Don’t be fooled by “Moms for Liberty,” writes political scientist Maurice Cunningham. They may appear to be a garden-variety group of rightwing extremists, but they are more than that. Keep your eye on the Dark Money that funds them.
He writes:
The group, which claims to be about “parent rights,” has ties to the January 6 insurrection and is expected to provide “foot soldiers” for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Moms for Liberty (M4L) claims the organization was started by moms.
[Insert uproarious laughter.]
But it is hard to believe that three mothers in Florida could start up a grassroots group on January 1, 2021, and then, within a matter of weeks and months, wind up on Rush Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson’s show, Glenn Beck, and Fox News. However, there is a shadowy network of money and influence in right-wing political circles that could arrange that easily.
Among M4L’s financial supporters and profile boosters are some of the most influential organizations, media operations, and wealthy donors in the vast theater of the right-wing propaganda machine.
And it would be a mistake to believe M4L’s agenda is exclusively about maternal concerns over what children learn in schools. Instead, most of the organization’s purported success seems to be in helping to advance a much broader right-wing political agenda through electoral politics. In its short history, M4L has already been credited with helping to engineer a “massive victory,” according to Salon, and ensuring a string of wins for a number of Republican candidates in school board elections across Florida.
Looking ahead at the upcoming elections, M4L is expected to provide the “foot soldiers” for the reelection bid of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and many also expect to see the M4L soldiering for DeSantis in the 2024 presidential race.
The Rise of Moms for Liberty…
M4L was born into a full-scale right-wing media rollout. As Olivia Little of Media Matters reported in July 2022, M4L debuted on The Rush Limbaugh Show in January 2021—right out of the cradle. M4L representatives have since appeared “on Fox News at least 16 times and Steve Bannon’s War Room at least 14 times,” according to Little. As her reporting and my own investigation in April 2021indicated, M4L initially had practically no members or state infrastructure. But appearances on Fox and fawning treatment in right-wing outlets like Breitbart News and Glenn Beck propelled its growth.
By June 11, 2021, M4L threw a fundraisercalled “Fearless: An Evening with Megyn Kelly,” the former Fox News celebrity. The highest-priced ticket of $20,000 for the “presenting sponsor” included 20 tickets to a meet-and-greet along with a photo with Megyn Kelly and came with many other benefits. There were other offers that included lesser benefits for donors making contributions of $15,000 or $10,000 and the general admission was $50….
M4L’s grandest event thus far has been its national summit, which took place between July 14 and 17, 2022 in Tampa, Florida. The national summit featured speeches by DeSantis, Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis, Carson, former Florida Governor and current U.S. Senator Rick Scott, and Trump’s former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who advocated for the abolition of the department she had led, according to Florida Phoenix….
When asked, the leaders of M4L say they raise a lot of money from T-shirt sales. [Cue loud laughter.]
But Cunningham knows that’s not the main source of their funding.
Open the link to learn who turned this “parent-led” group into a Dark Money political powerhouse.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The right will do anything to maintain and expand power. DeSantis is the current, lying golden boy leader of the culture wars. The man knows how to “gin up his base.” They bask in dark money while they seek out easy targets like public education.
The US Treasury is investigating DeSantis for possible misuse of federal Covid money. What we do know about the Covid cash is that he certainly did not spend in on Covid mitigation in the public schools. The feds suspect DeSantis spent some of the Covid funding on one-way tickets to Cape Cod for Venezuelan migrants.
DeSantis targets primarily women and migrants — folks he believes will not be able to fight back.
He’s a cowardly bully who wants everyone to think he is a Navy SEAL (which he is not).
Gretchen Whitmer had the line of the year in her debate with Tudor Dixon: “She’ll put the second amendment before second graders every time.” Should be used against every republican everywhere.
Well said!!
I hope what she said was “I’ll put second graders before teh 2nd amendment.”
Did she say that in response to the Uvalde massacre by chance?
Thanks for amplifying this article Diane. It was produced by my Our Schools project.
Thank you, Jeff. The mainstream media keeps missing the most important story: the subversion of our democratic institutions.
Rush Limbaugh is still a thing?
Rebekah Jones, former Florida State COVID data scientist who was fired by DeSantis and whose house was raided by an armed SWAT team in retaliation for her whistleblowing calls them “Moms for Tyranny”.
Jones (a PhD geographer) is running against Matt Gaetz and a person would have to be completely brain dead to choose Gaetz, but I know it’s Florida, so all bets are off.
Rebekah Jones really gets under DeSantis’ skin, which in itself is reason enough to vote for her.
She will be a thorn in his side — or a spur under his saddle — if she gets elected.
Greg,
Is Rebekah Jones a supporter of public schools? NPE could endorse her if so.
Can’t tell by her issues page:
https://www.rebekahjonescampaign.com/issues
Gaetz won his primary with 70% of the vote. He was running against a reputable former Marine who paid for ads highlighting all of Gaetz’s scandals. It didn’t matter. Gaetz is part of the filthy GOP machine in Florida. I will vote for Jones, but it will be a “Hail Mary.”
As indicated by her Mom’s for Tyranny moniker for the nutcases, she is very opposed to all the DeSantis culture war crap. She calls it “terrorism”
She has an autistic son , so is very attuned to the sort of bullying that can be visited on anyone who is different.
From what I have read about her, Rebekah Jones would be one of the smartest, most principled people in Congress were she elected. She has a very thoughtful, scientific approach to issues and is very empathetic as well.
I usually don’t have many good things to say about politicians, but I find her very impressive and very REAL. She is not a faker.
When the last poll was taken a few weeks ago, she was actually in a statistical dead heat with Gaetz, so her chances are at least as good as a coin flip at this point.
And there are apparently a lot of undecideds in her district. It’s important that everyone go out to vote because she can definitely beat Gaetz.
She’s not a politician, which is to her disadvantage when running for office.
Mark Twain is credited with the saying,
“We have the best government that
money can buy.”
Making the same point over and over
again, is as good at changing the role
and influence of lobbyists in politics,
as is following gobs of dark money.
Know-that about the shit head backers
doesn’t seem to nulify their influence.
The billions they spend seems to be a
drop in the bucket of money spent on
“influencing”.
US Census.gov
“The nation spent $752.3 billion on
its 48 million children in public
schools in fiscal year 2019,a 4.7%
increase from the previous year…”
When children become voters, what
influences them?
M4L sounds like a militia group: Mother Fourking Liberators
Cunningham names names which is good. In a recent article, Thom Hartmann took the right wing religious underpinnings back to Fred Koch and his funding of white churches that argued against school integration claiming it was a first step to full-blown communism and it was against God’s will.
(“How republicans conspire with churches for social and political control,”
Raw Story.)
Anybody who hasn’t read, “The new official contents of sex education in Mexico: laicism in the crosshairs,” which researched and presents the plot of the Catholic Church in countries like the U.S., should.