Even with anti-masking, anti-vaxxing, their ridiculous election conspiracies, downplaying the insurrection and critical race theory paranoia, it appears that the right is now ginning up yet another bug-a-boo to be outraged over.
In his primetime opinion hour Tuesday night, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson told his millions of viewers to prepare for a crackdown from federal law enforcement on parents’ complaints at school board meetings.
The host, and several Republican politicians eager for another bankable culture war, seemed to smell blood in the water — in the form of a one-page memo from Attorney General Merrick Garland published the day prior.
“If you are one of the troglodytes who thinks you should have some say in what your children are taught in the schools that you pay for, you should know that the Biden administration now views you as a domestic terrorist,” the Fox News star said.
“They are fully willing to use armed agents of the state to compel you to shut up.”
Parents are now being viewed as domestic terrorists for their free speech? Seems a little over the top doesn't it? Seems a little off the rails. And yet it’s exactly where the GOP is planning to go next in their endless game of self victimhood.
And it's not just Tucker, this issue came up in a completely disingenuous manner during Trump's latest interview.
"I'd love to get your reaction to Attorney General Merrick Garland mobilizing the FBI against parents who oppose [Critical Race Theory] at local school board meetings," Amber Athey said.
"Well, I'm very surprised that he'd do it," Trump replied. "The local boards have gone out of their way to really take over the school system and to do things that a lot of the parents disagree with — I would say almost all of the parents disagree with. It's shocking what they're doing. So I was surprised to see it."
It also came rattling out of Peter Doocy during a press conference with Jen Psaki.
"Does the President support the fundamental right of these parents to protest at these school board meetings?" Doocy asked.
…
Psaki read some of the statements from the Justice Department noting that it is illegal to threaten to kill any public official, regardless of their office.
...
"Of course but he doesn't stand for people to take violent action against people who are public servants and that's what the threats are about," said Psaki.
Franklin Graham in his own witty way with words says: “It’s Communism.”
School board members and educators in at least nine states this year have been targeted with threats, death threats, and often racist death threats, including in Virginia, Arizona, Connecticut, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Vermont, according to local news reports.
Evangelical anti-LGBTQ activist and former Trump advisor Franklin Graham this week jumped on the right wing conspiracy theory that wrongly claims the U.S. Dept. of Justice is investigating parents who merely attend school board meetings to voice their "strong opinions."
That's false.
[...]
Franklin Graham, twisting the very clear memo the DOJ released, declared that investigating parents who share their opinions at school board meetings is "communism."
"It's an ominous sign when the government uses its power to try and silence the voice of the people," Graham told his 9.7 million Facebook followers. "That's how communism works."
"Anyone who speaks against communism or the goals of communism becomes the enemy. And we're seeing this happen right in our own country. The Biden Administration, which bows to the radical progressive left, would like to silence parents who voice strong opinions against critical race theory and trans radicalism at school board meetings. Unbelievably, the National School Boards Association asked that parent protests at school board meetings be treated as possible acts of 'domestic terrorism.' This tactic of intimidation is meant to silence parents with views the Left doesn't agree with," Graham said, mischaracterizing the DOJ's very clear memo.
Naturally, free speech and terrorism have absolutely nothing to do with it.
Specifically, Garland announced a federal law enforcement effort to address “threats against public servants” — specifically school administrators, school board members, teachers and staff — and to “prosecute them when appropriate.”
In other words, criminal behavior. And amid right-wing anger at school mask rules and bogeyman issues like “critical race theory,” examples of potentially criminal behavior aimed at educators and public health officials at school board meetings are abundant, including reports of pushing, throwing things, alleged battery, numerous reports of threats, and comments like “we will find you” and “we know who you are.”
Garland’s memo explicitly noted that he wasn’t concerned with “spirited debate,” which he described as constitutional.
“We will find you" and “We know who you are” -- are threats. That isn’t just regular speech, it's intimidation. It’s harassment. It's attempting to foster fear and panic in a person. The issue that Garland is addressing is when these people try to actually implement the fear that they’ve merely suggested.
The fact that these deluded entitled fuckwits don't understand the basic boundaries of decent behavior isn't surprising, but it is still shocking how easily they go barrelling across the threshold of civility without a moment’s thought or consideration.
For example, you have the case of the Maryland Anti-vaxxer who murdered his pharmacist brother for "killing" people with his Covid-19 vaccines.
The Baltimore Sun reports that 46-year-old Jeffrey Burnham told his mother that he planned on confronting his 58-year-old brother Brian Robinette because he was supposedly killing his own clients by getting them vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.
In addition to allegedly killing Robinette, he is also alleged to have killed 57-year-old sister-in-law Sue Robinette and and 83-year-old Rebecca Reynolds, a resident of Cumberland, Maryland whose car he stole and drove to his brother's house.
"According to the charging documents filed Wednesday against Burnham related to the Howard County murders, Burnham told another unnamed person that his brother was 'killing people with the COVID shot,'" reports the Baltimore Sun. "Burnham's mother Evelyn Burnham previously expressed concerns about her younger son's mental health. In charging documents filed against Burnham in Reynolds' death in Allegany County, Evelyn Burnham called Cumberland police twice last week because of her son's 'mental stability' after he made statements about the FBI 'being after' them both."
Or perhaps you have his brawl during an anti-vaxx protest in LA where one person was stabbed.
And that’s not nearly all:
This would be the kind of person Garland is talking about. Violent attacks. Assault. Murder. This is what the FBI is focused on.
The Department of Justice has directed the FBI to meet with local governments and law enforcement to discuss strategies for dealing with increasing threats to teachers and school board members spurred by a conservative backlash against discussions of race in public schools.
“Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation's core values," Attorney General Merrick Garland wrote in his memorandum to FBI Director Christopher Wray, released Monday.
“Those who dedicate their time and energy to ensuring that our children receive a proper education in a safe environment deserve to be able to do their work without fear for their safety."
School board meetings have also been under attack for mask mandates to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in schools.
Yes, actually. Public servants should have the benefit of a sense of safety and security. Their workplace shouldn't feel like a war zone.
This is not about free speech, it's about life and death.