Instead of blaming Trump, it’s time to get to work

He’s not even in office yet, and some are ready to blame President Trump for our problems. Here’s why that won’t work.

Let’s make something clear, so that we can get through the next four years: We can’t blame President Trump for all our problems. 

Last week I spoke at my local school board meeting.  

There had been a decision to cut an elective class that affects almost every middle and high school student in my son’s district. The board voted on cuts largely without communicating with parents or students — and made the decision even after my state, California, voted to add to arts and STEM teachers in Proposition 28 (the district spent at least some of the money they received on “stuff,” and despite the law requiring 80% be used on new teachers, have little evidence of any such investment). 

I was frustrated. 

And yet after I spoke for my allotted 3 minutes, I had a brief moment with some of the board members before they went into a closed session. I already knew they didn’t want to eliminate an elective but they felt forced to; they didn’t like what I had to say because I asked them to be more creative (and they barely have time for what they have to get done) and they thought I was out of touch with their reality. 

But one of the board members after I addressed them said “Do you know what we’re dealing with, with Trump?” Of course I did, I told her.  But this vote had nothing to do with him.

Already, a few weeks after President Trump has won a second term we are blaming him for things that transpired before he was even elected. 

*** 

Republicans have a phrase for this: Trump Derangement Syndrome. 

President Trump’s first and most vocal Press Secretary Sean Spicer and I got to know each other after the administration wrapped.  This “syndrome” is something he talks about a lot — everything is Trump’s fault and he can’t do anything right. 

I fundamentally disagree with Sean, and his former boss, on any number of topics.  For example, I believe in the investment in public education as an investment in our future.  I want that investment – and not to outsource our investment to unproven tactics or private schools — to pay dividends for our country.  And I believe that the more of us who commit to public education, the better it will be.  

That is not President Trump’s position on education.  While I know Sean — and the former President — seem to value education (some of his Cabinet picks have elite educational backgrounds, which Trump is quick to call out), President Trump vowed to eliminate the Federal Department of Education (which they see as a money suck, I see as resource oversight) and enable more voucher programs (which they see as school choice, I see as money suck without oversight).  

Those are two different positions on education which should be debated. 

What’s less helpful is the “derangement syndrome” leading one to preemptively flip a conversation to Trump, when defending a local school board vote made before he secured a second term.  Or to believe President Trump has so much power, we should be planning for what he’s going to do before he actually does it (Spoiler alert: President Trump wasn’t always effective at what he said he was going to do last time he won office – that wall isn’t built, and Mexico didn’t pay.)  

*** 

I remember a conservative version of this, too: “Thanks, Obama.” 

Republicans used to ironically thank my former boss for any host of things he had nothing to do with. They would blame him for increases to the national debt that preceded him (the debt … soared far higher under President Trump). They would blame him for issues of how states implemented Obamacare (which … quickly emerged as popular and politically potent even in Red states). They would blame him for the cost of any number of items he had absolutely nothing to do with.

Republicans had their own derangement syndrome. Thanks, Obama. 

My point to Republicans then, and Democrats now is the same. Blaming the President in office won’t address our issues. Even more so when what you’re blaming them for is not something they’re doing or really controlling. 

We will get much further as a country if we stop looking for a Presidential scapegoat and get to talking and, more importantly, to working and finding solutions. 

*** 

A slide at the PTA meeting that outlines Proposition 28 Funds — by law to be used 80% on new arts teachers — went to fund “stuff.”

After I spoke at the school board meeting with my son in the audience, he asked me, “what happens now?” 

We told the Board what we thought, I said.  The decision to cut the elective had been made.  It was a bad decision, I told him, and came during a previous meeting when many parents (who had gotten wind of the decision) pleaded to help save the elective.  Parents had volunteered to help with creative budget cuts or options, they asked for alternatives to be considered.  They begged.  But their time was up and the decision wasn’t changed. A literal buzzer went off and they were dismissed.

In the end I got buzzed off too.  I had a heck of a closer about how when we make these short-sighted decisions — without accepting the input our constituents are volunteering — that’s how we lose trust in institutions. 

And I believe it.  When we blame others for our problems, when we vote to add to funding and that funding goes elsewhere, when Americans get less from government and pay more, that’s when we lose trust. I wish that the energy parents presented on the topic of an extra elective was brought into the system to reinvigorate our institutions and give people a chance to engage. We could have built trust and built community.   

It would be far more effective than blaming a President-elect for our problems. 

I told my son we just needed to get more involved — I drug the whole family yet that evening to the PTA meeting.  We sat through the Principal’s presentation that in part outlined how Proposition 28 funding (that was supposed to — by law — add to arts teachers) went to “stuff.”  I hope the kids use that stuff. 

And I hope that those of us who get involved stop blaming the President and start taking on issues – especially at the local level.