A national organization with a friendly sounding name but who isn’t at all friendly has been hard at work around the country trying to take over control of school boards. Moms For Liberty is a group of RWNJ fanatics despite their claims of being non-partisan. These are religious nutjobs who want to impose their decidedly un-Christian views on everyone and they see controlling K-12 education as the way to remake our country to their liking.
They had a bad election night too!
I’m writing this because the news last night and today has been mostly about election results in states that hold “off year” elections, something started long ago to take advantage of lower turnout that would benefit conservatives. It used to work really well but times have been a changing and increasingly we see Democrats in such states organizing and turning out voters. Yesterday we again showed conservatives WE are going to show up and that particular tool in their box is worn out.
The news coverage I mentioned has been about legislatures and Governor’s races. Virginia’s Senate remained under Democratic control and they flipped control of their House and in the process sank the fledgling Presidential candidacy of Gov. Glenn Youngkin. (Who I say never had a chance anyway) In Kentucky what was supposed to be a close race wound up being a comfortable win for incumbent Democrat Andy Beshear in a quite red state. In Ohio voters solidly enshrined abortion rights into that state’s constitution. All of this was in large measure driven by abortion, and it’s interesting what happened in Mississippi with Tate Reeves (R) winning re-election. His Democratic opponent who seemed to have a real shot lost. What I didn’t learn until today was that Presley (yes, he’s related to Elvis) was ANTI-abortion. Hmmmm.
Journalists both last night and today can’t help but pontificated on the implications for next year. I heard one pundit today say the old saying about “all politics are local” has changed to “all politics are national” but I beg to differ. Many a politician gets their start in elective office on Town or County Councils before moving up to state legislatures and high state office. And frequently even to Congress. There’s a Congress Critter from my hometown who went that route. In fact, for political junkies it’s long been known conservatives have made an effort to pollute these local offices with RWNJ types. It was inevitable that school boards would get added to the list of local offices conservatives wanted to fill.
Such efforts were already underway before Moms For Liberty was formed but they have money and influence (thanks to the GOP) and election day yesterday, an “off year” election was going to be a big coming out party for them. Like Glenn Youngkin in Virginia the press conference speeches for this morning were quietly (and hastily) cancelled. There’s a nice write up on Huffington Post about how badly Moms For Liberty face planted. They missed the door to the schoolhouses and instead splattered themselves on the outside walls! If you enjoy seeing conservative fails on a wide scale it’s worth your time to read all the places this group tried and failed (thankfully) to take over kid’s educations.
The article states its a bad sign for the group that was hoping to expand their efforts into a true national drive next fall. That yesterday’s elections would be predictive of how things would turn out in 2024. Suddenly it’s not looking so good for Moms For Liberty. The HuffPost article contains a devastating line that sums it all up:
But Moms for Liberty’s poor performance in the polls may be a sign that the so-called conservative “war on woke” just isn’t a battle voters are interested in.
Satisfying as this is we can’t let our guard down. If there’s one thing we know about conservatives it’s when they get their butts kicked they don’t after reflection realize they are out of step with the people at-large and should adjust by moderating their extremism. Oh hell no. They always conclude the problem is they weren’t extremely conservative enough! So Moms For Liberty who the Southern Poverty Law Center rates as a “far right extremist organization” will be back with a vengeance next year. And while they have engaged in some sleaze already such as trying to in some places avoid endorsements from certain people/groups or have candidates hide their affiliation with MFL (which could also stand for mother f***ing liars) they will be sneakier and sleazier next year.
I included a link to them at the beginning of this article. To their Wikipedia page. It opens with:
Moms for Liberty is an American far-right conservative political organization that advocates against school curricula that mention LGBTQIA+ rights, race and ethnicity, critical race theory, and discrimination.[1][2][3][4] Multiple chapters have also campaigned to ban books that address gender and sexuality from school libraries.[1][5][6] Founded in 2021, the group began by campaigning against COVID-19 protections in schools, including mask and vaccine mandates.[1] Moms for Liberty is influential within the Republican Party.[7]
I again want to note this is a well-funded and organized group with solid GOP connections despite their claims of non-partisanship. Wherever you live be on the watch in local races for them. School Boards in particular but Town Councils and even them getting jobs in local governments as City Managers or on the staff of school board administrative offices. They aren’t going away. So celebrate their getting a whupping yesterday, but as with other elective offices get back to work making sure that all the way down to the local level we identify and defeat the extremists.
RWCW: Right Wing Culture Warrior.
Or Real Weasely Crazy Women
I don’t think Mom’s for liberty is any more friendly than daughters of the confederacy was back in the day. Just because they put a feminine modifier on the group doesn’t make them friendly.
I think this group turns off, as Murfster often points out, suburban white moms, who may like a spicy novel or two that they read in high school that is now being called pornography or even criminal. The books that are threatened are not offensive in the least, but one parent gets upset and a book gets on a list and they all try to ban it without even reading it.
One book Out of Darkness is on most of the banned list, when I read it I could not figure out why. When I looked at the complaints it said there was description of anal sex. There was no description or even allusion to anal sex. I think the real issue was that there was a relationship between a Black male and an Hispanic female in East Texas. yeah, 2020 and people are still upset about interracial romance. that is the root of mothers against liberty.
I graduated from.A Catholic girls’ high school in 1967. We read For Whom.the Bell Tolls, which has the sleeping bag scene. MFL would want that banned.
For me, the problem is what teachers might face for just being decent. Imagine Johnny with two.Dads talking about a zoo trip, and Tommy whose parents ate evangelical Christian RWNJs telling him he cannot have two Dads because a real family has a Mom and Dad .
Teacher says gently “There are mar kinds of families, Tommy. Some have a Mon and Dad. Others have two Moms or two Dads or just a,Mom or Dad.”
Tommy (who you just know is a bully) tells parents. Parents scream at principal and whine to the superintendent and school.board member who goes to their church. Teacher is fired. For not allowing Tommy to be a bully.
I don’t think their wiki page goes quite far enough-they’re also against teaching accurate history & science. They’re want girls taught that their place is in the home-period. They want boys to know they have the divine right to stick their dicks into whatever female they want and what the female wants matters not at all.They do not want students reading books (but can’t figure out a way to win with that one) but they especially don’t want them to read books that make them think. They want xtianity shoved down all student throats regardless of parental rights to the contrary.
I can go on but really, all that is important is that these twats are pathetic ignoramuses who probably SHOULD be relegated to the home and ONLY the home for their safety (and for student safety).
Scary … but what’s even scarier … I can’t seem to get the HUFF POST article you quote to open… I can see it but cannot copy it to share! it has an MSN Microsoft Start header and won’t produce a Huff Post link.. and I can’t find it on Huff Post main page which does not have a search.
PLEASE supply valid url.