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Hopefully, Trump is a leader who is not "imprisoned" in the "progressive" ideological mindset--especially when it comes to the inherent threats to liberty when children are propagandized by ideologues from K-12 through graduate school.

Perhaps the appointment of DeVos may be an indication of the possibility of inculcating a love of liberty and freedom in the minds of youth by freeing them from a one-size-fits-all mentality which highlights mediocrity, not excellence.

For instance, one can hope that Trump and DeVos may be able to look behind the numbers of citizens in prisons and examine the possible connections between Progressive control of the public "education" system and the number of youth in prisons.

Clearly, anyone who speaks out against the Dept. of Education and all of the other multitudinous Progressive bureaucracies that control the propagandizing of children over the past few decades in the name of "educating" them must be willing to be marginalized by the media and politicians; but in order to understand the increase in prison populations, one must look behind the numbers and the crimes and examine objectively contributing facts to the cultural changes which may have brought them to where they are today. Progressives seldom do that, relying, instead on whatever the current Progressive narrative seems to be.

Even as early as the Year 1886, serious efforts to make that link were treated badly by the political structure of the day. At that date, today's self-identified "progressives" called themselves "liberals," though not in the "classical liberal" tradition.

Examine the case of an accomplished man by the name of Zacharias Montgomery who was denied an important post in government for doing just that. You will read some of his words below.

With that said, those who love liberty must be willing to come forward to declare that it is better to be remembered for standing on and articulating enduring principles of right versus wrong, liberty versus tyranny, than to be praised by the mainstream media and so-called "progressives."

Here are excerpted portions of the words of Zacharias Montgomery in his 1886 Book entitled "Poison Drops in the United States Senate . . . ." Although his treatise dealt primarily with the public school question, the following remarks might be helpful to those who, today, are concerned by what passes for "public education."

Excerpts from Zacharias Montgomery:

"My countrymen, disguise the fact as we may, there is in this country to-day, and in both the political Parties, an element which is ripe for a centralized despotism. There are men and corporations of vast wealth, whose iron grasp spans this whole continent, and who find it more difficult and more expensive to corrupt thirty odd State Legislatures than one Federal Congress. It was said of Nero of old that he wished the Roman people had but one head, so that he might cut it off at a single blow. And so it is with those moneyed kings who would rule this country through bribery, fraud, and intimidation.
"It is easy to see how, with all the powers of government centered at Washington in one Federal head, they could at a single stroke put an end to American liberty. "But they well understand that before striking this blow the minds of the people must be prepared to receive it. And what surer or safer preparation could possibly be made than is now being made, by indoctrinating the minds of the rising generation with the idea that ours is already a consolidated government ; that the States of the Union have no sovereignty which is not subordinate to the will and pleasure of the Federal head, and that our Constitution is the mere creature of custom, and may therefore be legally altered or abolished by custom.
"Such are a few of the pernicious and poisonous doctrines which ten millions of American children are today drinking in with the very definitions of the words they are compelled to study. And yet the man who dares to utter a word of warning of the approaching danger is stigmatized as an enemy to education and unfit to be mentioned as a candidate for the humblest office.
"Be it so. Viewing this great question as I do, not for all the offices in the gift of the American people would I shrink from an open and candid avowal of my sentiments. If I have learned anything from the reading of history, it is that the man who, in violation of great principles, toils for temporary fame, purchases for himself either total oblivion or eternal infamy, while he who temporarily goes down battling for right principles always deserves, and generally secures, the gratitude of succeeding ages, and will carry with him the sustaining solace of a clean conscience, more precious than all the offices and honors in the gift of man.
"History tells us that Aristides was voted into banishment because he was just. Yet who would not a thousand times rather today be Aristides than be numbered amongst the proudest of his persecutors.
"Socrates, too, in violation of every principle of justice, was condemned to a dungeon and to death. Yet what name is more honored in history than his? And which of his unjust judges would not gladly, hide himself in the utter darkness of oblivion from the withering scorn and contempt of all mankind?
"From the noble example of Aristides and of Socrates let American statesmen learn wisdom, and from the undying infamy of their cowardly time-serving persecutors let political demagogues of today take warning."

So said Zacharias Montgomery in 1886. Read his complete work HERE.

Anyone who reads his complete volume will realize the wisdom and farsightedness of Montgomery's ability to see the consequences of what his fellow Americans were advocating in the area of education of youth.

Montgomery's analysis of what he called a "parental" system of education versus an "anti-parental" system was backed up by analytical documentation from public records. Please review pages 19 through 43 for statistical summaries from those records. Make up your own mind about the validity of this official's work. Such an examination, conducted in 2018, might be enlightening on the subject of this thread.