Moms for Liberty and the ‘parental rights’ agenda flopped in 2023
Moms for Liberty and the ‘parental rights’ agenda flopped in 2023
Voters rejected school board candidates using ‘manufactured’ culture wars to win elections
Right-wing activists using local school board races to push for greater control of public education didn’t make a dent in Tuesday’s election results.
One year away from the 2024 presidential election, voters largely rejected candidates backed by groups like Moms for Liberty that have aligned with GOP campaigns to undermine public education and restrict access to books, classroom materials and honest discussions of race, racism, LGBT+ people and gender and sexuality.
the 'parental rights' agenda
We have really got to stop letting these dishonest fuckwads claim the nominative high-ground.
It doesn’t hold up the moment you scrutinise the name.
Parents rights to what? The answer is basically “ownership” of their children. Fully control their children.
Children aren’t possessions, they’re people.
Yeah I support youth liberation. They obviously need guidance and all that, but guidance is not what these people are doing. They want their children to have no say in their lives and no information about the world
100% this
From the state's perspective, ownership of children makes some sense. It benefits the state to have a wide range in how children are raised, and they certainly don't want to be in the middle of it. Child Protective Services barely functions for the most extreme cases.
But this extreme withholding of information is a bit different.
I don't disagree with you; I just don't like the argument.
Yeah, good luck with that. Americans fall for "X for Freedom/Liberty" all the time.
What? You didn't vote yes on the Free Patriots Saving Children from Terror and Kicking Out Gay Commies act? What are ya? I mean, yeah, the fine print lets priests finger kids at school and gives rocket launchers to police departments, but so what? You don't wanna look like a lib; do ya?
Freedom to kneel for the anthem?
No not like that!!!!
Amen. They make their platform sound so moral until you look at their doctrine for more than a minute
This is why anything with “for liberty” or “right to” in the name immediately makes me suspicious.
I wish more people realized this. “Right to Farm” was just passed in Texas by voters by a wide margin - long term it just removes accountability from agricultural giants and even emboldens them to push out small farmers.
It was advertised as being for small farmers 🤦
Like so many conservative groups, their stated goals are really the opposite of what their actions show their real goals to be. MoL claims to support parental rights. But if they really support parental rights then they should be supporting my right to let my child have access to any book I choose in the library. I want them to have access to books about different races, and cultures, and lifestyles. This group wants to remove all books from school libraries that they feel are inappropriate. In other words, they are trying to take away my parental rights to decide for my child and instead only allow my child to access books that support a conservative agenda.
Moms for "Liberty"
Maybe don't quote Hitler in your newsletter next time, morons.
Kinda glad they did? Makes it easier to know their priorities.
They're already learning this.
I am in a solidly blue district. 4 out of the 7 school board candidates, ALL of the non-incumbents, were running on some sort of "family values" or "parents' rights" platform. A couple of them were within a few hundred votes of taking a seat last year. This year, their statements to media were highly scrubbed because they knew to tread carefully and avoid the dog whistles. And this week, one of them unseated an incumbent (and the only POC in the group). I'm glad the trend is going in the right direction nationally. But I wouldn't call for a victory lap just yet.
That was a feature, not a bug.
They still won 50 seats out of 24,000 up for election. Even that is too many.
How many candidates did they run? It certainly wasent 24,000.
They ran/endorsed ~365 or so, according to the article.
Good. Fuck terroristts.
last year we had a few sus folks running for local spots. They knew they were in enemy territory so they could mostly be identified by how evasive they were in any discussions.
There have been a few notable school districts in my state that got duped by these people over the last 10 years or so, and the pattern is pretty much the same:
- They get elected by not telling people what they actually beleive
- They immediately start doing crazy stupid shit
- They illegally shut down public meetings and comments
- They illegally hire an independent lawyer at taxpayer expense to defend themselves
- There is a recall election, and they are removed from office.
It's a huge waste of time and money, and in the end everyone hates these fucks even more than they did to start with, and people are even more interested in voting in local elections. I'm not sure it's a winning long-term strategy for the fascists. You could argue it works to get more progressives and moderates to the voting booth in the long run.
Glad the agenda flopped.
