Paul Bowers writes about what happened when a slate of extremists took control of a local school board in South Carolina. He described their actions as “vandalism.”
He begins:
A hard-right faction took control of the 4th-largest school district in South Carolina last night and immediately got to work smashing anything that wasn’t nailed to the floor.
On the same night they were sworn in to the Berkeley County School Board, a slate of candidates backed by Moms for Liberty and the local Republican Party fired the district’s first Black superintendent, fired the district legal counsel, voted to cut property taxes, approved a ban on “critical race theory” in the classroom, and set up a panel to begin reviewing and banning books containing sexual content that they deem inappropriate.
I was there when it happened, part of an overflow crowd of community members who told the board what they were doing was shameful. We might as well have delivered our little speeches to a brick wall. What we witnessed last night was more like vandalism than leadership.
I live-tweeted the meeting last night if you want to take a closer look. Because this newsletter has a national(-ish) audience, I wanted to share some broad observations that might be helpful as conservatives put all of our schools in their crosshairs.
They came prepared
The temptation is to think of our political opponents as stupid or insane. They might in fact be both, but we can’t think strategically about defeating them without assuming a base level of cunning on their part.
The Berkeley County Republican Party is a well-oiled machine. From the moment the newly elected conservative super-majority members took their seats in the boardroom last night, it was obvious they had a plan and they were sticking to it.
The new members didn’t deliver any flashy soundbites. They hardly discussed their policy proposals at all, aside from a running narrative by their newly installed board chair, Mac McQuillin. McQuilin is one of the longer-serving board members and knows Robert’s Rules of Order. He knew when to call a vote, and his allies on the board dutifully cast their votes in a 6-member bloc. On a 9-member board, they didn’t need to bother with persuading the other side.
This is called party discipline, and Democrats are terrible at it. Progressive activists and politicians could learn a thing or two about tactics here.
They take cues from the national level
Two rallying cries of conservative activists in this country right now are banning uncomfortable discussions of history under the guise of “critical race theory” and forbidding students from learning about the existence of trans people. The messaging is clear and consistent from Tucker Carlson’s mouth to your racist cousin’s ears.
Unlike with Statehouse-level legislation, where watchdog groups like ALEC Exposed track the spread of “model legislation” from the American Legislative Exchange Council, we don’t have a robust way of tracking the spread of billionaires’ pet projects at the level of local school boards (Or maybe we do! Let me know if you have a good resource).
Read enough local news and you start to see the patterns, though. Conservative county council and school board members have no qualms about copying and pasting policies from each other.
Earlier this month in South Carolina, the Horry County School Board set aside a “restricted access” section of school libraries where students can’t read books without parental permission. Book bans and “library consideration policies” were on the agenda in Lexington 3 and Beaufort County school districts this week too, borrowing ideas from Florida’s latest book ban laws.
Following the template, Berkeley County’s school board voted last night to approve a similar book-banning regime, effectively overriding policies that were written by the district’s own school librarians last year.
Please open the link and keep reading.
We have just moved to Georgia and are active trying to help Raphael Warnock get over the hump. The word “cunning” is a great description for the current Republican Party. You might add…without scruples. Republicans joyfully describe politics as a contact sport. They don’t give a damn about getting things done for the American people. It isn’t a new strategy, it’s just more aggressive now. The Trump era has taught them that there is no such thing as shame. Nor do other perspectives matter. I recently had a conversation with an organizer who works for the Georgia Democratic Party. What Georgia has figured out is that developing a ground games is critical in countering the disinformation propagated by Republican dark money packs. This is what it will take in red and purple states. Good legislation is nice, but it doesn’t move the political dial if Democrats are not willing to explain with an economy of words what it does for the American public. The House is now Republican and hearings are going to get ugly. This is already happening in some school boards. It’s time Democrats used cunning to promote the truth.
In the absence of oodles of money, Democrats must do some grassroots politicking by knocking on doors and making a personal connection with the public. It is the surest way to get people out to vote in all types of elections. They have to learn to work to win, and they cannot afford to take voters for granted.
The honorees at this year’s Bill Gates-linked Camp Philos (11-17-2022) should read Paul Bower’s post- Kerri Rodrigues, ChynaTyler (Mass. state Rep) and Ritchie Torres (US Rep- NY)
Can you post a link? Thanks!
The main objective of Moms for Liberty is to take over school boards, even though like ALEC they enjoy non-profit status as a ‘social welfare’ group. They are overflowing with dark conservative money that funds their school board campaigns.
After they take over school boards, they will pursue stealth vandalism of the common good. Control of the board gives this group the power to pick the bones of the community asset and impose right wing dystopian policies regardless of how the rest of the community feels about it.
Democrats should watch and learn from the consistency with which these groups operate. Their messaging is clear, simple and repeated frequently, even when what they say is a lie or misinformation. They are intolerant of any divergence of opinion, and they use their block vote to political advantage.
“dark conservative money”
It’s not conservative money. It’s regressive reactionary Cristian money!
Thanks for making it clear, Duane.
“we can’t think strategically
about defeating them
without assuming…”
Try “We can’t think
strategically by
ASSUMING.”
What “drives” the prevailing
“strategies” if not the
prevailing ASSUMPTIONS?
Prevailing Assumptions:
We’re on the cusp of
meaningful change. Add
some more demonizing,
name calling, scolding,
proclamations, pious
word clouds, invocations,
eulogiums, and exhortations.
to push us over the
line.
A few more books, articles,
and summations, will hold
the demons at bay.
You can change “what is”
by speaking in terms
of “what was”.
SO, Bring us some figgy pudding,
We all like our figgy pudding,
We won’t go until we get some…
strateg
While I think the actions were abhorrent the schools boards were elected, a democratic process chose a far, far right school board, their actions were not surprising… a democratic process can take any actions within the law, the lesson: vote, get involved,
We have the same far right wing maniacs and vandals in the House, Greene, Gosar, Gaetz, Boebert, etc. They will destroy and ruin decency, good order and effective administration whether on a school board or in the US House. This school board will set back education for a very long time until they are defeated, if ever.
Now, if only the Democratic Party had its act together (they earn an “F” in my book ever single election when it comes to countering the extreme right lies that gains the extreme right votes), they, the Democratic Party’s leaders, should never let anyone, anywhere ever forget what happens when the extreme right is in power at any level. Several red states are now perfect examples of what’s in store for the United States if the extreme right ends up in control of all three branches of the federal government.
Extremism is exactly what is going on! Do these people think that denying h the it children a free, honest and open education is preparing them for life? Banning books was done before and is ridiculous compared to what our country is exposed to every day! Controlling and hiding history is like living in a controlled state aka communism! Talk to your children, discuss what they are learning! Banning is not a way to be an intelligent parent! God help those children!!!
Thanks for adding your comment.