions. I'm part of the last age group that went through tuition-free college in California. I spent my last two years in college with nothing more than a $256/month GI bill check and another $100/month from my parents. That was possible in 1970 and 71. Out of that, I paid rent, bought food, bought used books and payed the administrative fees at the state university I attended. I'm very aware of how fortunate I was to live in that time period. Ronald Reagan put an abrupt end to all that as Governor of CA. He carried that kind of cutting off of ordinary people into the White House. Today, inflation has put the cost of higher education out of reach, but the subsidies that existed in the 60s and 70s are long gone.
More's the pity, and I hope we'll someday be able to return to that. Right now, I'm not seeing it in our future. In fact, I see a real possibility that things will get even worse. Instead of Democrats overwhelming the Republicans, both nationally and in our states, it appears to me that we're facing a very real risk of handing over all three branches of our federal government to the Republicans.
To prevent that, we're going to need to come together instead of fighting among ourselves. We have, maybe, three presidential elections to get that done. If we fail, even once, we may never have a chance to do it again. The Republicans, given control of all three branches, can and will eliminate the possibility, once and for all. That is their goal.
I'm an old man. I might not even see the 2024 election, although I certainly hope to. If we fuck up the 2016 election, it's going to be game over, frankly. I sincerely hope we do not do that.