A victory for democracy

The word filtering out of California is that the leaders of the California Teachers Association (CTA), the 295,000-member affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA), were stymied January 26th in their attempt to endorse presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton before the upcoming “Super Tuesday” primary election, February 5th.

January 24th, the CTA Endorsement Committee voted unanimously to recommend the endorsement of the New York Senator, but, when the committee presented its recommendation to the CTA State Council two days later, the 800-member council voted to postpone any presidential endorsement until April.

Theories abound concerning exactly what took place. Some say that the CTA leaders are out of touch with the rank and file members, many of whom favor Sen. Barack Obama for President. Some say that the council members from Los Angeles blocked the endorsement in retaliation for the CTA’s action of January 19th in preventing an endorsement of Sen. Obama by the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA), the CTA’s largest and most powerful local affiliate.

That the short-term winner is Sen. Obama, and the short-term loser is Sen. Clinton is obvious because the latter does not have the CTA endorsement going into “Super Tuesday.” However, the long-term winner is representative democracy. The people--in this situation, the people are the CTA members--have spoken. Whether you are for Sen. Clinton or for Sen. Obama, you have to agree that that is a good thing.