Why Are Liberals Surprised by the Senate Confirmation of DeVos?

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Jim Geraghty:

Have you talked to your liberal friends who don’t follow politics today? What’s surprising are the number of liberals who seem genuinely surprised — and shocked and horrified and enraged and all kinds of other emotions — about the fact that 50 out of 52 Senate Republicans voted to confirm Betsy DeVos as education secretary.

Start with the fact that Republican senators are going to be naturally inclined to confirm a Republican president’s nominees. Move on to the fact that DeVos has spent her career working for school choice, and most Republican senators strongly support school choice.

I know this may shock you, my friends on the left, but most Senate Republicans don’t particularly care how much teachers’ unions furiously denounce DeVos. The teacher’s unions are among the biggest financial supporters of Democrats. Opposition from teachers’ unions is a given for just about every Senate Republicans; there’s no point in trying to reach out, build bridges, or reach compromise with someone who is determined to defeat you when your term is up.

Republican senators didn’t find DeVos’s belief that states and localities should set laws for guns in and around schools inherently disqualifying, and didn’t find her comment about grizzly bears around schools in Wyoming so laughably absurd.

Senate Republicans don’t particularly care if Kate McKinnon imitated DeVos on Saturday Night Live and it was “glorious.” They don’t care that she was ridiculed by Jimmy Kimmel and Trevor Noah. Any Republican secretary of education nominee is going to be ridiculed by Jimmy Kimmel and Trevor Noah. Oh, there was a Facebook meme about Betsy DeVos that was shared a lot? That’s not the sort of thing that persuades a senator. (I see one of the disqualifying criticisms is DeVos “never put her children in a public school.” Neither did President Obama.)

What, the likes of Pat Toomey and Rob Portman, having just won reelection to a six-year term, should begin by alienating everyone who worked so hard to help them win reelection, and hand a victory to everybody who just spent the past two years trying to defeat them? Have you guys ever watched anything in politics ever before?

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Have you talked to your liberal friends who don’t follow politics today? What’s surprising are the number of liberals who seem genuinely surprised — and shocked and horrified and enraged and all kinds of other emotions — about the fact that 50 out of 52 Senate Republicans voted to confirm Betsy DeVos as education secretary.

It’s truly hard to speak for or of anyone of either party ignorant of politics today.

I’m not seeing any surprise from either side. Devos, a profound incompetent crony who proved that in the mock confirmation hearing, was a disappointment to most school districts, teachers, and parents hoping for a decent and affordable education for their children and I’m sure quite a delight to the industry wanting to take over government schools. But a “surprise”? No.

There was however a “hope” that the R controlled Senate wouldn’t lay down and rubber stamp every whim of the con man in the White House.

And there is plenty more to come which both liberals and conservatives should be “horrified”.

Liberals just stand there with a dull blank expression on their faces they still cant get over the fact that Obama the Fink is no longer in the whitehouse so they just lay around in their playpens moping and doping

@Ajay42302: I am a bit confused. What this woman wants to do is to give the ‘freedom’ to give your children a better education, to have choices. I fought to ensure my children had the best opportunity educationally, and would bet that most families would too.

Unless you, general you can prove this person is incompetent with facts it is just speculation based on your emotion.

Personally I believe education should be given back to the states and the department of education abolished because as far as I can read, it isn’t Constitutional.

@enchanted:

The problem is that during the mockery of a Senate hearing, Devos displayed not only a jaw-dropping lack of qualifications for the job but an overwhelming display of incompetence. She didn’t answer a great deal of questions and what she did answer were either vague or stupid. She actually said there needs to be guns in school for potential Grizzly bear attacks.

The only reason she was nominated was because as a billionaire, she was a heavy republican donor. That’s it. Nothing else.

And another thing about this crony is that it was the very thing your lying con man promised against, that he wasn’t going to reward big money and that government wouldn’t be bought under his watch.

I do understand the glee from the right as any lost fight from Dems are a delight to them but ultimately, both the fact she was nominated and the reason she was nominated is a loss for most Americans.

Rep. Massie Introduces Bill to Eliminate Education Department

http://s1.legalinsurrection.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/MassieEducation-620×436.jpg

That’s right. All the bill says is, “The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2018.”

In a statement, Massie said:

“Neither Congress nor the President, through his appointees, has the constitutional authority to dictate how and what our children must learn.”

Massie added, “Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. should not be in charge of our children’s intellectual and moral development. States and local communities are best positioned to shape curricula that meet the needs of their students. Schools should be accountable. Parents have the right to choose the most appropriate educational opportunity for their children, including home school, public school, or private school.”

He is 100% correct. When I covered Common Core at Breitbart, I spoke with many state legislators and so many of them on both sides of the aisle stated that education should be as local as possible.

President Jimmy Carter (because of course it was him) established the Department of Education as a debt to the National Education Association, the largest labor union. The group endorsed him, its first ever endorsement, “when Walter Mondale promised them, at an NEA annual meeting, that the Carter administration would form an education department.”

President Ronald Reagan tried to dissolve the department, but unfortunately it never happened.

Massie has support from other House Republicans:

House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (Utah) and Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.), Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Jody Hice (Ga.), Walter Jones (N.C.) and Raúl Labrador (Idaho).

Here are a few statements:

“For years, I have advocated returning education policy to where it belongs – the state and local level,” said Rep. Walter Jones, an original co-sponsor. “D.C. bureaucrats cannot begin to understand the needs of schools and its students on an individual basis. It is time that we get the feds out of the classroom, and terminate the Department of Education.”

“I’ve always been a proponent of empowering parents, teachers and local school boards who best know our children and their needs,” said Rep. Raul Labrador, another original co-sponsor. “Eliminating the U.S. Department of Education is the most important step we in Congress can take in returning decision making to the local level.”

“Education of our students should lie primarily with parents, teachers, and state and local officials who know how to meet their individual needs best,” said freshman Rep. Andy Biggs. “Since its inception, the Department of Education has grown into an unrecognizable federal beast, and its policies have helped foster Common Core across the country. It is time the one-size-fits-all approach by the federal government is ended and authority is returned to the local level.”

Go get them, Rep. Massie! I mean, come on. The budget for the department in 2017? Take a guess. $69.4 BILLION. That is an increase of $1.3 BILLION from 2016.

@Ajay42302:

Devos displayed not only a jaw-dropping lack of qualifications for the job but an overwhelming display of incompetence.

Wow, and that’s for Sec of Education. Strange it didn’t bother you that Obozo had an equally jaw dropping lack of qualification to be a dog catcher, but you had no problem with him trying to be president. His display of incompetence has still not ended.

@Ajay42302:

that it was the very thing your lying con man promised against, that he wasn’t going to reward big money and that government wouldn’t be bought under his watch.

No he didn’t. He only promised to drain the swamp and make America great again. He’s well on his way.
Soro’s only gave you a week off? Kinda pitiful, what going thru that election and all. Should have at least given you a few more days.
Note: they normally require trolls to change names when they come back, I’m surprised they let you keep yours.