Thanks for Your Vote, Now Prepare for Your Punishment

Obama handily won reelection yesterday, promising in his victory speech to work with both parties to slash the deficit (which means large cuts to social programs like Medicare and Social Security and generally reducing living standards for the majority of Americans).

Based on what he didn’t say during the campaign, he is unlikely to do anything different or more on climate change, which means U.S. carbon emissions will hold steady or climb and a continuation (or increase) in super storms, droughts and food insecurity.

Education policy will continue as it has for the past 12 years, with a proliferation of high stakes testing for children and accountability and punishment for teachers. We should expect more districts and states to adopt Value Added evaluation deform, merit pay, blended learning, common core and other giveaways to private education corporations.

The U.S. will continue the slaughter of civilians throughout the world by use of unmanned drones. There will be plenty of U.S. troops killing and being killed on the ground in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. The war on immigrants will carry on with mass deportations and incarceration.

And the transfer of wealth from the majority of Americans to the very rich will continue unabated.

Thanks for your vote, suckers. Enjoy the ride!