It sounds like the plot of an over-the-top action movie or a political satire: mothers joining local school boards across the country are actually part of a radical network infiltrating government from the bottom up, determined to take power, punish their opponents and eventually rule with an iron fist. But this seemingly outlandish plot is actually a disturbingly accurate description of Moms for Liberty, a rapidly growing non-profit that has its members pressuring local school boards to ban LGBTQ and race-related materials, remove COVID-19 restrictions and adopt other conservative measures.
Moms for Liberty has turned ‘parental rights’ into a rallying cry for conservative parents
In a political climate marked by violent insurrection, unhinged conspiracy theories, voting restrictions, anti-Black and anti-LGBTQ censorship and denials of basic history and science, a group of mothers attending local school board meetings seems like the least threatening thing coming out of the current conservative movement. Yet the veneer of respectability and benevolence that comes with the image of “concerned mothers” is in fact a thin veil for a broader and more sinister movement. Moms for Liberty is an offshoot of the far-right movement that has come to dominate modern American conservatism, with its tactics representing a dangerous shift in strategy.
The group’s leaders proudly tout their close relationship with the Republican Party. Rising stars of the party – including governors Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, Kim Reynolds of Iowa, and Ron DeSantis of Florida – make a show of their close ties with and the virulent support they receive from Moms for Liberty. The group has launched several political action committees and has indicated a desire to move beyond school board elections to endorsing political candidates more generally.
As Moms for Liberty expands in membership and influence, its agenda has become more comprehensive and aggressive as well. Members of the group aggressively advocated for the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill that passed in Florida. the group’s official Twitter page is also filled with posts or retweets condemning “transgender indoctrination,” linking LGBTQ-inclusivity to pedophilia and calling for jail time and fines for teachers who teach critical race theory, social-emotional learning and other concepts that have become distorted and demonized by the right.
Such increasingly radical stances place Moms for Liberty alongside other right-wing movements that were once fringe but have become mainstream within the Republican Party. In many ways, Moms for Liberty is a symptom of a larger pathology within the Republican Party, which has increasingly courted and mobilized prejudiced, anti-democratic forces in a cynical attempt to seize and maintain power at any costs. But while movements like QAnon and militia like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have grown in influence and acceptance within conservative circles.
By contrast, the danger of Moms for Liberty comes from not only its far-right stances and its aggressive tactics, but also from its ability to gain mainstream acceptance in ways that other fringe elements of the Republican Party cannot. Moms for Liberty is already being compared with major conservative movements like the Moral Majority and the Tea Party. If a group with the radical agenda of Moms for Liberty can gain the type of sustained political influence that these past conservative movements have exercised, it could seriously damage our civil liberties.
FULL ARTICLE The next threat to democracy in the US: Moms for Liberty? (msn.com)
A Moms for Liberty chapter in Tennessee questioned whether a textbook that included a photograph of two sea horses mating was too risqué for elementary schools. Members in Suffolk County, N.Y., have begun describing school mask policies as “segregation,” urging their children to rip off their masks in classrooms in protest.
And in Indian River County, Fla., a chapter recently objected to fourth-graders being taught how to spell “spinal tap,” “isolation” and “quarantine” because they were too “scary of words” to teach at that grade level, said Jennifer Pippin, head of the Indian River chapter.
In 10 months, Moms for Liberty has grown to 135 chapters in 35 states, with 56,000 members and supporters, according to the organization’s founders. The group hopes to one day have chapters in all 3,143 counties or equivalents in the United States.