Right-wing billionaire ideologues do like to drive wedges. Divide and conquer, eh? The Washington Post obtained a Koch-supported draft letter designed to give public schools a wedgie they won’t forget:
The letter sounds passionate and personal.
It is motivated, the author explains, by a desire to “speak up for what is best for my kids.” And it fervently conveys the author’s feelings to school leaders: “I do not believe little kids should be forced to wear masks, and I urge you to adopt a policy that allows parental choice on this matter for the upcoming school year.”
But the heartfelt appeal is not the product of a grass roots groundswell. Rather, it is a template drafted and circulated this week within a conservative network built on the scaffolding of the Koch fortune and the largesse of other GOP megadonors.
That makes the document, which was obtained by The Washington Post, the latest salvo in an inflamed debate over mask requirements in schools, which have become the epicenter of partisan battles over everything from gender identity to critical race theory. The political melee engulfing educators has complicated efforts to reopen schools safely during a new wave of the virus brought on by the highly transmissible delta variant.
Sowing conflict is a cynical strategy in the libertarian war against democratic governance and public safety in the name of personal freedom. The people behind it care not one whit for the people they send to the “front” as cannon fodder.
The letter was made available on Tuesday to paying members of the Independent Women’s Network, a project of the Independent Women’s Forum and Independent Women’s Voice that markets itself as a “members-only platform that is free from censorship and cancellation.” Both are nonprofits once touted by their board chairman and CEO, Heather Higgins, as part of a unique tool in the “Republican conservative arsenal” because, “Being branded as neutral but actually having the people who know, know that you’re actually conservative puts us in a unique position.”
A unique position to dupe the unsuspecting and possibly to contribute to their deaths. The Post reports that a spokesman for the Charles Koch Institute and associated organizations said financial support for Independent Women’s Forum was “steered toward a program opposing occupational and labor regulations.”
As I said above….
The letter drafted by Independent Women’s Forum illustrates how national groups are “inflaming the political fight over broadly popular mask protections,” said Lisa Graves, executive director of True North Research, a liberal watchdog group, and a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy. “The effect is really to distort public debate.”
And to further undermine support for tax-funded public schools. If theses efforts get people killed, they get people killed. (Believe it or not, an atomic wedgie can do that.)
It is a pity that the video from a 2011 T-party protest in Madison, Wisc. is no longer online. Amanda Terkel spoke to people bussed in at Koch expense to argue that the state should balance its budget without raising corporate taxes. Told that two-thirds of corporations in the state pay no taxes, protesters denied it:
“Corporations shouldn’t pay taxes at all. That’s a terrible idea,” said Jay from LaCrosse, who identified as a libertarian and said that businesses would just raise prices and relocate to China if they faced higher taxes.
“No, they pay their taxes. They pay their taxes,” said John from Milwaukee, when The Huffington Post asked if it was fair that he was paying taxes and corporations weren’t.
Corporatists were finding dupes willing to carry their messages for them a decade ago. Trump had them believing Barack Obama was born in Kenya earlier than that. Identify a wedge issue and someone to blame, then work it.