"Teacher's Pet"

In a one/two sucker punch that ignored both Alaskan law and catered to partisan subservience, both of our state representatives opened the door for the new Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. Millionaires voting for billionaires.

Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan is perhaps best known for his obstinate refusal to even consider former President Obama's nominee for a vacant Supreme Court position - part of the lockstep Republican blockade of absolutely anything by Obama. This petty, hyper-partisan gamesmanship demeans the process and violates the constitutional duty of the position. As in, arguably one of the more important parts of the job description, right there in writing:

With his Devos vote, Senator Sullivan ignored the will of the voters (who it seems he isn't really paid to represent), and Senator Murkowski pulled one of her classic, disingenuous feints so as to avoid actually taking a principled stand.

"McConnell knew he could afford to lose two Republican votes assuming that the vote to confirm Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.) as attorney general came after the DeVos vote. And he signaled to Collins and Murkowski that they were absolutely fine to break with their conference on DeVos, knowing it would help them politically — and, of course, by helping them politically that he could rely on them for a vote he really needed in the future." - Washington Post

Together the senators have repeatedly demonstrated an appalling lack of morals and ethical judgement, especially in the case of their amenable, fair-weather friendship and general affiliation with tRump (see previous post on this habitual complicity). We have work to do.

“I would like to thank the thousands of Alaskans — including parents, educators, and students — who called or emailed our senators in the last few weeks,” said Parker, a former Lathrop High School teacher. “This isn’t an end, but the beginning of an energized, grassroots movement to protect our public schools." - Tim Parker, president of the Alaska chapter of the National Education Association

Exhibit A: The typo indeed "captures the essence..."