It is truly an unfortunate thing in this world that the people cannot even trust those they elect to lead them. It is just assumed in American politics that politicians lie through their teeth as a default when addressing their constituency. However, it’s shocking to see a person who defined himself as the antithesis of this concept fall back on this one quality trait.
If you may recall, one of the core tenets that upheld the Trump/Pence campaign was the glorious concept of “draining the swamp.” This phrase was meant to convey the idea that Washington D.C. is a swamp of corruption that needs to be drained of its most reprehensible representatives. However, with Trump’s cabinet picks being progressively subject to the full scrutiny of a Congressional panel, it seems to be the case that Donald Trump is instead filling the swamp with the finest scum he can find.
In this report, I want to focus on Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, though not for any particular reason other than I found her Senate Hearing to be rife with the kind of corruption Trump seeks to do away with. In fact, I see DeVos as nothing more than a partisan politician with no knowledge of the subject she claims to be the expert in.
To begin with, DeVos disagreed with the notion that federally-funded schools all be held to the same standard, a notion so unobjectionable I can only assume that she disagrees with this notion because it was initially brought up by Tim Kaine, a liberal senator from Virginia and Hillary Clinton’s Vice Presidential nominee.
DeVos also seems content to tow her party’s line in protecting frivolous and unnecessary gun laws, throwing common sense to the wind. DeVos was asked to make a case for the presence of firearms on the campuses of public schools, and in response cited her perceived rising trend in grizzly bear attacks based off of a single example provided by Wyoming congressman Mike Enzi.
In an instance of demonstrable ignorance to her field, Betsy DeVos didn’t understand what Minnesota Senator Al Franken meant when he inquired about her opinion on judging a child’s performance in school based on their standardized test scores. Instead of responding to the question, DeVos instead chose to stare at Franken with a blank expression on her face.
This is only a small selection of the particularly bad moments from Betsy DeVos Confirmation Hearing. DeVos seems to be emblematic of the very pay-for-play politics that Donald Trump and his campaign ran against. Combine all of these horrible moments with DeVos’ dubious ties to gay conversion therapy supporting nonprofits and we’re faced with everything the American people are afraid of in politics.
