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Published: Friday, May 9, 2014 at 4:38 p.m. Last Modified: Friday, May 9, 2014 at 4:38 p.m.

Joe Trippi, the legendary Democratic consultant, is not part of any right-wing cabal. So its noteworthy that when it comes to private school vouchers and charter schools and other forms of parental choice, he says, We should try them all.

Trippi told me this in a recent interview, after describing how he grew up on the wrong side of a school zone, on the side where too many kids joined gangs and dropped out of school. The school board made an exception for him, but only because his mom raised hell. Now hes haunted by those left behind.

I relay Trippis story in response to Daniel Tilsons column, Fight public school privatization. A dominant thread in the piece is a common myth: that parental choice is the brainchild of the radical right.

The truth is, practical concerns of parents are driving the movement, not ideology. But because ideology is warping so much of the debate, I want to address that first.

Tilson is right that many conservatives like parental choice. He references George W. Bush, Jeb Bush, Neil Bush, shadowy business interests and the Republican Party of Florida. At least he didnt throw in the Koch Brothers! But the inconvenient truth for this line of argument is growing numbers of progressives like parental choice, too.

President Obama loves charter schools. So does former President Clinton. A few weeks ago, Howard Dean told college students he was now a die-hard for charters because theyre transforming inner city education.

New Jerseys new U.S. Senator, Democrat Cory Booker, unapologetically supports vouchers. So does Mike MCurry, Clintons former press secretary. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren may not, yet, but here is what she said about a universal system of public school choice: An all-voucher system would be a shock to the educational system. But the shakeout might be just what the system needs.

In these polarized times, its nice to see folks from across the political spectrum agreeing on anything. But contrary to Tilsons characterization, progressives have long supported expansion of learning options.

During the civil rights movement, activists established alternatives to segregated, second-rate schools. In the 1960s, liberal intellectuals at Berkeley led the voucher left. The late Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once crafted a tuition tax credit measure that garnered 50 co-sponsors, including Sen. George McGovern and 23 other Democrats. In a fortuitous twist, parental choice dovetails as much with progressive values of equal opportunity as with conservative values of limited government.

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Ron Matus: Progressives are embracing school vouchers

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at the Capitol in Washington on Feb. 27. Sanders, who has said he may run for president in 2016, is scheduled to attend an event in Iowa this month. (AP)Progressives in Iowa seem happy to have received word that Vermont's U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders is taking his exploration of running for president seriously as news this week surfaced that he'll be traveling to the state later this month to attend a high-profile political event.

According to reports, Sanders will be the keynote speaker on May 17 at the 'Hall of Fame Dinner' hosted by the Clinton County Democrats in the town of Goose Lake, Iowa. The event, which honors local political activism, is described as the group's largest social event and fundraiser of the year.

Sanders made headlines earlier this year when he gave interviews to several national news outlets and said he was seriously considering a run for president in 2016 and called for the need for "political revolution" in the country.

Responding news of the upcoming visit, Jeff Cox, a member of the local Progressive Democrats of America chapter and former chair of the Johnson County Democrats, said he was thrilled, telling the Sioux City Journal that Sanders represents the kind of New Deal Democratic approach to economics that has been lost to the Democratic Party, particularly under Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

The Iowa group of Progressive Democrats, in fact, is holding its first "Draft Bernie Sanders for President" campaign event Thursday night in Iowa City.

Similar to many others at the national level, Cox described a possible run by Sanders as an important challenge from the left to the likely candidacy of Hillary Clinton.

Like Obama now, indicated Cox, Clinton is too closely tied to Wall Street interests and, if elected, would likely continue noxious foreign policies such as the "drone war," "assassinations" abroad, and holding people indefinitely "without due process."

Nationally, the Progressive Democrats of America is actively lobbying for Sanders to run for president inside the Democratic Party as a way to challenge Clinton and others. Currently, though officially an Independent in the Senate and known as the chambers only confessed democratic socialist, Sanders caucuses with the Democratic majority.

This weekend, Sanders is scheduled to attend a memorial service in Massachusetts for Tim Carpenter, co-founder of the Progressive Democrats of America, who recently passed after a battle with cancer.

In a March interview with The Nation's John Nichols, Sanders said he was interested in what progressives at the grassroots level thought about his running inside or outside the Democratic Party. He acknowledged the potential upside and possible pitfalls related with both paths.

See the article here:
Progressives Welcome Iowa Visit for Bernie Sanders

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Dalton McGuinty haunts the Ontario Liberals. He was premier for nearly a decade and his successes are the Liberal partys successes as they campaign to stay in power. But his failures especially the stinking mess of the billion-dollar gas-plant cancellations before the 2011 election are the partys failures, too.

They ultimately chased him from power and theyre the handiest clubs for the other parties to use against his successor as premier, Kathleen Wynne.

She hasnt quite seemed to know what to do. Shes proud of the Liberal record, shesays at the same time as shes pronounced herself as keen as anyone to find out just who did what, and who knew what when, when the two unpopular generating stations were cancelled and a possible coverup was engineered from within the premiers office.

For a while, to the point where it got downright weird, Wynne and her ministers treated McGuintyas someone whose works they could talk about but whose name would not pass their lips. In question period the opposition turned it into a game, trying to formulate queries that would force Liberal MPPs to say Dalton McGuinty.

Theyreprofessionals. They avoided saying what they didnt want to say.

But now, it seems Wynne has made up her mind.

She made her first eastern swing of the new 2014 campaign Wednesday and landed in Ottawa South, ceremonially opening the campaign office of McGuintys longtime aide and successor as MPP, John Fraser.

You can go to the legislature and not talk about Dalton McGuinty. You cannot do thatin Ottawa South.Hot under the lights, in an overcrowded storefront next to a karate school by the Canadian Tire,Wynne embraced the absent McGuinty rhetorically.

Behind her on the podium stood Ottawa Liberal candidates and volunteers, including Bob Chiarelli and Madeleine Meilleur, ministers McGuinty made senior and Wynne made more so. Chiarelli was one of McGuintys earliest supporters when he was a long-shot candidate for the Liberal leadership in the 1990s. Hes not the type to backstab when his own job is on the line, but hes a reminder that theres still such a thing as McGuinty country and you have to reckon with it when you leave Toronto.

Ottawa South, Wynnesaid, is a riding with a rich history of representatives we can all be proud of, especially Dalton McGuinty. Wynne is proud to have been an MPP in his caucus, a minister in his cabinet, she declared. They invested in hospitals, in rail, in education, together, she said. We did that, she said the Liberals under Dalton McGuinty. Its a record shes happy to run on. Dalton McGuintys.

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Reevely: Wynne embraces McGuinty's ghost