WE DON'T NEED NO EDUCATION

Betsy DeVos is just another billionaire Trump donor who got rewarded with an important job she’s unqualified for. She was nominated precisely because she’s not too bright, and because she hates the agency she’s supposed to lead. There’s nothing special about her. There were other, perhaps worse, candidates waiting in the wings, had the vote gone the other way. Donald Trump will no doubt soon be boasting that DeVos was confirmed by a huge margin, one of the largest margins in history. But we know better.

The DeVos confirmation sucks, but it’s important to remember that we made them fight for it. Progressives who called, wrote, and otherwise made their opposition to the DeVos nomination known helped stiffen the spines of some wishy-washy Democrats, and persuaded two Republican Senators to vote No.

Because today’s news sucks, it’s important to remind ourselves that some good things have happened since January 20.

First, we’ve learned that Steve Bannon is not an evil genius. Evil, yes. But he and everyone else involved in managing the Trump White House have been surprisingly sloppy, making unforced errors on an almost daily basis. And once you get past the Bannons, Conways, and Spicers, it’s increasingly clear that Trump’s working staff don’t have much respect for him. They’ve already begun to pass gossip and embarrassing information on to the press. All of this is good news for the opposition.

Second, we’ve learned that, for a new president, Donald Trump is remarkably unpopular nationwide, with the lowest approval ratings of any new president since such things have been measured. And third, we know that this matters a lot to Trump, who is obsessed with being popular. He proves it with every tweet and speech. He’s incapable of speaking on any topic without whining about how unfair his press coverage has been. The bully has revealed his Achilles heel.

Fourth, we’ve learned that protest works. The Women’s March, the airport protests against the Muslim ban, the phone calls and letters, the rallies at Republican town hall meetings – they’ve all had a positive impact. Congressional Republicans are running scared, a few of them quite literally, away from their own constituents at town halls devoted to Obamacare.

Fifth, we know that we’re not alone. There are a lot of good guys out there who are willing to fight for American democracy. We have important allies. The ACLU has stepped up bigly, bless their hearts. Democrats are waking up to the fact that there are millions of voters who will support them, if they’ll just lead. The national press is finally doing its job, pointing out lies and blunders rather than simply repeating the spin with a straight face.

It’s going to be a rough four years. We’ll lose more battles. But two and a half weeks into the fight, we’re in better shape than I thought we’d be. As Jesus said (Matthew 24:6), “See that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”