Rantz: Seattle teacher has unhinged freakout in screed over Donald Trump

A retired Seattle teacher went on an unhinged screed seemingly because he realizes Donald Trump is now likely to win the presidential election. He also appeared upset with the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity. It should serve to parents a stark reminder of the startling and dangerous left-wing indoctrination happening in schools across Washington and around the country.  

In a Tacoma News Tribune editorial, Michael McSweeney extended an overdramatic and self-serving “apology” to his former students. He explained he let them down when teaching them that Supreme Court justices would step in to remove any “bad, dangerous person” from becoming president “before they could do much damage.”

He further said he “never dreamed a Congress with so many frightened and ignorant members could all be elected at the same time and would band together to do whatever it took to keep Trump in office.”

The editorial is shockingly ignorant. It’s filled with fundamental misunderstandings of government, revealing his profound disconnection from reality and his susceptibility to leftwing hysteria.

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What’s behind the unhinged screed by retired Seattle teacher triggered by Trump?

McSweeney began by claiming he “lied” to his students after he said he misled them about the U.S.’ unique strength — its constitution and the system of checks and balances.

The teacher, who taught from 1974 through 2017 in both Los Angeles and Seattle, nostalgically recalled teaching that “no bad, dangerous person could get elected president because the Congress and the Supreme Court would get them out of office before they could do much damage.”

This sentiment, while perhaps superficially reassuring, is historically naïve and grossly oversimplifies the complexities of American governance. It’s also just plain wrong. Our system is designed to balance power, not to preemptively eject elected officials based on subjective perceptions of their character.

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Seattle teacher doesn’t understand separation of powers 

If it were up to Congress to expel “bad, dangerous” people, Joe Biden wouldn’t still be in office. But since McSweeney finds Trump “evil,” we’re supposed to believe that it was up to the Congress and Supreme Court to handle it.

“I never could have imagined one person as evil and dangerous as Trump could ever be elected president,” McSweeney lamented.

This statement is not only hysterical, but also dismissive of the democratic process.

Millions of Americans voted for Trump, believing in his policies and leadership. Millions more are supporting him and, according to the polls, he will be our next president again. To categorically label him as “evil” shows McSweeney to be a broken man, deep-seated in his bias.

Does this teacher understand the role of Congress and the Court?

The list of what McSweeney doesn’t understand continues to shine through his short editorial. Either that or the Seattle teacher lost all objectivity because of his hatred of Trump.

“There have always been some really awful people elected to Congress, but even if they passed a very harmful law, the president and the Supreme Court would get rid of it to protect us,” he wrote.

While McSweeney doesn’t define “harmful,” this is also flatly wrong.

Harmful is a subjective standard, not a constitutional one. There are plenty of constitutionally sound laws that could be “harmful” based on one’s ideology, not reality. 

Democrats, for example, keep pretending voter ID laws are “harmful” to black voters because they don’t think black people have access to government-issued IDs. They don’t hold such concern for black people when it comes to air travel or opening bank accounts because the goal of challenging voter ID laws is to make it easier to vote unlawfully. 

Who could read his editorial and feel comfortable that someone with his personality should be the one to judge harm? And while he’s not one to rationally judge harm, he is the kind of teacher who would commit that harm to students.

This Seattle teacher is everything that’s wrong with educators

By framing his regret in such partisan terms, McSweeney revealed his inability to separate his political views from his role as an educator. He claimed, “It never crossed my mind how corrupt and off-the-rails the Supreme Court could become,” yet fails to acknowledge that his own ideological rigidity is what’s truly problematic. An educator’s duty is to foster critical thinking and present balanced perspectives, not to propagate personal political vendettas. Yet how many parents can say their child’s teachers are accomplishing this?

McSweeney’s perspective in a classroom would likely discourage students from engaging with differing viewpoints and understanding the complexities of democratic governance. But perhaps that’s the point.

The editorial is a clear example of leftwing indoctrination that’s currently in the classroom. He may be retired, but can anyone honestly say educators who share his view aren’t currently in the classroom?

The irony with the ‘apology’

Ironically, McSweeney’s editorial is a disservice to the very students he claims to love. He’s not even truly offering an “apology” to his students.

McSweeney is a narcissist who contrived a scenario in his head whereby his old students now blame him for Trump possibly winning another term, presuming that they’d all be upset with that. In his mind, there’s not a single one of his students who could even contemplate voting for Trump or any other Republican lawmaker that he despises and distrusts.

How many other teachers are just like McSweeney that currently teach in the classroom? This isn’t just about a Seattle teacher expressing disgust with Trump. It’s how all teachers react to and frame lessons around Trump, Republicans and any policy or politician they may not support. 

McSweeney’s “apology” is an unhinged rant that exemplifies why parents should remind educators that they must strive to present balanced views and foster critical thinking, rather than succumbing to the temptation of ideological indoctrination.

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