Every single Democrat has asked for a different standard of confirmation for Betsy Devos than that of those confirmed during previous confirmation hearings. The difference between the questions being asked by Republican representatives and the Democrats is so stark it has been hard to watch. While most Republicans ask pertinent questions about school choices or how she would follow the laws of the federal government, Democrats like Bernie Sanders (and I use the term Democrat loosely in his case) asked if college education should be free to everyone and Ms. Devos replied “nothing is really free,’ Sanders went into his usual rant, that millionaires and billionaires would pay for it. He then asked if her contributing to the Republican party made it possible for her nomination. She responded, “I don’t think it mattered.”
Al Franken had the audacity to ask if Devos believed in conversion therapy. At first Devos was so stunned, but she finally responded that all children have the right to a good education regardless of race, gender or economic status. The Democrat from Colorado tried to use the standards of education from Detroit to tarnish Devos’ record of accomplishment, Devos being from Michigan, implying that those standards applied to the state as a whole.
The Democratic senator from Connecticut asked if guns should be allowed in schools. Devos replied “in the case of the school in Montana with the Grizzly Bear fence around it, probably so.” This clearly being a guideline determined by federal and state law, not a matter for Education Secretary to decide.
The Republican from Louisiana asked every relevant question for the secretary’s position. It was articulated in a yes or no forum, several questions were asked and answered with complete clarity of the nominee’s requirements to fill the position. This manner of irrelevant questioning clearly shows Americans, that the Democratic party has gone completely off the rails, with their intent being to put Devos in an interrogation room under a bright light and question her for hours as if she were a murderer being questioned at the police station, asking everything from what day she was born to what her sexual preferences are, or maybe, what her grandfather bought her for Christmas in 1993.
I have to commend Lamar Alexander, the committee chair, and Republican from Tennessee, for attempting to keep the hearing focused on the relevant issues at hand, and not allowing these discontented Democrats from allowing their disappointment in Trump’s victory cloud the process of selecting the new Secretary of Education.
The theme has been the same for all Trump’s selections for confirmation. These obstructionist Democrats that were perfectly content with the process for Democratic nominees in previous hearings, are somehow extremely dissatisfied with the same process for a Republican nominee. People in the districts where these Democrats are supposed to be representing, need to pay close attention to this self-serving determination by these individuals to forward their own agenda, not necessarily that of their constituents. An agenda they have been pressured to adopt to forward the cause and ideology of the outgoing president.
I truly feel this ideology will be the demise of the Democratic party. The Liberals have hijacked the party and it no longer retains true American values.