Voters Reject ‘Moms for Liberty’ as Group Intensifies Far-Right Ties, Harmful Strategies – By Peter Montgomery (Right Wing Watch) / Nov 14, 2023
At the Moms for Liberty national summit in Philadelphia this summer, attendees reveled in attention from right-wing leaders, with multiple Republican presidential hopefuls and far-right activists telling them they were the secret to saving America from Marxists, teachers unions, the LGBTQ equality movement, and “the left” in general. Just a few months later, voters across the country said “not so fast,” rejecting most of Moms for Liberty’s endorsed school board candidates.
Moms for Liberty started in Florida as a protest against COVID-19 pandemic school closings and mask and vaccine requirements. The group’s leaders parlayed their Republican connections and fawning coverage from right-wing media into partnerships with some of the most powerful parts of the right-wing political infrastructure that hoped “parental rights” would be a winning political message this year and next. They embraced an authoritarian right-wing agenda, promoting book bans, attacks on teaching about race and sexuality, and joined a nationwide project by religious-right and right-wing groups to take over local school boards and get the power to impose their ideological agenda on teachers and students.
While Moms for Liberty propaganda says it is about uniting parents to save America, the impact of the group’s censorship and school board campaigns has disrupted school systems and divided communities. The shock-and-awe approach to governing displayed after Moms for Liberty candidates take over school boards—firing successful and popular superintendents, censoring books and curricula, reversing policies supporting LGBTQ students—have created turmoil.
