Harris Backs Away From Busing As A Federal Mandate After Biden Attack (Huffpost)

[JCannon]

12. Oh fer chrissakes...

You weren't around during the 1970s. I was. Forced busing didn't ameliorate segregation. Forced busing WORSENED segregation.

Parents don't want their kids to get up before dawn to take an hour long (maybe two-hour long) bus ride to the worst school imaginable. Plain and simple. When forced to deal with that situation, parents will move to a new district. Like it or not, that's what happens. Nothing can stop it. You can scream "Racist!" all you want, but nothing can stop it. The Supreme Court ruled a long time ago that kids cannot be bused outside of their school district. And it's not as though you'll get a different deal from THIS Supreme Court.

Talk to someone who lived through the 1970s. At that time, the post-Nixon era, the Republican party was on the ropes. People were talking about a Democratic stranglehold on the White House for decades. What turned it around? To a large degree, it was busing. People HATED busing. There were riots. Busing gave us the Reagan revolution.

Believe it or not, busing wasn't particularly well-liked by many of the black kids who came to my school in the San Fernando Valley as part of a voluntary busing program. I know this because I talked to them. Athletic programs and after-school clubs were a real pain (especially when away games increased the travel time). Those kids spent hours on the bus every day, and they came to hate it. Even then, traffic problems turned L.A. freeways into parking lots. The feeling of confinement, of being trapped, would drive anyone nuts.

I was a big Kamala Harris supporter until that debate. When she obstinately came out in favor of forced busing, it was the worst disappointment I've felt since election night, 2016. When she single-handedly wedded the Democratic party to that incredibly unpopular idea, she became the de facto chairwoman of the Committee to Re-Elect Donald Trump.

Harris says that busing worked for her. Well, how long was HER travel time? Maybe ten minutes, or so I've been told. Because SHE had a good experience, she wants to make kids in Los Angeles get up before dawn to travel for hours each day on freeways that are far worse than they were in the 1970s. Talk about self-absorbed! Her attitude is almost Trumpian.

And no, I do not prefer Biden. For reasons separate from this controversy, I have long believed that he must not get the nomination. I used to favor Harris. Right now, I (somewhat) lean toward Warren, though I'm keeping my options open.