Even if we lose in November we have won a VICTORY!

The people of the Republican Party have shown the elitist in the party that if we the people pull together we can beat them. I pray there days of ignoring what the people of the party want is over. Trump outsmarted Washington!  I now hope the party returns to its roots.  I also hope that Trump is more PROGRESSIVE than conservative (a moderate). I would love to try a PROGRESSIVE conservative in the White House for a while. I do not want  a PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL Democrat or phony Republican elitist that does not know what he or she is in the White House. GO TRUMP! Win or lose in November I thank you for knocking my party leaders on their rear ends!!!!!!!! It is time politician once again realize the people are in charge of our future not them.  

Rubio is the real winner in Iowa.

I am not happy that Senator Cruz pulled ahead in the Iowa Caucus, but there is one bright side to it. A Trump win would have made it more difficult for a mainstream candidate, like Marco Rubio, to mount a comeback later in the season. I would not be surprised to see the Republican establishment get behind Cruz, even though they do not prefer him to be the next President. I think they would prefer Cruz over Trump. They may now take another look at Rubio.

 Momentum is generally overrated in primary politics, but a back-to-back win in Iowa and New Hampshire would have given Trump a chance to run the table through Super Tuesday, on March 1, especially with the establishment backed candidates so divided. It would have certainly told the establishment Trump is not just going to disappear. The party’s establishment is not well positioned to stop Trump if he fares well in the early states primaries.

If the Republican field doesn’t narrow quickly following New Hampshire there will be a real chance that Trump will build a wide delegate lead over a split field on Super Tuesday. I think the establishment is the winner coming out of Iowa because it has bought them more time. If the field of mainstream candidates narrows following New Hampshire someone acceptable to “extreme conservative” and moderate Republican voters, like a Rubio, might weaken Cruz and Trump.

Trump must begin to be cautious with his mouth and come up with sound policies because some of the extreme right wing conservatives that have been supporting Trump because they thought Cruz could not beat Trump could now go back to Cruz following Iowa. People like Trump’s slogan “Making America Great Again!” but, now that we are getting into the primaries we want to know HOW he is going to do that.

Believe it or not there are some of us Republicans that think the extreme right wing of the party is what has caused the Republican downfall. There are moderates in the Republican Party that want and will support a more moderate candidate. We blame the right wing conservatives for the racial divide within the party, for the perception that Republicans do not care for poor, orphans and widows, we blame them for not standing strong against Obama’s socialistic programs, for allowing the Democrats to make the 1 percenters look like demons and for being critical of Obamacare, but not producing a better model. Those are the reasons Trump is attractive to moderate Republicans. 

Just a note: The most segregated places in the United States is the church's. Right wing Republican Christians should pay particular attention to that fact because it does affect how people view the Republican Party and the evangelical vote.

Trump still has large vulnerabilities. I think the establishment would prefer a more moderate mainstream candidate, like Rubio. Rubio needs to show he can be a viable alternative in the primaries. A mainstream candidate would also be able to count on considerable support from many of the party’s better educated voters, especially in the West. Trump hasn’t yet faced a serious paid media campaign and it remains unclear whether he can maintain such a large share of the vote in the face of sustained attacks on his past statements. If Jeb Bush drops out and his supporters money starts to flow to Rubio it could be a game changer.

Things have been going well for Trump over the last few weeks. The mainstream candidates remain deadlocked in New Hampshire. The party hasn’t rallied against him, and there are even signs it might be more open to him than many have assumed. If he could only have come in first in Iowa it would have put him in a very strong position heading into a primary season against a divided Republican field.

On the other hand the lost in Iowa to Cruz and Rubio coming in a strong third may rattle Trump’s cage and make him realize he cannot win by slandering everyone that questions or opposes him.  Trump’s main problem is his ego and Iowa may be what he needed to knock some air out of his ego.

Trump needs to stop his tweet madness, stop his Ted Cruz birther crap and show us some substance. We may not like him personally, but some of us still believe he can get the United States back on track. Over the years some of my best employees were people I did not personally like, but they could do the job I needed done and I supported them. People should not vote for personalities they should vote for who they think will be best for the country as a whole. I do not plan on having Trump over for dinner or paling around with him. I am not looking for a friend I am looking for someone with strong executive abilities. I am also not looking for a personal counselor or pastor either. 

Cruz should have the majority of evangelical votes - but he doesn't - why?

Donald Trump is a mainline Protestant who hardly goes to church. Ben Carson’s 15 minutes of fame is over. Marco Rubio’s faith journey has taken him from Catholicism to Mormonism to evangelicalism and back to Catholicism. If Rubio has as difficult time making political decisions as he has making religious decisions I question his loyalty to any principle.

Cruz is supposed to be the real deal. A true evangelical Christian, loyal to the U.S. Constitution, Southern Baptist, a preacher’s kid and yet he has not sewed up the evangelical vote – why? He announced his candidacy at Liberty University, founded by Jerry Falwell, but Jerry Falwell’s son who is head of Liberty University supports Trump – why? No one has a better record in Congress on the social issues that “Old style” conservatives embrace, but he still does not have the evangelical vote in the basket – why?

Trump all but matches Cruz for evangelical support in Iowa. Trump’s refusal to participate in the FOX debate may change that. Cruz is going to twist the truth and out and out lie to use Trump’s refusal against him. I noticed since Trump announced he would not participate in the debate Sean Hannity who has had his head up Trumps backside has pulled it out and stuck it up Cruz’s backside. That may hurt Trump in Iowa.

Could it be that evangelicals know Cruz is a hypocrite? Southern Baptist teaches tithing ten percent of your gross income to the church is essential to your faith and according to public records Cruz contributes LESS than ONE percent. He claims to be against Wall Street, yet his wife is an executive of one of the largest Wall Street firms and even borrowed one million dollars from Wall Street banks to help finance his campaign. There’s got to be something more that’s made a lot of evangelicals wary of throwing their support to Cruz, and I think I know what it is. Evangelicals hate hypocrites.

In the last Republican presidential debate, Cruz gave his testimony, and (as he notes) he gives it all the time. But the conversion story he tells is his father’s, not his own. Cruz was born in a Christian home and has always been a Christian and was raised in the church.

I have not decided to support Trump because to be honest I do not like his fight with Megyn Kelly and FOX, Carly Fiorina (face), and Marco Rubio (sweat) or his more serious attacks on Mexican immigrants (accusing the many of what the few do), his character assault on Ben Carson, comparing him to a child molester who has pathological problems and, most recently his apparent mocking of the disability of a New York Times journalist. It bothers me he does not apologize for his remarks. I do not like his extra-large ego and pettiness, but I am convinced he can do more to help the economy and foreign affairs than any of the other candidates – he would be a strong leader. 

The warnings in Proverbs are strong: “Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Proverbs 29:20). “A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back” (Proverbs 29:11). I really think this applies to anyone, but especially to anyone who wants to be President of the United States.

Do you think white evangelicals are recalling an earlier election and are looking more for a candidate that is better for the country, rather than better for the church? The year of the evangelical was the Southern Baptist Jimmy Carter. President Carter brought millions of evangelicals into the political process — on behalf of the Democratic ticket. The list of white evangelicals who supported Carter that year reads like a who’s who of the religious right, including Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and Billy Graham. That fall, Carter won nearly half the evangelical vote. No Democrat has even come close to that in the decades since. Few people today would deny Carter was the worse U.S. President in our lifetime. I personally think Obama took that title from Carter.

I think the Rev. James Linzey, a retired Army chaplain and vocal leader among some conservative Evangelicals, sums up his support for Donald Trump and it applies to me and many evangelicals, “Because he tells it like it is, and he exudes honesty and transparency, and he’s the kind of person who is not going to deceive us. Evangelicals are tired of being deceived by wolves in sheep’s clothing.”

I do not think any of the political pundits or media elitist’s or Republican establishment realized how deep the voter’s frustration with the GOP really was. The Republican Party has failed to take care of even one major issue that concerns conservatives and evangelicals over the past many years.

I am not impressed with Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council endorsement of Cruz. He has for a long time urged Christian conservatives to pick a consensus presidential candidate early in the nomination process, but remember he early on endorsed the nominations of John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012. I do think Cruz will gain strength among evangelicals and the only one in the end that will share in those votes is Rubio, but I believe Tony Perkins is wrong again and Cruz is not the candidate to beat a Democrat candidate.

Polls and early primaries mean NOTHING!

What if the polls and early voting mean little to nothing? What if the Republican primaries turn out to be Rubio, Trump, Cruz, Bush and Christi in that order?  What if the Democrat primaries turn out to be Hillary, Sanders and O’Malley in that order? Probably the Democrat primary would not be that much of a surprise, but a lot of political pundits and media are going to be wrong if Rubio get the Republican nomination. 

According to polls, Donald Trump is leading the pack on the Republican side. He has 36 percent of the vote in the latest poll, and he's followed by Ted Cruz at around 19 percent and Marco Rubio at around 12 percent. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is leading with 48 points over Bernie Sanders' 41 points.

In the 2012 presidential election, Mitt Romney was leading in the polls at this point in the election. In 2008, when we had the last Democratic competition, Clinton was leading over Barack Obama in early January.

I do not have much confidence in polls. How well informed are the people that are being polled?  How many people are willing to talk to a stranger about how they are going to vote? I suspect a lot of times the candidate’s name they give the pollster is the last name they heard on television they do not want to appear stupid so they pull a name out of the air. How many that are polled will actually vote?

This election will be more difficult to call than previous ones because I think voters are tired of the “us” vs “them”. The “us” are ordinary citizens and the “them” are political pundits and media elites who hold the “us” in contempt. I believe the political pundits and media elites see the American people as incapable of reason and stupid.

I have said in earlier post that I thought Marco Rubio at 43 was too young to be president, but I could be wrong. Rubio’s sound bites: “We cannot go back to the leaders and ideas of the past”; “Yesterday is over, and we are never going back”; “You see, we Americans are proud of our history, but our country has always been about the future. And before us now is the opportunity to author the greatest chapter yet in the amazing story of America”; “We can’t be going back to the leaders and ideas of the past”; “We must change the decisions we are making by changing the people who are making them.” This may be what first time voters and millenniums want to hear. His youth may be a factor in helping him win.

I think far too much is being made of the Iowa caucus. Iowa is of little significance to the overall 2016 election. The state has just 3 million of the U.S.’s nearly 319 million residents, so it doesn’t have many votes in the Electoral College that will eventually elect a president from the parties’ nominees. The state makes up only about 1 percent of delegates who will later choose the nominees. The Republican Party has 2,472 delegates nationally; a candidate needs 1,236 to win the nomination. Iowa only has 30 Republican delegates, or 1.2 percent of the U.S. delegates. The media is what makes the Iowa caucus important. The media hype that follows the Iowa caucus can determine which candidates will drop out of the race. The media hype of the Iowa winners also determines future financial support other candidates will get. Another factor that dilutes Iowa’s importance is they allow their delegates to split their vote at the National Convention. They do not have to cast all their votes for one candidate.

Iowa has not been very successful in selecting the right Republican nominee in the past. They supported Rick Santorum in 2012. In 2008 they favored Mike Huckabee. In 1988 they favored Robert Dole. In 1980 they favored Pat Robertson. They supported Mitt Romney over the eventual nominee John McCain. They were successful in 2000 and 1996.

Three reasons the Iowa caucus is usually wrong when it comes to the candidates for the general election are Iowa is predominantly white, strongly religious and their caucus system is complex.

If you cannot rely on the early caucus and primaries or the polls what can you count on? It is simply too early to decide who will be the candidates in the general election or who will win the late primaries. Primary voters and caucus voters generally do not make up their minds until a few days before the event. In the general election voters often do not make up their minds until the last thirty days. Polls are nothing more than tools used by the media to hype their broadcast and mean nothing. Polls can be manipulated depending on how the questions are asks and the cross section of voters contacted. Keep in mind if pollsters use landline telephones that eliminate a lot of young people and if they use the Internet most young people are not going to reply to an Internet poll. Landline and Internet usually get results from older voters. If a candidate like Rubio should be successful in getting out the first time and millennium voters in the general elections the polls could be worthless. We will have a better idea who will be the candidates for the Republican and Democrats in mid-March.

I would like to see the United States do the same thing the Philippines do when it comes to campaign periods. In the U.S. campaigns last two years or more. That is entirely too long. In the Philippines there are campaign laws which limit the campaign period to about six months. No campaigning, no ads except during that open window. Candidates will be disqualified if they campaign early. By the time the actual general election comes around most Americans have grown tired of the process and some are so turned off they just stay home.

I do not think the Trump/FOX debacle will hurt Trump. Republican politicians now know they can challenge FOX and they will. In the past Republicans felt as if they had no other media to go to. Not all the people at FOX support Ms. Kelly. Brit Hume is one who has spoken to others about not supporting her and being upset she had Michael Moore on her show to defend her against Trump. Murdock the owner of FOX has been watching Roger Ailes closely since last summer. He is concerned about Ailes health and having a replacement for him. FOX generates one billion dollars in profit yearly for Murdock. There is a split over the Kelly/Trump issue at FOX and some are upset that Mr. Ailes has allow Kelly to be the spokesperson for FOX.

Do not let the media and political pundits manipulate you with polls.  I have had friends tell me I would have voted for “X”, but I voted for “Y” because the polls showed he or she was going to win and I did not want to waste my vote.

By November Hillary may have criminal charges brought against her, Bernie may be in a retirement home (I am 75 an can say that), Trump may be having mouth surgery to remove his foot, Jeb may have found a miracle vitamin and the world may know what a sneak and snake Cruz is. 

Jeb Bush do yourself, your family and us a favor - Quit!

 Jeb Bush has for all practical purposes been running for president for a year. He has traveled all across the country collecting checks, promises of checks, hiring staff, enlisting volunteers and making the usual political promises – a better tomorrow, a return to America’s glory days, more jobs, better economy, protection from our enemies and better education for our children.

I have thought for some time he has less than a ‘snow ball chance in hell’ of getting the Republican nomination.   We were told by the political ‘experts’ he would be the front-runner.  As usual they were wrong.

He entered the latest debate in fifth place. Only one month after Bush formally launched his candidacy he began his decline. Many within the Republican Party have spent millions of dollars trying to turn his campaign around and as we often see in government programs’ spending more money does not always produce good results. The Jeb Bush supporters have spent more money than any other candidate.

The real front runner, much to the dismay of Karl Rowe and the likes, has turned out to be Donald Trump. But, those within the leadership of the party are determined that Trump will not be the nominee and following the debate were making the following statements: Republicans don’t start making decisions until the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses, which Bush’s camp has never expected to win. Voters in New Hampshire, who cast ballots on Feb. 9, tend to make up their minds at the last minute. Jeb Bush still has time to improve. Early polls aren’t predictive of anything because there is still a long campaign ahead. I think it is time for the Republican Party Bosses to cut their ties to Jeb Bush and get behind a possible winner. In my opinion no one looks more tired than Hillary Clinton than Jeb Bush.

On December 15 Jeb Bush was still saying Trump’s support would end.  The latest national Monmouth University poll released Monday shows Bush to be wrong. According to that poll Trump has the highest support yet, 27 percentage points ahead of his nearest competitor, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Trump led Cruz 41-14 percent. I admit I am surprised at Trumps continued lead in the polls. I still am not willing to commit to him, but it is time for Jeb Bush to pick up his marbles and go home? Jeb Bush only got 3% support in the last poll.

His campaign staff places some blame on Trump. They claim Trump’s strong numbers in the poll are the results of theatrical performances and not serious politics. They have said Donald Trump is the Kim Kardashian of politics and at some point, people will get over that. I guess it is only fair they try to place blame on someone else – Obama blamed Jeb’s brother, George Bush, for his failures. After all they say turnabout is fair play.

They even say in seven or eight weeks, when voters start picking a commander in chief to lead the country through perilous times, Jeb’s proven track record and his plan to take on ISIS will position him well in the primaries. Like me they still believe in miracles. But, I do not think it is in the cards for Jeb Bush to be granted a miracle in 2016.

Trump labeled Bush “low energy”. Bush had ample opportunities to respond and turn the table on Trump, but he didn’t. Trump suggested Bush’s immigration views were tied to his wife being of Mexican heritage. Bush demanded an apology, but Trump did not apologize. Voter do not like candidates attacking the family members of other candidates, but Bush fail to take advantage of that opportunity. Bush instead set his sights on Rubio; I guess he believed Rubio weaker than Trump. He attacked Rubio, his one-time protégé in Florida, for missing work in the Senate. But Bush’s attack appeared half-hearted, and Rubio got the better of him. The young dog took the bone out of the jaws of the old dog.

The only thing Jeb Bush has accomplished after spending millions of other people’s money is he kept Mitt Romney out of the race. He also has managed to raise 114 million dollars in campaign funds, more than anyone else.

I once had a friend who told me the secret to his success was he kept his church in debt. They gave and worked hard because they had a debt to pay or lose it all. That must be the same philosophy Jeb Bush is using. His well-heeled backers have spent so much money on Jeb’s campaign they cannot afford to walk away and lose the possibility of future political favors.  But, sooner or later they will have to face reality and admit the hole they are throwing their money in is only getting deeper and regardless of how much money they throw in the hole will never be filled.

Former failed Presidential candidate Bob Dole endorsed Bush after the debate in Wisconsin, describing him as the most qualified candidate to run against the Democrats. The endorsement came from the same Bob Dole that ran unsuccessfully against President Bill Clinton in 1996, which resulted in a dramatic loss for the Republican Party. Bush also earned the endorsement following that debate from another failed Republican candidate, former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Perhaps some other Republican failed candidates will come out after last night’s debate and endorse Jeb Bush.  They say if you want to be a winner surround yourself with a winner, maybe that is why Jeb’s not doing too well he is surrounding himself with too many losers. Maybe winners are afraid to back him!

There is a new generation of Republican politicians Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and others who have been shaped and trained in a new political style. They are men who are not afraid to break with the Republican Party when they do not agree with the Party hardliners or party bosses. Jeb Bush is a member of the old Republican guard and I do not think he understands or is prepared for politics in 2016.

Jeb Bush is one of the nation’s leading champions of Common Core standards. A program that is unpopular with the Republican base. Jeb Bush is committed to centrist causes such as federalized education and legal status for undocumented immigrants all causes that alienate the Republican base. Jeb Bush was on the Lehman Brothers advisory board before that bank collapsed, and he now sits on the Barclay’s board. The Republican Bosses may be for Wall Street, but the Republican base is not fond of banks and bank bailouts. Jeb Bush is friends with Bloomberg, an ex-Republican, and often meets with the Bloomberg Foundation.  Bloomberg and his foundation aggressively campaigns for gun control, shutting down coal-fired power plants and new taxes on junk food all causes the Republican base do not support. If he remains in the competition his competitors are going to hit hard on his association with groups and people who do not support the causes of the Republican base, in fact support the opposite causes of the Republican base.

Jeb Bush keeps saying Donald Trump was a Democrat before he became a Republican (like Reagan)? I would like to ask Jeb Bush why he can be best buds with Bloomberg and not fault him for being a Republican turn Democrat and yet at the same time condemn Trump for seeing the light and changing from Democrat to Republican.

 

Does Bush honestly think he will escape his 2013 remarks,” Immigrants create far more businesses than native-born Americans,” Jeb Bush made the statement at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference. He went on to say “Immigrants are more fertile, and they love their families, and they have more intact families, and they bring a younger population. Immigrants create an engine of economic prosperity,” many took these remark as meaning immigrant families were better than native born American’s families and they create a more robust economic atmosphere than native born Americans. Jeb Bush sounded a little like Obama when he made those statements.

Bush is a moderate and Republicans tend to be swayed by moderates, I suppose Bush was good for Florida, but Bush has a lot of baggage to carry and I just do not think he is strong enough to carry that baggage.

I did not think last night’s debate advanced Jeb Bush. While the rest were interrupting each other to get their points across Jeb Bush for the most part waited patiently until he was called, answered politely and shut up again. He just did not seem to be part of the pack. I like people being polite to each other, but it does not work in election campaigns Mitt Romney taught us that. 

I think Jeb Bush lost his last chance to turn things around at last night’s debate. I admit he was better at attacking Trump and a few others than in previous debates, but it was still too little, too late. His opening and closing statements were not strong enough to say the lease. 

Bush should step aside now!

The post-debate coverage will likely focus on Trump, Rubio and Cruz and any coverage Jeb Bush gets will probably emphasize his debate flaws.

Bush should have stepped aside before he disgraced himself and his family to bad he did not listen to many of us Republicans.  At least the Bush dynasty may finally be over thank you Jeb Bush.

The new education bill ESSA may prove to be another disaster!

 I have written blogs before and made the statement I no longer know what the Republican Party stand for. It seems to me we now have a one party system in the United States – The D and R Party. I put the “D” first because when the Democrats stand up the Republicans bow.

We just saw another example of the one party system last Wednesday; the Senate followed the House in passing the conference report reauthorizing No Child Left Behind. The new bill, called the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), claims it will return education control to the states. It is supposed to allow the states to do away with the Common Core national standards, and prohibit the Secretary of Education from dictating standards and assessments.

Don’t be fooled the legislation passed by Washington lawmakers does not give states more control over their schools because the bill does not give states adequate authority and there are no enforcement provisions protecting states against overreach by the federal authorities. We must also remember that it is Washington politicians that control the purse strings.

The president of the 3 million National Education Association members (teachers union) praised what lawmakers have done on Capitol Hill regarding ESSA. Have we not been told repeatedly by Republican politician’s that the teachers union is the cause of school failures. The Public School Teachers Unions like ESSA because it was designed to hurt charter, online and private schools. The only good part of ESSA, if there is a good part is that it continues to exempt homeschool families from any kind of federal mandates.

The Republican politicians could have taken the lead and written an education bill that would accomplish what the Republican Party leaders claim they stand for and conservative voter want. But, instead they fell in line with Obama and the Democrats on a bill that will seriously affect adversely millions of conservative Americans until the year 2020. It was a repeat performance of the passing of Obamacare.

The ESSA text is 1061-pages long and was only released on Monday. We now have a piece of legislation like Obamacare that was passed without many reading it.  Republicans and some Democrats when all the flaws in the bill start to appear will claim they were not given adequate time to study the bill before they had to vote on it just as they did with Obamacare. The new Republican House Speaker, promised transparency, an open process and a more responsive House, so much for that promise.

Opposition was growing among Republican member to ESSA so Ryan jammed the vote through faster than anticipated. Then they pretend they do not know why the Republican base is so frustrated with them that they would support outsiders like Donald Trump.

Speaker Ryan and his fellow Republican Representatives and Republican Senators once again raised the white flag of surrender to Obama and the Democrats. They gave liberal groups and teachers unions a huge victory. Republican leadership surrendered control of our children’s education for years to come to liberals without any kind of repercussions.

Were we not told by Republican politicians the Department of Education should be abolished because it is inefficient and we should return control of our schools to local districts and parents? Did they once again lie to us or did they just not have the guts to fight Obama, Democrats and liberals or are they really Democrats in disguise.

It appears that our elected officials in Washington both Democrat and Republican still do not understand that when they pass a bill, it gets implemented, and when it gets implemented, people feel it. There will be consequences to this bill that will affect millions of Americans for years to come. Our elected politicians have an obligation/responsibility to study every line of any new legislation before voting for it. They passed No Child Left Behind over a decade ago and today few want their name associated with the bill. Every Republican who supported this bill should be looked at closely in upcoming elections.

ESSA according to Jane Robbins, a senior fellow at the American Principles Project, allows the Federal government to continue to lay out particular requirements for state standards and uses code language throughout that gives the federal government the tools to pressure the states to stick with Common Core rather than risking their federal money by adopting something better. It maintains the federally dictated testing regimen and requires states to implement assessments that are expensive, that have been proven in the past to be ineffective and unworkable, and that operate not by assessing students' academic knowledge, but rather by measuring their attitudes and dispositions.

ESSA's new preschool program and President Obama's pet project, "21st-century
community learning centers" are all bad ideas. Obama has pushed the “21^st-century community learning center” idea for some time. It basically allows public schools to be expanded to replace family and church as the center of every child's life, "services" including mental-health programs. Parents should be alarmed that the government will assess the mental health of their children and worse the government will have the right to fix any problem the government claims to have found. I ask all fellow conservative Republicans if this is this is what you send Republican politicians to Washington to do?

ESSA is so progressive it was supported by every single Democrat in Congress. It was supported by Barack Obama. It was supported by the owners of the Common Core national standards testing group. Of course it was they make a fortune off their testing. It was supported by every pro-Common Core and pro-progressive education interest group in the country. It was strongly opposed by over 200 conservative anti-Common Core grassroots organizations.

Rand Paul voted against ESSA. Ted Cruz voted against cloture, but missed the final vote where it counts. He claims he opposed ESSA, but if he truly opposed the bill he should have been present for the vote and cast a vote against it. He certainly has attack Jeb Bush for supporting Common Core and ESSA is Common Core with a face lift. Marco Rubio claims he opposes ESSA, but he not only missed the cloture vote he missed the final vote. Lindsey Graham again demonstrated his love for the establishment and voted in favor of passage. I guess in some weird way I admire Lindsay Graham for having the guts not to dodge the vote. Jeb Bush, ‘Mr. Common Core’, in an interview on Fox News could not praise ESSA and Common Core enough. I never supported Jeb Bush, but after watching his spill on Fox I would not trust him with my dog, much less my child.

I guess Donald Trump will have to speak out and educate the voters and the Republican Party on ESSA as he has on immigration, terrorist and refugees.

ESSA is nothing more than a new name for a previously failed program known as Common Core.