I listen to them regularly and I definitely don't think they would.

They're not like Fox news.

And, as expected, there it is. That's the reason teachers alienate so much of the tax paying public -- the continuous, unrelenting whining about being underpaid while also enjoying benefits that just about no one in the private sector enjoys.

I live in Pennsylvania, and I realize PA has one of the higest average teacher salaries in the country. I live about 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia, and average teacher salaries here are in the $70s. Is it comparable to Mitt Romney or some one percenter? No, but jobs that start in the mid $40s, with the average rank and file teacher above $70K, don't exactly seem like ****, IMO.

It's all about the kids, tho. AMIRITE?

I work in NYC in a fairly liberal industry. My parents are both former R who now vote D.

I can say that with my limited social circle, there are a number of people who voted for Obama who have expressed frustration with him. Not a single of them has ever said they will vote for Romney.

Personally, I think its to Obama's favor that while he's been a letdown, the Republican party has been so catering to the extremists in their group that they've scared any D's from possibly crossing over. If the Republican's seemed more moderate these days then Obama would definitely be sunk. But the GOP is so scary and embarrassing these days that I have trouble seeing any disgruntled Obama voters voting R.

Yeah, I guess it would suck if restaurants or grocery stores closed from time to time with new ones popping up. I really like to know where I will be getting my food from next year. I don't really care about the quality of it; I just need to know it will be the same forever and ever.

Well, those salaries seem much higher than average. This site says that the PA average is $54k (11th highest in the country), and the average PA starting salary is $35k (13th highest).

And to me, that seems very low for a job that requires a graduate degree. Particularly in the states that are lower on the chart. The average starting salary in my state (Kentucky) is $31k. Are you really claiming that that's a cushy gig? Especially when their salary will not dramatically increase in the future?

Full disclosure: my sister is a public school teacher.

Lol, no, of course not. Obviously it's impolitic for teachers to publicly suggest otherwise, but they are not alone in having multiple reasons for entering their profession. Start freezing doctors' salaries or even lowering them and see how many professed healers start looking for greener pastures. Or complaining.

Admittedly, I am not talking about the NE. I'm from AZ, which is among the worst at ****ting on its teachers.

Have fun implementing that and getting anyone to want to teach history. Pretty soon American students won't know Harriet Tubman and MLK, but we'll have even smaller computer chips! Sounds like a society worth living in.

It's not necessarily a cushy gig and obviously a lot of "omg teachers get so many benefits" stuff is Koch brothers funded union-busting propaganda, but...

It does get tiring listening to teachers whine about how underpaid they are. They get the whole summer off. They are unionized. They are, as a group, very well educated. It's tough to believe they got screwed at the negotiating table.

Yeah every time we even THINK about cutting Medicare reimbursement the sob stories come out in full force from the AMA. That's way worse than the teachers.

They negotiate with themselves. End of story.

lol wat

This year one AZ school district just inserted a 4 figure penalty into teachers' contracts if the teacher leaves to go work for another school district. No discussion, no negotiation, no cure period for the breach, just this is your contract now.

DV,

I don't mean to be snarky when I say this but the view from the middle of the country (or in the suburbs) is a little different than it is from ann arbor or either coast.

There are lots of Jacksonian Democrats from Pennsylvania through north Texas that voted for Carter, couldn't stand the awful (and I mean awful economy) in 1980 and voted for Reagan. Things worked out so well many stuck with 41 (even though he was a little too much of a patrician for most), but dumped him in 1992 when the recession came. They stayed with Clinton through his peccadilloes because the economy was so strong and Dole, while a fine man was non-competitive. The slowing of the economy in the last half of 2000 , Clinton fatigue, Gore's abject transparent phoniness, and Rove's adroit branding of 43 (compassionate conservatism) led him to 2 victories.

Obama was the logical way to go after 43 screwed the pooch. I'd bet there are a substantial # of people that voted something similar to that.

There are also a considerable number of Romney style republicans (generally conservative business types but social moderates) who populate the suburbs that likely gave Obama a look-see after the Bush debacle but don't much like Obama's outward war on business and the wealthy while simultaneously shaking them down for money. Most businessmen like to get a little kissing and hugging with their ****ing. They don't much care to be vilified every other day by the president.

That is why the supposition than no or microscopically few 2008 Obama voters will defect is very dubious , imo. There are lots of surburban and non-highly religious Jacksonians that are going to jump ship.

The only question is, will there be enough?

Nailed it.

Of course you don't think they would evar slant the news.... likely because you agree with 99% of their philosophy, and that is certainly fine.

You realize yourself and the people of which you speak are a fairly small segment of the us populace, right? one would not expect people who think Obama hasn't been liberal enough to vote for Romney, so it is not terribly surprising in your experience no one is going to dump Obama to vote for Romney.

There aren't many who shop at Zabar's who are going to dump Obama for Romney. That point is happily conceded

As someone who grew up in NYC about the same time as your parents and had Jacob Javitz, John Lindsay and Nelson Rockefeller as my reps I understand your parents moving away from the R party.