orichalcum

No more integration in schools. No more real protection against gender discrimination in employment. No more protection against mistakes of the federal court (the guy who followed wrong instructions from a federal judge about a filing date, and had his suit thrown out consequently). No more blanket right of choice. No more campaign finance reform. No more freedom of speech in schools. No more separation of church and state. More protections for big business. More protections for the executive branch. And that's just the first term. And it's not going to get better, not with the most likely retirees all being from the moderate camp.

The only reason I saw any significant number of Hispanic students in my public school was because they were bussed in from lower-income neighborhoods. It was by no means a perfect system; they were almost entirely tracked to the lowest track once they arrived at my upper-class suburban high school, and we interacted mainly in gym, where I once got into a near fist-fight with a girl from that neighborhood. And yes, I might have gotten into Harvard if they hadn't decided to accept the Hispanic daughter of a plastic surgeon with a B+ average from my class instead. But you know what? She used that education to make a career in helping battered women seek asylum in the U.S. and work to protect human rights and prevent torture abroad. And don't tell me that her fluency in Spanish and Portuguese hasn't helped her there.

Growing up, I knew every day that there were other kids out there from different backgrounds than mine, with different opportunities and family structures. There are going to be a lot more kids who grow up now never seeing anyone who doesn't look and act very much like them.