In a previous letter, I singled out Betsy DeVos as one of several Trump appointments who did not pass the “smell test.”
I cited her lack of experience, as well as her support for charter schools and vouchers. I quoted Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, who called DeVos “the most ideological, anti-public education nominee” since the creation of the Department of Education in 1979.
My guess was that DeVos would limit her nefarious activities to the realm of elementary and secondary schools and not do harm to America’s college co-eds.
Of course, I was wrong. In a Roll Call article billionaire DeVos proudly stated “my family is the single largest contributor to the National Republican party.”
She went on to admit that “we expect a return on our investment.” And you got it, Betsy,…a cabinet position!
In a recent speech at George Mason University, DeVos promised to overhaul guidelines promulgated during the Obama administration.
Having met with men’s rights groups and men accused of rape, DeVos’ thrust was to create a false equivalency between crime perpetrators and crime victims.
This is a typical Trump administration tactic. The president used it when he said there were “good people” marching with the Nazis and “good people” marching with the protestors in Charlottesville.
DeVos couched her argument in terms with which everyone can agree. “One assault is one too many. One aggressive act of harassment is one too many. One person denied due process is one too many.”
Agreed! But the number of women who are raped far exceeds the number of males falsely accused.
So it’s apples and oranges.
A look at the statistics proves that men accused of rape are not numerically comparable to men who are falsely accused.
Here are the figures.
According to Alisyn Camerota of CNN, the number of men falsely accused of rape is quite low… F.B.I. statistics put the number at only 2 percent – 8 percent.
This is another favorite tactic of the Trumpites. Create a non-existent problem and then posit a solution.
A concrete example of this is when Trump accused the Democrats of voter fraud. Having fabricated a problem, state legislatures swooped in with solutions such as Voter I.D. laws which tend to disenfranchise minorities and young people.
Another problem with the DeVos stance is that rape is an extremely under-reported crime. Again, quoting Camerota,
“More than 90 percent of sexual assault victims on college campuses don’t report the assault…”
It isn’t that co-eds don’t want justice. They simply fear the humiliation.
Commenting on DeVos, Arne Duncan, Obama’s Secretary of Education stated:
“This [Trump] administration wants to take us back to the days when colleges swept sexual assault under the rug.”
In her short time in office, DeVos has sparked outrage as well as approval for her proposals. Fatima Goss Graves, CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, said the education secretary’s ideas were “a blunt attack on survivors of sexual assault.
On the right, Frederick M. Hess of the conservative “think tank” American Enterprise Institute, stated “I think DeVos laid out a sensible…approach to crafting a more measured policy that can better improve the rights of all involved.”
As with everything that happens with this administration. there are lessons to be learned .
1. never underestimate the ability of Trump appointees to find new ways to undermine the progress made in the past eight years.
2. when no problem exists, create one. This enables you to solve the non-existent problem.
3. do not expect the truth from Trump or his appointees. Trump is pathological liar who creates his own reality. There is no evidence that he can change which means only when McConnell and Ryan show some courage will sanity be restored in Washington.
Given the barrage of daily bad news emanating from our nation’s capital, it would be easy to give up. But as Baron Pierre De Coubertin stated: “The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”
Dr. Hal Sobel,
Great Neck
