The DeVos Scenario

Let me start by saying this blog is not, and was never meant to be, a political blog. It was intended to be about my own observations on life and not about the president, the Congress, or politics. However, when it comes to Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress there is just so much eye-popping fodder for commentary that it’s difficult to resist.

For example, take Betsy DeVos … please! This billionaire heir to the Amway fortune was nominated by Trump to run the Department of Education. Democrats opposed her on the flimsy excuse that she had never attended a public school, her children had never attended a public school, she was unfamiliar with public schools, she was unfamiliar with laws designed to protect students, and she is opposed to public education – preferring vouchers and for-profit charter schools. Teachers’ unions and even some charter school organizations all across the country opposed her nomination. But their opposition was ignored. After all, what do teachers know about education? Republicans confirmed her nomination with the help of an unprecedented tie-breaking vote from the vice president.

One might wonder how someone so seemingly unqualified could get this job. Was DeVos nominated by Trump because of the 200 million dollars that she says her family might possibly have donated to the Republican Party? No, that can’t be the reason. After all, you can’t buy these Cabinet-level government jobs. Can you?

Fifty Republican senators voted to confirm DeVos for education secretary. Of those 50, Betsy DeVos and her family have donated about a million dollars to 21 of them. (There is a list on this page at the Center for American Progress.) But again, this is America and you can’t buy a Cabinet-level government job. However, you wouldn’t know that from appearances. In fact, going by appearances, one might think Republicans are saying “This country is a plutocracy and screw you if you don’t like it.”

And, maybe it is a plutocracy. Going by appearances, it seems a lot of voters prefer to live in a plutocracy. Good luck to them, and let me know how it works out in the long run.