This post is by no means an encouragement for pre-celebration, but yes Moms for Liberty is having significant problems right now. And it all comes down to the fact that more and more people are getting tired of the group's bullshit:
In Florida, where the right-wing Moms for Liberty group was born in response to Covid-19 school closures and mask mandates, the first Brevard County School Board meeting of the new year considered whether two bestselling novels – “The Kite Runner” and “Slaughterhouse-Five” – should be banned from schools. A lone Moms for Liberty supporter sat by herself at the January 23 meeting, where opponents of the book ban outnumbered her.Nearly 20 speakers voiced opposition to removing the novels from school libraries. One compared the book-banning effort to Nazi Germany. Another accused Moms for Liberty of waging war on teachers. No one spoke in favor of the ban. About three hours into the meeting, the board voted quickly to keep the two books on the shelves of high schools.“Why are we banning books?” asked Mindy McKenzie, a mom and nurse who is a member of Stop Moms for Liberty, which was formed to counter what it calls a far-right extremist group “pushing for book banning and destroying public education.” “Why are we letting Moms for Liberty infiltrate our school system?”Moms for Liberty, founded in 2021, expanded its mission to include efforts to ban certain books from schools, outlaw the teaching and discussion of gender and sexuality by teachers and halt the teaching of critical race theory. Now the group is at a crossroads.“One of their major challenges is the fact that most Americans are actually pretty positive about their own children’s schools,” Jack Schneider, a professor of education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said via email. “Although their message may have appeal in the abstract, at least to conservative voters, families aren’t clamoring for disruption in their own children’s schools.”After effectively channeling conservative anger over cultural issues into action on the ground, from supporting candidates in school board races to spearheading campaigns against teachers, administrators and other political foes, Moms for Liberty’s burgeoning influence in Republican national politics may be faltering, observers say.. . . Jennifer Jenkins, who defeated (Moms for Liberty co-founder Tina) Descovich to win her seat on the Brevard County School Board in 2020, said the influence of Moms for Liberty is fading as more parents begin to question the group’s positions.“I think that things have gone too far and people are finally standing up to say, you know, ‘This is my choice. These are my kids as well too. You don’t get to make these decisions for us,’” Jenkins said. “People are seeing, you know, news cycle after news cycle, the hypocrisy of the things that they advocate for and they say they stand,” she said.
