Over the past ten years, we’ve spent a lot of time criticizing liberals. Pointing out their many flaws, mocking them, exposing their lies, and just raking them over the coals, really.
But one thing we’ve learned is that sometimes, the best strategy is to just be quiet and let the libs own themselves.
This is one of those times, courtesy of New York Magazine’s Sarah Jones, who wrote this for the ironically named Intelligencer:
I wrote about the parental rights push and its relationship to the GOP's authoritarian view of power https://t.co/8kVe4oEZyf
— Sarah Jones (@onesarahjones) February 23, 2022
To empower parents, Florida Republicans would put children in danger. @onesarahjones writes https://t.co/bjidJBv9Ct
— New York Magazine (@NYMag) February 23, 2022
"The GOP is the party of parental rights because it is increasingly anti-democratic. It has become the party of ruthless, cynical power, and children aren’t exempt from its schemes. In fact, they’re key."@onesarahjones writes https://t.co/jhLeueaVWm
— Intelligencer (@intelligencer) February 23, 2022
With a headline like “Household Tyrants,” you know you’re in for something good.
The author is one of the dumbest lefty writers around, but she surpassed herself on this one. https://t.co/PUfkYm2eRJ
— Varad Mehta (@varadmehta) February 23, 2022
The right’s real ambition isn’t restoration, though, but expansion; they want to create new rights on top of the privileges parents already enjoy. In the party’s view, parental rights both supersede and exist in conflict with the rights of the child. The right insists that what’s good for parents is good for kids. This is not necessarily the truth, as any queer person can say in return. The idea that children are already people, with thoughts and needs independent of their parents, never factors into the party’s position at all. The parental-rights movement isn’t new. As journalist Kathryn Joyce has observed, the concept is associated historically with some Christian homeschool activists, who lobbied for a constitutional amendment that would enshrine the right of a parent to teach their children at home. The language might sound familiar. “The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children is a fundamental right,” it states. But why parental rights, and why now?
The right’s war on so-called “critical race theory,” and its push to shed COVID-19 caution and reopen schools without masks, created an opening that Republicans are eager to exploit. Ever eager to privatize education, the GOP perceives an opportunity. Public schools must conform to the party’s ideological strictures, or else: Parents can avail themselves of charter schools or use vouchers to attend private school or to homeschool. Yet conservatives are capable of strategic innovation. The GOP has updated its playbook, as Republican legislators provoke voters to rage over the prospect of “The 1619 Project” in curricula or examples of multicultural education in schools. In a particularly extreme example, the 11-point plan released by Senator Rick Scott and the National Republican Senatorial Committee calls for the closure of the Department of Education, along with the introduction of “school choice,” which typically means charter schools and vouchers for parents.
Whatever the fate of Scott’s document, it is an artifact of its time and place. As the conservative fringe gathers the party into itself, movements like parental rights move from obscurity into the mainstream. The GOP is turning to parental rights as it tilts headfirst to the far right. The two trends are linked. As Republicans long for a strong figure in power, they imagine the same figure in every home. Subject of a household tyrant, the child has no freedom. They had little enough at all: Their right to an education, to independent thought and action, has historically been secondary to their parent’s preferences. The GOP, with the Christian right behind it, would restrict them further, even if it places them in danger of neglect or abuse.
Boy, that’s something, isn’t it?
The assumption that the rights of the child are naturally in line with teachers and not parents is at the core of this entire problem. It might take a couple of more election cycles for you to realize this, though. https://t.co/GHcjU9VyVv
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) February 23, 2022
The question here is who has the power. They want to insist that teacher’s unions and activist bureaucrats are the only ones that should have a say. The only reason this is an issue that benefits the GOP is because Dems are siding with them over parents. https://t.co/m9ZzW8tvvN
— AG (@AGHamilton29) February 23, 2022
And who are we to get in Sarah Jones’ way?
Y'all are going with this, huh? https://t.co/2tLhGqfeUY
— The Brodigan Incarnate (@brodigan) February 23, 2022
You’re damn right, she is.
Hooboy pic.twitter.com/eQtiKWpz2r
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) February 23, 2022
Conservatives imagine the parent as a household tyrant so we must fight against them and give more power to public sector teacher's unions
Just absolutely incredible brain worms.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) February 23, 2022
"Parents act like they are in charge of households, much like how Vladimir Putin acts with Ukraine."
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) February 23, 2022
Straight into our veins.
"Why parents are no different than Vladimir Putin" – @NYMag
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) February 23, 2022
That take is coming.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) February 23, 2022
We look forward to it, honestly.
this appears to have pissed a lot of people off, to which I can only say, lol https://t.co/KKIPceIHp1
— Sarah Jones (@onesarahjones) February 23, 2022
Enjoy it now, Sarah. Because it’s Republicans who will have the last laugh.
Please, please keep talking, @onesarahjones https://t.co/og8q4XA0mW
— Sean Agnew (@seanagnew) February 23, 2022
Yes, keep it up.
Parents love this type of article @onesarahjones https://t.co/RTRNRmoIMj
— Max Q ⚡ (@Randy_Shannon) February 23, 2022
oh hell yeah, keep hating on parents https://t.co/CZSvBSppcL
— kaitlin (@thefactualprep) February 23, 2022
YESSSSS keep this going… amazing….
Is the GOP paying these ppl to write these articles? https://t.co/HPyHMMDQ5v
— Ahmed Al Assliken (@assliken) February 23, 2022
You could certainly be forgiven for thinking so.
Thank you Sarah for your contribution to Ron Desantis's re-election campaign
— Jake Porter (@jakeaporter) February 23, 2022
No doubt Glenn Youngkin appreciates it, too.
Dear Democrats,
I am begging you to please 🙏 make this a keystone talking point of your midterm campaigns.
Sincerely,
Every Republican candidate in November.— I ❤️ Sports (@SetUStraight) February 23, 2022
Please keep telling parents they don’t know what’s best for their children. Make this a prime Democratic talking point, please.
— Gumpster (@kshirey1) February 23, 2022
Democrats, please PLEASE PLEASE, run on this message.
Thank you.— Señia (@SeniaVJ) February 23, 2022
“Conservatives radically see parents as controlling the household and getting to dictate to their children, and that’s bad”
Please. Run with is. I’ll start a fundraiser to support you.
— Sunny McSunnyface (@sunnyright) February 23, 2022
We’ll even throw in a coupla bucks.
Keep vilifying parents while watching Dem poll numbers plummet. Ride it to the bottom.
— Ben Brown (@Its_Ben_Brown) February 23, 2022
Bon voyage!
https://t.co/P1NH3y0V6S pic.twitter.com/mRnJMsfvaO
— Colin Duffy (@TheRightDuff) February 23, 2022
— Tripp (@cbomar_3) February 23, 2022
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