Michele Bachmann's Son Joins "Re-Education Camp"

Michele Bachmann's Son Joins "Re-Education Camp"

The Star Tribune confirms what the blog Dump Bachmann has been reporting for weeks: Rep. Michele Bachmann's son Harrison has joined Teach For America, part of what Bachmann considers a dreaded government re-education camp program called AmeriCorps.

Back in April, the Minnesota Republican warned of the expansion of the program, designed to get young people involved in community service:

I believe when it's all said and done, this service that -- I believe that there's a very strong chance that we will see that young people will be put into mandatory service. And the real concern is that there are provisions for what I would call re-education camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward and then they have to go and work in some of these politically correct forums. It's very concerning. It appears that there's a philosophical agenda behind all of this, and especially if young people are mandated to go into this.
She added, "As a parent, I would have a very, very difficult time seeing my children do this."

Star Tribune columnist Jon Tevlin writes that "when Bachmann issued her screed, her son might have already been accepted, and certainly would have applied. Ouch."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/12/michele-bachmanns-son-joi_n_257498.html

What crazy stuff is going to come out of her piehole about this?

raising the wages for Americorps workers.

Not exactly Peace Corps wages.

who makes less than minimum wage.

as part of AmericCorps -- TFA folks actually make beginning teacher salaries.

she was from Nashville, had been working in DC and was taking time off from working in a "cube" to meet people. She was happy, friendly and in her late 20's. Said she was one of the older ones.

The only thing even close to liberal she said was she wished her home town the people were more open minded.

We were listening to music at Hood River on the Columbia on our way home and shared a table with her. Her team was clearing trails high up elevations from Sierra's in CA to WA mountains. She said it was great to meet kids from all over. That this was a rare day off.

They backpacked many miles each day to get where they worked and slept in pup tents.

I was impressed!

paying much attention to this and it's good to know!

I've seen these groups while backpacking. They do great work up in the mountain trails here. And if they are being 're-educated' to value nature, I don't have much of a problem with it. Then again, I don't have a problem with voluntary national service as proposed by President Obama. Seems these people are fine with having their children sent off to fight in foreign wars of aggression in the guise of national service, but have them working with the sick and elderly in their own communities or participating in nature preservation and it's some sinister socialist plot to take over the world.

A sad testament to the mental makeup of many Americans, if you ask me.

bachman's son joining some cult to get brainwashed for real!

How freaking ironic is this?

~sigh~ That's where my brain was at.

I wonder what that stems from. Is it part of being an authoritarian follower type? Anything that sounds like "community service" sets off loud alarm bells in Wingnuttia. (I mean, the first seven letters are the same as "communist", for Chrissakes!) The word "collective" causes the same instant revulsion, as in "a collective effort to help X", inevitably voted down (or shouted down) by conservatives.

I know they have a focus on individuality (whatever that means; we're all in this together), but why are they unable to acknowledge any value in people working together, collectively (gasp!), to achieve a goal?

It occurs to me that their anti-government stance, always prominent under Democratic administrations, is an extreme form of this pathology. Isn't democracy a kind of "group effort"? Is this why they hate it so?

:shrug:

I just don't understand these people. Obviously.

...They don't believe, deep down, they really deserve what comfort they have in life. And that they'll be found out, when "everyone" takes a closer look, and it will be taken away.

Not held enough as a child, or whatever the hell.

republican?