A reader of the blog uses the sobriquet “Democracy” to protect his or her anonymity. His/her comments are always thoughtful.
The attack on public schools — in Virginia and across the country — is not some spontaneous “parent rights” outburst. It’s orchestrated. It’s being funded and set into motion by right-wing “Christians” at the Council for National Policy, a far-right group that had outsized-influence with the Trump administration.
Richard DeVos, husband of Betsy, has been president of CNP twice. Ed Meese, who helped Reagan cover up the Iran-Contra scandal, has been president of CNP. So has Pat Robertson. And Tim LaHaye.
Current and former CNP members include Cleta Mitchell, the Trump lawyer who was on that call to the Georgia Secretary of State demanding that he find Trump more than 11,780 votes, and Charlie Kirk, head of Turning Point USA who bragged about bussing tens of thousands of people to the January 6th ‘Stop the Steal’ rally and insurrection. Two of the top peeps at the Federalist Society, Eugene Meyer and Leonard Leo, are also CNP members. (Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett were high priorities for the Federalist Society and for CNP). Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is a member. So is Stephen Moore, the wack-boy “economist” that Trump wanted to appoint to the Federal Reserve but ultimately didn’t because he owed his ex-wife $300,000 in back alimony and child support, and who was an “advisor” Glenn Youngkin in his campaign for Virginia governor even though he’s been dead wrong about virtually all of his economic predictions and who helped Sam Brownback ruin the economy of Kansas.
The Council for National Policy is interconnected to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the State Policy Network and Tea Party Patriots and a host of other right-wing groups. This is – in fact – the vast “right-wing conspiracy” that Hillary Clinton complained about. Glenn Youngkin made himself all very much a part of this.
Did this “new” Republican Southern Strategy work? Well, Youngkin won the Virginia governorship, and exit polls showed that Youngkin won 62 percent of white voters, and 76 percent of non-college graduate whites. And, Youngkin got way more of the non-college white women votes (75 percent) than his Democratic opponent, Terry McAuliffe.
Here’s how the NY Times explained it:
“Republicans have moved to galvanize crucial groups of voters around what the party calls ‘parental rights’ issues in public schools, a hodgepodge of conservative causes ranging from eradicating mask mandates to demanding changes to the way children are taught about racism…Glenn Youngkin, the Republican candidate in Virginia, stoked the resentment and fear of white voters, alarmed by efforts to teach a more critical history of racism in America…he released an ad that was a throwback to the days of banning books, highlighting objections by a white mother and her high-school-age son to ‘Beloved,’ the canonical novel about slavery by the Black Nobel laureate Toni Morrison…the conservative news media and Republican candidates stirred the stew of anxieties and racial resentments that animate the party’s base — thundering about equity initiatives, books with sexual content and transgender students on sports teams.”
Republicans and racism. Who knew?
Lots of people.
Yale historian David Blight put it this way:
“Changing demographics and 15 million new voters drawn into the electorate by Obama in 2008 have scared Republicans—now largely the white people’s party—into fearing for their existence. With voter ID laws, reduced polling places and days, voter roll purges, restrictions on mail-in voting, an evisceration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and a constant rant about ‘voter fraud’ without evidence, Republicans have soiled our electoral system with undemocratic skullduggery…The Republican Party has become a new kind of Confederacy.”
And this Republican “Confederacy” hates public education.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The extreme, mean evangelical fundamentalist hard right wraps themselves in the word Christian. Still they are not Christians any any sense of the word.
The are greedy, power hungry, ruthless fascists. Fascists that calls themselves by another name are still fascists.
“Jesus Christ preached about God in simple terms
traveling across Palestine region between his 30 years and 33 years of age.
With these preachings, he laid the foundations for peace and compassion
in human society. His preached:
“Everyone should develop brotherhood feelings about others.
Loving the people who are in distress is equal to worshipping God.
One should serve others without expecting anything from them.
Serving people is equal to the worship of God.
If one repents for his mistakes God will forgive him.
Love your enemy. Do good to the people who try to harm you.”
vs:
What does fascism mean?
“Many experts agree that fascism is a mass political movement that emphasizes extreme nationalism, militarism, and the supremacy of both the nation and the single, powerful leader over the individual citizen.”
The Old Testament, the New Testament and the Quran warn us about these fake Christian fascists. Biblical commentator John Ritenbaugh describes greed as a “ruthless self–seeking and an arrogant assumption that others and things exist for one’s own benefit.”
Greed is one of the biggest sins the Bible writes about. This sin is defined as an intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food. Jesus warns us against greed in Luke 12:15. In this scripture, he says life does not consist of an abundance of possessions.
Muslims are warned in the Quran to be on guard against greed. A Muslim should not save and hoard great sums of money, but should distribute it to those who are in need of it. It is never acceptable to earn a living by doing wrong.
Exactly, Lloyd. Well observed! The contrast could not be more stark.
Lloyd, well said.
How can hateful people call themselves “Christians”?
Hence what I use. . . xtian without capitalization as they don’t deserve such respect.
Catching up with yesterday….this morning. (Had lots of lawn to mow)
Sanity 101. Thanks Democracy and Lloyd!
It is not just fascism at play here. It is a hyped up, hopped up version with religious faith beliefs as the supposed guiding principles.
Plain and simple they are: Reactionary xtian fundie THEOFASCISTS.
A big fan, here, of Democracy’s posts!!! Thanks for sharing this, Diane!
Diane In your note, the historian David Blight writes: “Changing demographics and 15 million new voters drawn into the electorate by Obama in 2008 have scared Republicans—now largely the white people’s party—into fearing for their existence.”
The truth of that statement, however, has a twist to it. That is, I suggest that the existential fear many feel (and I think many white people DO feel it, especially men) is NOT about being run out of existence as such, but about being dethroned from their place of privilege among other human beings. That sense has been with us for centuries. It has been passed down from the cradle to many and so, as early learned, has been internalized . . . and so it “feels” existential.
I know some who just cannot stand the thought of being equal to those they have, for so long, thought of as somehow lesser beings (in their minds), unequal in social AND political status, e.g., voting and under the law.
Insofar as the culture (such as it is) is democratic, where political equality is written into our history, the internalized and un- or semi-conscious sense of privilege will feel existential and will continue to conflict with the authentic threads that have come forward to us in that history.
My view is that it’s a kind of inherited national neurosis which, until those who are “infected” with it can bring it to consciousness and think it through for themselves, will continue to foul the political air we all breathe.
Lloyd has it right, BTW. We should continue to put quote marks around “Christian” as long as those who claim it keep acting like fascists. CBK
Well said, CBK.
The Great Replacement Theory at work.
In colonial regimes, such as in India and Africa, whites were a minority but controlled everything.
Diane As I think about the rooted psychology of existential fear, I picture those red states all clustered together in the South.
Our present situation has a large context with many causes, but my thought is that the historical psychological problem is at the center of it–mistaking the fear of being “dethroned” and so equal (in our minds) for being ruled out of existence. CBK
Catherine– I have a teacher who has remarked a couple of times that nations which have had civil wars never seem to really get over them; they continue in some form. [We discuss LatAm lit; he is usually thinking of Spain and the US.] I was browsing web looking for more on this. From an article by James Fearon in Fall 2017 Daedalus: “for many civil war–torn or “postconflict” countries, third parties do not know how to help locals build a self-governing, self-financing state within UN-recognized borders or, in some cases, any borders.” I’m taking that completely out of context– he’s talking about modern civil wars in the Mile East and N Africa. But something about it resonates. There was no “third party” to help us reorganize. Our two political parties, post civil war, have always coalesced around our geographic/ territorial/ cultural split. Now more than ever.
bethree5 About the south and the Civil War, there was “Reconstruction” which (if I remember my history correctly) had some success, but then ran dry after a decade or more. From our experience over the centuries, it takes at least one and probably three or four generations to make any real sustainable difference. And memory is two-sided? But I lived in Virginia for 30 years and I was often made aware of the presence of the Grey. CBK
See Henry Louis Gates ‘ 4-part PBS series “Reconstruction”—brilliant!
I now live in a state where giving a child a book that happens to contain an LGBTQX character IS A FELONY.
That’s Thought Control from on high. In other words, Fascism.
And doing that, making this a freaking FELONY, is referred to in Tallahassee Newspeak as expanding FREEDOM.
Are children in Florida allowed to watch Tyler Perry’s Medea films, where he dresses as a woman?
IKR? And what about taking them to see a performance of As You Like It, Cymbeline, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, or Two Gentlemen of Verona, all of which contain characters who cross dress? Better get rid of all those copies of The Complete Plays of Shakespeare in the libraries! Perhaps these can be replaced with, I don’t know, the Collected Poems of Donald Trump, Jr.
Analogies with the Confederacy are obvious in that disunity is used to create government by the wealthy class of society. The interesting thing to the historian is that argument between Southern writers and their northern critics were mostly centered around contrasting northern “wage slavery” and southern chattel slavery. Southern apologists pointed their finger at the misery of northern coal miners and textile women. After the war, powerful people used racial antagonism to cement their economic power, a strategy that suited most of the country except for a few radicals like Mark Twain. Ironically, the southern apologists were right about certain people: They will do anything to make a buck. Fast forward more than a century. It’s still true.
My wife & I have been helping our daughter with a college course on Race & Ethnicity. This is the actual “CRT,” the definition of which Republican leaders have extended to mean any scholastic discussion of race. It’s an excellent course with a brilliant professor & I’ve learned a lot. My half-Hispanic wife’s already familiar with the area from growing up Puerto Rican on Long Island, & 20 years as a social worker in East Harlem schools. It’s literally illegal for the textbook’s authors to teach from their own book in their home states of Virginia & Florida.
This restrictive view of “education” is nothing new in Florida. A friend of mine who grew up there in the ’60s tells me she hadn’t known the Holocaust occurred until she was 18 (this from the people who complain about “Cancel Culture”). She found out accidentally when watching a WWII documentary, & couldn’t believe an event that massive had been completely excluded from her education. For me the most troubling aspect of this is it shows it takes only one generation to erase history.
I think it’s unfortunate that the term “woke” was coined; it gave opponents the opportunity to characterize it as something alien. It should have been referred to simply as “acknowledging reality.” It’d be a lot more difficult for De Santis et al. to make a slogan out of “Florida is where *reality goes to die.”* I believe truth will prevail in the long run, but also realize that’s not a guarantee. There is real danger here, & it’s important for those of us in the portion of US society that acknowledges reality to maintain perspective.
Flor-uh-duh is where reality goes to die.
HAAAAAAAAA!!!! Yup.
Lenny, so true. Many of us grew up with huge gaps in our knowledge. Now, when history teachers know what happened, they are not allowed to teach it because someone might be uncomfortable to learn that their grandparent was in the Klan.
The general public interprets “Christian” as protestant e.g. categorization of Christian schools for one segment of schools and Catholic, for another.
If Democracy is unaware, credit for the initiation and passage of school choice legislation in states like Indiana and Florida is given to conservative Catholics. State Catholic Conferences co-hosted with the Koch’s AFP, school choice rallies in state capitols. As further example, the executive director of the Colorado Catholic Conference was formerly employed in the Koch network.
If Democracy is unaware of the success of the EPPC (board members include Leo Leonard and Robert P George), a recent Guardian article about the school-focused political campaign of Stanley Kurtz would provide much-needed insight.
I don’t know which way things are going to shake out. There may be a future historian who researches this period recognizing the role of politicized conservative Catholics in the shift of the central states to the right. He /she can be expected to compare the Catholic Church’s facilitation of Mussolini and Hitler vs. the American experience where the shift ORIGINATED with and was funded by those who wanted to further the power of the sect’s control. So, that’s one possibility. The other is that a current journalist hoping for a Pulitzer, will explore the origins of the political shift and document why the Catholic Church was protected, exploring motivations. I presume one example he/she will look at is the propaganda positioning Hillsdale as Christian, when the college’s connections with those in the Catholic sect are plentiful e.g. Clarence Thomas.
We can look at the agenda of the Catholic Church and cite many substantial wins. Yet, the media puts the wins at the doorstep of an amorphous and aggregated segment of people who include Christ in their talking points.
Linda– I have a ridiculously long response to this, which I put below under general comments to get more margin space.
Breaking news today: Georgia has created a means for the Repugnican leadership in the state to remove local prosecutors. Why? Because the Fulton Co. prosecutor has granted immunity to 8 fake electors in return for testimony that will blow this conspiracy to overthrow our election wide open AND IMPLICATE VERY POWERFUL REPUBLICANS, including Senators and the ex president, directly in that conspiracy.
So, is that it? Is The Fix in?
Will Fascism triumph there?
Or will this sedition actually at some point go to trial?
In Texas, the legislature passed a law that if they think the vote in Harris County (Houston) was flawed, they can invalidate the election.
!!!!
The right wants to neutralize Houston’s minority majority, left leaning voters.
In Tennessee the legislature voted to reduce representation on the Nashville city council by half. All these moves are attempts to control large populations by under-representing them. Removing prosecutors, gerrymandering, all of these are techniques of a small group that wants to rule a majority. I think they are trying to provoke violence, making extreme measures seem appropriate.
And THAT is the classic Fascist playbook.
Roy, this is anti-democratic. Why should the people of Nashville have less representation? These tyrants should be voted out.
Local news from Nashville. A 14 year old stole a bus from KIPP and drove it down I 40 before police stopped him.
He was working hard but not being nice.
Another day in America, another massacre because Repugnicans refuse to do anything about the gun epidemic.
Bob It’s okay about the mass shooting yesterday. Ted Cruz is praying for them. CBK
The Congressman representing Allen, Texas, said the victims need thoughts and prayers. He said he didn’t want people using the attack to pushe for gun control, because “God controls everything that happens.”
Not my God.
Diane I won’t repeat the Texas Congressman’s comment, and when I first heard it, I literally cringed. CBK
At some point, the news media will stop making such a deal out of massacres. It will be ho-hum. Like a bake sale where someone got angry and kicked over a few tables.
Whew. Glad that’s taken care of!
Chico, California shooting too. Shades of the recent Alabama party shooting.
Responding to Linda’s post 5/6 at 1:35pm–
Your post got me researching! Posting #s below for your perusal.
I’m having a hard time supporting “a shift of the central states to the right.” Studied the period ’88 to present. There’s no clear-cut shift when it comes to prez elections, with the possible exception of IA [too soon to tell]. RE: govrs, out of these 8 states, 2 – 3 show a shift to mostly red govrs [OH in ’90, the other 2 (MO, and possibly IN ) in ’04].
Iowa’s possible shift in pres elections [but not in govrships] probably doesn’t relate to your thesis; their Cath pop is only 15%; they were late with charters (’04) and just starting with vouchers now. Ohio’s shift to red govrs in ’90 relates: they were early with charters (‘90s) & vouchers (’95). MO’s shift to red govrs in ’04 may relate, tho they didn’t pass vouchers until 2021.
We can’t really support a shift in central states to red. They either were red already, or blue and stayed blue, or have always alternated red and blue in prez elections– and govtl elections (except the 3 noted). As to politicized conservative Catholic role in whatever shifts have actually occurred, we can assume it is a strong contender to the much larger #’s of evangelicals in these states. The evangelists seem to have good political connections, but the Catholics are far more organized, with superior political connections.
IL (28%Cath) is long blue [pres elections]. Re: govrs, since ’88 there were long alternating pds of D & R; D for last 6 yrs.
WI (25%Cath) has only voted red once (’16) in the last 9 pres elections, and their govrs during those yrs alternated between Rep & Dem (currently Dem).
MI (18%Cath) only voted red 2x of 9 (’88 & ’16); govrs same pattern as WI.
OH (18%Cath): prez elections consistently alternate (4 R, 5 D incl ’20). Their govrs have been mostly Rep govrs for the last 35 yrs, but before that they alternated regularly. A shift to mostly red govrs started ’90.
IN (18%Cath) has been voting red in prez elections for a long time. They’ve had red govrs for 20 yrs. Before that, Dem for 16 yrs. (Before that alternation R/D more regular). Possible candidate for shift to red govrs in ’04.
PA (24%Cath) consistently alternates pres voting: 2 terms D, 2 terms R (right now on 1st R…). Their govrs have been 2.5x as many D as R (D for the last 10 yrs).
MO (16%Cath) has been red, pres-election-wise since ’72 (voted D only for Carter and Clinton). There were periods of red, then blue govrs, but red govrs since ’04 — there’s a shift that relates.
IA (15%Cath) *could * be considered “shift to right” based on last 2 pres elections— prior (’88-2016) they voted Dem 6 out of 7 times. Their govs have been 2-1 Reps, incl Rep for the last 10 yrs.
Caveat, without researching here are some of my immediate thoughts on your list.
IL – Large state geographically dense population centers, how many of those Catholics are where? And if there are liberal Catholic enclaves in the Chicago area, how might they skew the total, especially as compared to those in the Chicago suburbs?
WI – how does this/can this explain Ron Johnson and the repudiation of Russ Feingold, arguably a Framer’s poster boy?
MI – “govrs same pattern as IL” does not hold up when one considers makeup and power of state legislatures. When seen that way, there is no “same pattern”.
OH – prez elections DO NOT consistently alternate. A clear trend exists today. This is a solidly reactionary state. See gerrymandering, unaccountability of school privatization, and abortion extremism for just a few examples.
IN – have you been to Indiana anytime recently?
PA – you’re close on this one. But note how state legislature gerrymandering will never allow actual representation to take place.
MO – has overtaken Louisiana and closing in on Mississippi as reactionary USA central, a great example of the complete marginalization of Blacks and any other non-whites.
IA – Could? Seriously? Statewide votes gave us Chuck Grassley, a senile lying teetotaler, and Joni Ernst, a Joni Ernst, by G-d!
Not one state has as rosy or balanced an outlook as you imply.
Greg– Actually I wasn’t intending to portray any of those states as rosy or balanced. The numbers speak for themselves. What they say is, there hasn’t really been much of a “shift.” The sense I get from the numbers is that a strong element of conservatism has been in several of those states for a very long time. And in a few, a strong element of liberalism.
The latter—namely Illinois, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania– are interesting to examine in the context of Linda’s thesis. The # of Catholics in these states is far higher than in the other 5. That has everything to do with industrialization [geographically dense pop centers], immigration, labor. Catholics were prominent in the labor movements of the 20thC despite the church’s strong stand against socialism. The key to me seems to be how longtime labor families feel about destruction of mfg sector—not whether they’re Catholic, whether the last 35 yrs have changed generational voting habits.
…I may be a cockeyed optimist, but I take some comfort in the 35-yr alternating D-R prez/govt election tendency in some of these states. Suggests to me that change going forward should not be automatically dismissed.
Greg
Thanks for your willingness to get into the weeds in your reply.
BeThree-
Good to know the center hasn’t shifted to the right. That will be news to…well, everybody. Those articles about book bans, attacks against Jews, the overturn of 50 years of precedent in the Roe decision, etc. …fake news.
I’d ask you to identify a right wing protestant equivalent to say, guys like Paul Weyrich and Leonard Leo, but, I won’t.
How about a protestant organization (linked to a single church) that has the assets of the Knights of Columbus? Is the K of C working for the political left or right, never mind.
Looking at SCOTUS and concluding the Catholic Church has superior political connections and protestant evangelicals have good ones, qualifies as the understatement of the month. Btw- how do you spin a media that doesn’t even mention the Catholic Church relative to the center’s shift to the right? Oh, that’s right
the Pope’s fear about the right wing direction of the American church is unreliable reporting.
I’d recommend that you review polls about the influence of religion in voting. It’s a novel idea you have in singling out, instead, attitudes about the economics of manufacturing vs. services. That track has been missed by… well, again…everybody.