Moms For Liberty- Another Fine Mess On The Road From "Fuck Around" To "Find Out"

Oh, but Jesus loves Him some fascism, don'tchaknow???

Moms for Liberty is an American political organization that advocates against school curriculums that mention LGBT rights, race and ethnicity, critical race theory, and discrimination, while multiple chapters have also campaigned to ban from school libraries books that address gender and sexuality. The group began by promoting disinformation and conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic by protesting COVID-19 protections in schools, including mask and vaccine mandates.

• Wikipedia

Margaret Atwood once wrote, “Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results.” For me, that’s the best one-sentence summation of Moms for Liberty I’ve heard or read anywhere. Seldom has a non-profit organization’s mission run so entirely counter to what it’s actually doing. While it claims to stand for liberty, its work is about anything but.

Moms for Liberty has been about disinformation, conspiracy theories, propaganda, homophobia, transphobia, racism, fascism, and ludicrous anti-vaccine agitprop virtually since Day One of its existence. Yet if you look at the “About” page and the mission statement on the Moms for Liberty website, what you’ll see is something so benign as to be as deceptive as it is misleading and dishonest:

Moms for Liberty welcomes all that have a desire to stand up for parental rights at all levels of government.

We are Moms, Dads, Grands, Aunts, Uncles, Friends

Our founders are Tiffany and Tina, moms on a mission to stoke the fires of liberty. As former school board members, they witnessed how short-sighted and destructive policies directly hurt children and families. Now they are using their first-hand knowledge and experience to unite parents who are ready to fight those that stand in the way of liberty.

Our Mission

Moms for Liberty is dedicated to fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.

Our Vision

Americans empowered and thriving in a culture of Liberty.

Our Values

As Joyful Warriors:

We Stand for Truth

We Build Relationships

We Empower Others

I’m not aware that “parental rights” are in danger in our public schools or at any level in American governance. Moms for Liberty wants a system in which THEY call the shots, in which “parental rights” means THEIR rights, the rights of paranoid and fascist White Conservative Christian heterosexual parents.

Over the Fourth of July weekend, Moms for Liberty held a surprisingly well-attended national convention in Philadelphia. I say “surprisingly” because the organization is only two years old. Today the group claims 120,000 members in 285 chapters spread across 45 states.

Moms for Liberty has worked hard on the grassroots level, endorsing hundreds of school board candidates nationwide. They’ve become a legitimate political force to be reckoned with. While their power is felt primarily on the local level, they’re becoming recognized as an increasingly powerful GOP kingmaker on the national level.

The previous weekend had been the first anniversary of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the Supreme Court decision that overturned the legal right to abortion nationwide. Anti-abortion leaders had rallied in Washington, D.C., to celebrate, inviting presidential candidates from the party responsible for that monumental victory to join them. The only one who came was Mike Pence. The Moms for Liberty summit, by contrast, attracted five candidates, including front-runners Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. Their mere presence quickly became the story itself—which suited [Christian Ziegler, the chair of the Florida Republican Party and the husband of Bridget Ziegler, a Moms for Liberty cofounder] just fine. “Moms for Liberty Didn’t Exist 3 Years Ago. Now It’s a GOP Kingmaker,” read a headline in The Washington Post that morning. Ziegler called it “probably the best headline I’ve ever seen.”

The conference in Philadelphia disparaged the usual evils that Moms for Liberty had identified and used to climb to power and influence:

• a “literacy crisis” they pinned on teachers’ unions and “woke nonsense” in classrooms

• the desire of Liberal teachers and administrators in public schools to “destroy our society,” “destroy the family,” and “destroy America as we know it” (the America that never existed except in their imaginations)

• the drifting of public schools away from “classical education” and into teaching children about racism and gender diversity

• the movement away from “parental rights” and “school choice"

• Critical Race Theory

• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts

Of course, the reality is that most of what Moms for Liberty is pushing is code for White privilege. There’s no doubt about that, and although those associated with Moms for Liberty will deny it with their last, dying breath, if you listen to them advocating for their talking points, the racist undertones are abundantly clear.

Moms for Liberty is pushing for public schools to teach that America is the property and playground of White Conservative Christian heterosexuals. All others need not apply.

• Slavery was a net positive for Blacks; they learned skills that helped them contribute to America after the Emancipation Proclamation

• White people made America what it is today

• America is a Christian nation

• The separation of Church and State is a myth created by Liberals to make us believe that God had no place in the public square

• Public schools are “dens of indoctrination and danger”

• Transgender students pose a mortal danger to the morality of our youth

• There are only two genders- male and female

• Americans MUST stand and honor the flag during the playing of The Star-Spangled Banner

There’s little about Moms for Liberty that makes a convincing argument stating the group cares about children or liberty. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has labeled Moms for Liberty as an “extremist group,” describing the group ideology as “antigovernment general.” Not to put too fine a point on it, but Moms for Liberty is a hate group that uses its stated desire to protect children as a smokescreen for its fascist ideology.

Moms for Liberty is an antigovernment organization founded in 2021 by former Florida school board members, Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich. Current Sarasota County, Florida school board member, Bridget Ziegler, was also a co-founder. She has since left the group, leaving Justice and Descovich at the helm.

Moms for Liberty and its nationwide chapters combat what they consider the “woke indoctrination” of children by advocating for book bans in school libraries and endorsing candidates for public office that align with the group's views. They also use their multiple social media platforms to target teachers and school officials, advocate for the abolition of the Department of Education, advance a conspiracy propaganda, and spread hateful imagery and rhetoric against the LGBTQ community.

Even in their own words, it’s pretty clear that Moms for Liberty is entirely off the rails:

“The K-12 Cartel - also known as the National Teachers Union (NEA) - met and drafted a proposal to replace the word ‘Mother’ with ‘Birthing Person.’ This is insane and insulting to every mom in America. But don’t worry, relief is coming ... Because as the Teachers Union pushes an agenda focused on everything BUT educating our children, American Parents are rising up, taking back our school districts and putting the focus back on educating our children. To be clear - You will not be seeing ‘Moms for Liberty’ rebranded as ‘Birthing Persons for Liberty’ anytime soon.”

• Tiffany Justice, Moms for Liberty on Fox News on July 7, 2022

“Gender dysphoria is a mental health disorder that is being normalized by predators across the USA. California kids are at extreme risk from predatory adults. Now they want to ‘liberate’ children all over the country. Does a double mastectomy on a preteen sound like progress?’

• Tweet from Moms for Liberty on July 25, 2022, tweet regarding California SB 107 gender transition bill that got their account suspended.

“If I had any mental issues, they would have been plowed down with a gun by now.”

• Melissa “Missy” Bosch (Lonoke County, AR Chapter) was indicted for terroristic threatening towards the faculty and staff of Cabot School district. She was recorded musing about gunning down a school librarian.

And that’s just a tiny sample of the extremist language employed by members of Moms for Liberty. That’s not to say that there aren’t members who join because they take the language of the group’s website at face value, but there’s no argument to be made that Moms for Liberty isn’t a hate group.

Though their stated mission is “protecting children,” they’re not above using minor children, even revealing their identity, if it advances their political agenda. Do they fight for parental rights and/or protect children? Or are those convenient smokescreens Moms for Liberty hide behind in the pursuit of their fascist agenda?

As SPLC lays out,

Moms for Liberty is an anti-student inclusion group that presents itself as a modern parents’ rights organization that seeks to “unify, educate, and empower parents to defend and protect their parental rights at every level of government.” The group’s website appears to align with this mission, featuring general information about the organization and its chapters, resources for parents, and links to press skewed in the group’s favor. The social media accounts and real-world activity of the national organization and its chapters reflect views and actions that are antigovernment and conspiracy propagandist, anti-LGBTQ and anti-gender identity, and anti-inclusive curriculum.

According to Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice, when COVID-19 swept the nation and public-school children were homeschooled for an extensive period of time, “the country got to see behind the education curtain and were not pleased.” However, when parents went to their school boards to voice concerns, they were “shut down and silenced.”

Moms for Liberty was originally established to combat what it considered controversial COVID-19 safety measures in schools, mostly centered around masking. From there, it quickly expanded its focus to include an extreme stance on what it considers the indoctrination and sexualization of children through gender identity, the acknowledgement and acceptance of the LGBTQ community, as well as inclusive school pedagogy and curricula, including critical race theory, social emotional learning, and books that the organization deems inappropriate.

That Moms for Liberty made its national debut on the Rush Limbaugh Show in 2021 probably should’ve been considered a clue as to the direction in which the group would eventually head.

That appearance on Rush Limbaugh led the group- which co-founders Tiffany Justice, Tina Descovich, and Bridget Ziegler originally intended to stay within Florida- to proliferate rapidly. With that growth came affiliation with Far-Right groups that expanded the ideological reach of the group.

Ziegler was recently elected to the Sarasota County school board – a victory due in part to local Proud Boys, who she was pictured celebrating with afterwards. She later attempted to downplay the connection.

Moms for Liberty also teamed up with the controversial group, Gays Against Groomers, to host an anti-LGBTQ “Protect the Children” rally in Florida, which also included Proud Boys flashing White power signs.

Thus, Moms for Liberty quickly became a hate group- White Nationalist, anti-LGBTQ, and much less about “protecting children” than initially intended.

Whether it was Justice, Descovich, and Ziegler (who eventually left Moms for Liberty) losing control of the group’s mission and message or willfully expanding the message, Moms for Liberty became huge quickly. In two years, it’s become one of America’s largest extremist groups and one that no GOP Presidential candidate can afford to ignore.

What Moms for Liberty has been successful at is recognizing that the way to be effective over the long haul is to build from the ground up. They’ve built an effective political and ideological foundation in many communities by organizing locally and winning school board seats. That can be used to create grassroots support for country, state, and national races, which may yet happen.

Even if Moms for Liberty disappears, the ideology may well remain, which can be very dangerous because what they’re advocating is fascism. Rooting it out can be tricky once that takes hold in communities and works upward. If fascism begins to be reflected in election results, the fabric of American politics and society will change on a fundamental level.

That may not happen in 2024, 2026, or even over the next decade. The change might be slow and subtle enough to go unnoticed…until it’s too late. And then what? What will we do when American democracy is but a memory, replaced by a fascist dictator more intelligent and far more politically savvy than The Former Guy could ever hope to be?

Sometimes political systems aren’t eroded and degraded by sweeping sledgehammer blows. No, sometimes it takes the patience of many committed political artisans employing rubber mallets chipping, chipping, chipping away at a boulder until they achieve the form they’re looking for.

And, if the form they’re looking for is fascism…well, don’t say you weren’t warned, eh?