Progressives betray their panic over grassroots campaign to elect school boards to stop CRT

The public does not like Critical Race Theory (CRT) now that details of what is being brainwashed into our children have started to leak out.

A majority, at 58%, expressed an unfavorable view of critical race theory, while 38% expressed a favorable view, according to the results of a YouGov/Economist poll released Tuesday. (snip)

The debate has caused a partisan split on the issue of critical race theory, with 86% of Democrats expressing a favorable view of the theory, compared to 6% of Republicans. The poll revealed that independents were more likely to side with the GOP, with 20% expressing a favorable view of critical race theory, compared to 76% with an unfavorable view.

While statewide bans against teaching CRT are planned, even more significant may be grassroots efforts to elect school boards that will not simply ban CRT but actually overhaul curricula and address P.C. bullying and other elements of the politicization of government-funded schools.  John Hinderaker, a co-founder of Powerline and president of a Minnesota nonprofit organization, The Center for the American Experiment, has launched a strategically targeted campaign in Minnesota to recruit activists at the local level to fight CRT at the school board level.

School board elections are the Achilles heel of the leftist school indoctrination strategy.  They typically are very low turnout, which enables the unions to mobilize members, their friends and families, and those who make money off the schools (often the largest employer in a given town) and elect compliant school boards.  The Center for the American Experiment launched a 17-city tour of the state, gathering concerned citizens to meetings in all parts of the state.  With enthusiastic turnouts and targeted programs on skills needed the effect change, it looks as though the unions are panicking at the prospects of informed citizens turning out for school board elections.  If it works in Minnesota, it can spread nationally like a prairie wildfire.

In a post titled "THE BATTLE AGAINST CRT GETS PHYSICAL," Hinderaker describes efforts to silence his group's political speech.  Read the whole thing, but consider that there are two parts to the plan.

1. Disrupt meetings.  Hinderaker writes:

Last night in Moorhead, however, a group of extremists showed up, determined to disrupt our event. While they comprised no more than ten percent of the crowd, they tried to take over the meeting and eventually got violent, to the point where police had to be called. One woman was led away in handcuffs. The altercation was the lead story in today's Fargo Forum: "Woman arrested following scuffle after tensions flare during critical race theory conference in Moorhead."


Photo courtesy of Powerline.

2. Intimidate venues in canceling use of their space for meetings.  Hinderaker writes:

Black Lives Matter and the Duluth chapter of the NAACP went after the country club in Duluth that was slated to host our event there tomorrow with, among other things, a Facebook campaign. The club caved under the pressure. We found another venue, a Holiday Inn, but they gave in too, within a matter of hours after the far Left began applying pressure.

The group will not be deterred.  You can read their excellent press release on the subject here.

You can watch the disruptors attempt to silence the meeting in a report from KVRR Television in Fargo (across the Red River from Moorhead) here.

Law professor Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit writes, "Sue 'em.  Sounds like a conspiracy to deprive people of their civil rights by shutting down their free speech."

Before he retired from the active practice of law, John Hinderaker was a highly regarded (and feared, I am told by another member of the Minnesota bar) litigator.  As the tour his group organized reveals, he is a first-rate strategist as well.  A well-timed civil rights lawsuit may well be in the future.  But setting a trend for a nationwide campaign to take over school boards has to be the top priority.

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