Shauna Shames, Rutgers University
Signs in the hallway during the inaugural Moms For Liberty Summit on July 15, 2022, in Tampa, Fla. Octavio Jones/Getty Images
Motherhood language and symbolism have been part of every U.S. social movement, from the American Revolution to Prohibition and the fight against drunk drivers. Half of Americans are women, most become mothers, and many are conservative.
The U.S. is also a nation of organizing, so conservative moms – like all moms – often band together.
Lately, the mothers group dominating media attention is Moms for Liberty, self-described “joyful warriors … stok[ing] the fires of liberty” with the slogan “We Don’t Co-Parent with the Government.”
Others see them as well-organized, publicity-savvy anti-government conspiracists.
The rambunctious two-year-old group was founded in Brevard County, Florida, to resist COVID-19 mask mandates. It quickly expanded into the Southeast, now claiming 120,000 members in 285 chapters nationwide. Their mission is to “figh[t] for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.”
By “parental rights,” they mean limiting certain content in schools and having local councils and boards run only by “liberty-minded individuals” – which sounds like rhetoric from the American Revolution.
There’s historical precedent in this. Change the clothes and hairdos, and these ladies could look like the conservative white women who opposed busing in 1970s Boston, supported McCarthy anti-communism or blocked integration in Southern schools. Those women also formed mom-based groups to protest what they saw as government overreach into their families’ way of life.
But as a scholar of American politics with a focus on gender and race, I also see differences.
21st-century conservatism
Moms for Liberty skillfully leverages social media, drawing on a population activated by the 2009-2010 rise of the Tea Party followed by the Trumpian MAGA movement. Mask mandates were the trigger for the group’s formation, but opposition to gender fluidity and queerness has become its bread and butter – more 21st century than 20th.
How racial equality is talked about animates its work also, in a distinctly new way. The conservative position on race and government’s role in the past century has pivoted from enforcement of segregation and hierarchy to a kind of social “laissez-faire” – hands-off – position to match the Reaganite view that government is bad.
The extreme, hyper-male form of this anti-government, pro-traditional gender-roles ideology took shape as the Proud Boys, a number of whose leaders are now under indictment and sentence for their part in the Jan. 6 Capitol attacks. Moms for Liberty, while not going this far, shares similar beliefs and apparently has ties to the Proud Boys organization and leaders. They don’t march with guns, but their actions undermine and impede local government. https://www.youtube.com/embed/4lBqVPTBQBw?wmode=transparent&start=0 ‘One minute you’re making peanut butter and jelly, and the next minute the FBI is calling you,’ said Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice, testifying in the U.S. House of Representatives about government investigation of her group.
New kids in town making themselves heard
The group’s roots stretch back to a heated 2020 school board election in Brevard County. Incumbent school board member Tina Descovich, a local conservative activist mom, was challenged by progressive newcomer Jenifer Jenkins. When Jenkins won, the conservative board majority ended.
Having lost electorally, Descovich – and the corps of like-minded moms she now represents – began to shift the conversation from the outside. They joined with moms in many red states angered by what seemed fast-moving changes involving race, gender, and sexuality, like the increasing numbers of people identifying as trans, queer, or nonbinary, even at young ages, the vast changes in marital laws and family structure, and changing ideas about whiteness, inclusion, and equity.
Moms for Liberty soon found success with disruptive tactics a VICE News investigation called a “pattern of harassment” of opponents that include online and in-person targeting of school board members, parents or even students who disagree with the group.
Members in many chapters generate ill will by turning up to school board and other meetings – sometimes to the homes of public officials or teachers – yelling insults like “pedophile” and “groomer” at opponents.
For a newcomer, Moms for Liberty has had real victories. It has disrupted countless meetings, forcing local governance bodies to focus on topics important to the group, such as lifting mask mandates and, more recently, removing curricular content that they deem controversial, such as texts on gender identity and racial oppression.
The group’s success in getting talked about is perhaps its greatest strength so far, moving it from outside disruptor to political player, at least locally. It has successfully supported many local candidates and book bans.
Specific examples of banned books include “Push,” which inspired the award-winning movie “Precious,” and “Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl,” also made into a movie.
Disciplining members
Despite its many chapters, Moms for Liberty is untried nationally, its total membership is still relatively small, and Federal Election Commission filings show it raising and spending little money. The group lacks control over members, who have publicly embarrassed it. In one case, the Hamilton County, Indiana, chapter quoted Hitler in a newsletter – later apologizing.
At another point, an Arkansas member avoided criminal charges for saying, in a discussion about a librarian, “I’m telling you, if I had any mental issues, they would all be plowed down by a freaking gun right now.”
These incidents mark the group not only as green, but also as part of the new right wing. Republican-leaning groups used to take a top-down approach to setting agendas and managing people, while Democratic organizations historically cited democracy and equality as both tools and goals, even if it meant disorganization and failure.
In the traditional top-down Republican party of yesteryear, Moms for Liberty would likely be marginal. In today’s disorganized, divided, hyperpolarized GOP, it may do quite well – which is not good news for democracy.
Out of step, but useful
Pro-mom language is sometimes, in the old idiom, the velvet glove hiding the iron fist.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks organized hate activity, labeled Moms for Liberty “extremist.” Its empirical evaluation concluded that the group’s chapters “reflect views and actions that are antigovernment and conspiracy propagandist.”
Moms for Liberty is ideologically out of step with the country and more anti-government than most Republicans. The majority of Americans are not in support of lifting mask mandates in the middle of a pandemic or banning books.
Among Republicans, there is disagreement over the teaching of controversial topics like racial justice, but book bans find low support. Despite the current bitter political climate, most in the U.S. appreciate government and want it to work.
Yet, some media refer to Moms for Liberty as a “power player” – and no wonder when Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis show up to court the group. Moms for Liberty may be fringe, but its members could be of use to presidential hopefuls.
Why? The answer lies in some distinctly post-2010 electoral math. These days, only a quarter to a third of voters align with each major party, and less than a third of registered partisans turn out for primaries.
So a sixth of each party – a small fraction of the overall population – now selects the nominees. And that sixth is not representative – it is far more opinionated and angry. Moms for Liberty, having organized small, ideological voting armies in swing states, is in the envious position of representing a concentrated and potentially decisive voting bloc.
The mom rhetoric may be real, but as a political scientist, I can say confidently that the framers of the Constitution would not endorse this brand of liberty. Book bans are weapons of autocrats, and democracy ends where political figures call each other “pedophiles” in public.
Shauna Shames, Associate Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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What I will never understand about groups like this is— they don’t see they’re wanting to control the country under their beliefs. If you are a parent and don’t want your kid reading something or learning something, ask for YOUR child to be excused from it. Don’t decide for all the other parents who might not mind their child reading the book or being taught something in school. These type of parents need to stay in their lane and stop fighting for every child in the school.
How about an honest evaluation of the Southern Poverty Law Center or is the Gettysburg Connection sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center? Just maybe some mothers have a moral compass and want to protect their children from liberal wokeism. Shouldn’t they have that right?
Parents can exempt their children from pretty much anything in public schools. What they shouldn’t be doing is dictating what other children need to be shielded from.
It is the story of the fence delema. If there is no fence, no one can claim they are being restricted. If there is a fence, it restricts and forces all to participate. If certain social engineering books (fences) are required, then all are forced to participate or fail. Every parent has the right to choose what values they want their children to learn. Unless it is civic values when all should be united, moral values should be taught at home.
Moms for Liberty have their books (fences) they want too. All parents can teach their kids what they want at home. They can even homeschool or choose private schools if they wish to shelter further. What they shouldn’t be doing is telling public schools they need to conform to their particular values. Public schools are to include all, even those who disagree with each other. A parent can opt their kids out of various books or lessons. They shouldn’t restrict other people’s kids from those books or lessons. That’s up to their parents. Live and let live. Kids grow up… Read more »
PJ, do you have any idea why the FCC doesn’t allow nudity or profanity on network television? or why some movies are rated “R” and have age restrictions? people like you are a detriment to society and a major part of the problem of decaying morality in America.
Everybody is so polite about this nonsense and says “it’s ok for parents to opt their own kids out, just not others.” I’m sorry, but that’s almost as ridiculous as the more extreme ‘nobody should be exposed to this’ that Moms for Liberty advocates. Yeah, no “liberal woke-ism.” Instead, let’s be like Florida and teach “the good parts” about slavery. Trail of Tears? Never happened. I don’t want my kids learning that there continued to be massive discrimination into our lifetimes so let’s leave that out too. But, oh yeah, taking down a Confederate monument? That’s “destroying history.” Can’t do… Read more »
It’s interesting how many groups that want to limit people to their beliefs use Liberty or Freedom or similar in their names when they are anything but proponents of it. I guess they fail to see the obvious.
Thank you for this informative article.