Meet Moms For Liberty: The rising conservative group shaking up school districts nationwide

[Celerity]

https://www.reckon.news/news/2023/04/meet-moms-for-liberty-the-powerful-rising-conservative-group-shaking-up-school-districts-nationwide.html



Last fall, six newly elected conservative members of the Berkeley County, S.C. school board launched a shock-and-awe campaign at their first board meeting, shortly after they were sworn in. Over the next three hours, despite objections from the other three board members, the conservative majority abruptly fired the district superintendent, terminated the district’s in-house lawyer and banned critical race theory (CRT), an academic framework that analyzes American history through the lens of racism but which has become a political catchall term applied by some conservatives to any teaching that addresses race or diversity.

Their decisions were met with cries of anger and frustration from the standing-room-only crowd. One of the dissenting board members called the superintendent’s firing a “political witch hunt.” The morning after, the conservative parents’ rights group Moms For Liberty took a victory lap, sharing an article on the superintendent’s ouster with their 68,000 followers on Facebook with the caption: “6 new board members clean house first night on the job.” It was a decisive win for a controversial activist organization barely two years old. The six conservative board members had been endorsed by Moms For Liberty during the November 2022 election, and their wins gave the nonpartisan school board a solidly conservative majority in the affluent suburban county north of Charleston.



Born out of parental frustration over COVID-era school policies like mask mandates, Moms for Liberty has experienced a membership explosion since its incorporation in Florida in early 2021. The organization now claims it has 115,000 members in 275 county chapters across 45 states. It’s one of the largest and most visible of a pack of conservative groups that have popped up across the country post-pandemic, dedicated to advancing a slate of issues they label “parents’ rights,” that typically include opposing public school programs, books and curriculums that address issues like racial discrimination and inequity, gender identity and sexuality.

They’ve gained notoriety and media attention for disrupting school board meetings with claims the schools are teaching critical race theory, attempting to ban books from school libraries, and pushing back against LGBTQ+ inclusion. But more recently, the group has focused its efforts on local school board elections, training and endorsing candidates. Its website lists a goal of recruiting members to “serve as watchdogs” over every school district in the country. The Berkeley County school board wasn’t an anomaly. As Moms for Liberty has worked to elect sympathetic school board candidates, similar board takeovers have replayed in school districts across the country, from California to Colorado, Florida to New York.

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[wnylib]

1. I keep reading about various RW groups with

benevolent sounding names that push hard right politics and "culture issues." They succeed in taking over school boards and districts, city council meetings, and even their opponents' political rallies. They end up imposing the views of a minority of people on the majority.

Isn't it time for some socially and politically active left wing groups to stand up to these RWers as a group at these meetings? Usually, there are just one or two people who speak up but get drowned out by the RWers. If the left shows up and speaks out as a group as well as individually, we can gain strength in such meetings and stop the right from steamrolling over people's rights.

[calimary]

2. YES, DAMMIT!!!

Where’s OUR organized pushback?

[wnylib]

6. I guess it's up to us to organize left wing groups locally.

We can talk to friends that we know agree with us and create our own groups, complete with a name that indicates our purpose. Then start showing up at meetings and rallies.

I read an article once, but don't remember the source now, about how the right organizes and TRAINS people for push back. They are taught "attack" methods and rehearse them. The attack lessons include how and when to interrupt speakers and having several talking points in mind, the kind that get other people on the right riled up, and spewing them nonstop after interrupting a moderator or other speaker. It prevents any views from being discussed or approved that they don't agree with.

I don't recommend that we use such tactics routinely, but we might learn and then teach others how to stop such RW running off at the mouth and restore real discussions that allow people to be accurately informed on issues.

We could learn how to quickly respond to or cut off disinformation. We could have a short 2 or 3 word slogan for our group to chant as pushback. Something like "Stop the lies."

[calimary]

10. How 'bout "Stop the Slop"? Or "Stop the Schlock"? (Ties in the soft vowel "o" sound.)

"Stop the Stupid"? (Ties in the words that start with "St".)

I get hooked by the wordplay, and the rhyming and alliteration in particular. Gimmicks, silly or straight. Whatever has a nice ring to it.

[wnylib]

12. Whatever we say, the important thing is to have organized groups

that turn out at local community and district meetings to stop the RW disrupters from taking over.

[calimary]

13. Message-delivery systems are CRITICALLY important!

The human kind as well as the software kind.

[2naSalit]

3. +1

[Martin Eden]

4. That word they keep using -- LIBERTY

-- I don't think it means what they think it means.

Liberty means you are free to embrace your own views -- NOT to impose your own narrow minded views on everyone else.

Your own rights are not strengthened by limiting the rights of people who are different from you. Your children are not protected by ostracizing other children whose gender identity does not conform to your beliefs. Your neighbor's gay marriage does not threaten your marriage.

Keeping children ignorant about the full breadth of American history is NOT patriotic, nor does it help them learn to become better citizens or help to make Anerica truly great by living up to its highest ideals.

What "Moms for Liberty" are trying to do is un-American and un-Christian. I see in their smiling faces they believe otherwise, which indicates deficiences in their own education. They are trying to impose such deficiencies on everyone else.

They really should change their names to Moms for Ignorance and Bigotry.

[dalton99a]

8. +1. It's Orwellian for Freedom to Oppress and Enslave Others

[Celerity]

17. +100

[calimary]

14. So it makes me wonder why not - WHENEVER that dismal group comes up, we REFER TO THEM THAT WAY.

That side of the aisle likes to name us. They figure up the wording, always negative and unflattering, and then use it a whole lot, so it gets picked up everywhere - whether it's the media or amateur listeners or professional writers/strategists/bloggers/commentators.

So why don't we do that? Why can't we plant and spread a few memes? If it's clever, it rhymes, it makes the user feel like they're nasty-smart (or just plain smart), and we can ride their egos straight into commonspeak with it. Say it 'n' spray it - EVERYWHERE. Somebody's gonna find it smart and clever, maybe a little wicked and devious, and they'll want to sound like THEY are that. So they start using it. And it spreads. And soon enough, if it's clever enough, before you know it - it's all over everywhere.

[BlueTsunami2018]

5. This is how they've managed to work their way up the ladder.

They’re insidious but they’re also smart. That’s how you do it, bottom up. I suggested this back at OWS, that we run Occupy candidates for every office starting at the bottom and was shouted down. I liked the spirit of the occupy movement but there wasn’t a whole lot of wisdom there.

Over a decade in, we could have made great strides. Instead we’re on the verge of a fascist takeover.

[dalton99a]

7. Kick

[LuvLoogie]

9. Klanned Karenhood

Seen on TikTok

Perfect characterization

[NowISeetheLight]

11. Modern Day Brownshirts

[Initech]

15. Yes, these assholes are bad news!

[Top 10 Idiots]

16. Holy Shit: Moms For Liberty Is A MAGA Terrorist Sect

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217844544

[winstars]

18. White people are funny.