A rural Washington school board race shows how far-right extremists are shifting to local power

[Celerity]

The establishment candidate thought she was a shoo-in, but she hadn’t contended with the home-schooling, anti-masking member of the far-right Three Percent movement.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/01/08/far-right-school-boards/



EATONVILLE, Wash. — On the morning she met her opponent for coffee, Sarah Cole walked in with a front-runner’s confidence. To Cole, the school board seat in this rural red district about an hour outside Seattle was all but hers. Educators and community leaders had endorsed her. She had name recognition from years in the Parent Teacher Association. And, besides, she was running against Ashley Sova, a home-schooling, anti-masking member of the far-right Three Percent movement. “I kind of thought I had it in the bag,” Cole recalled.

Their coffee date that October day, as recounted by both women, was an exercise in gritted-teeth civility. Cole asked about the Three Percent logo tattooed on Sova’s neck in red, white and blue bullets. Sova tried to corner Cole on critical race theory. At the end, they took a photo and promised to work together no matter who was elected, each privately expecting Cole to win.

In December, however, it was Sova who was sworn in, the second Three Percenter on the five-person Eatonville School Board. Three Percenter ideology, part of the self-styled militia movement, promotes conspiratorial views about government overreach and imagines “patriotic” Americans revolting against perceived violations of the Constitution.

Presented as “defending liberty,” extremism analysts say, those far-right views are spreading in conservative places like Eatonville, where the school board race spiralled into a fight over mask mandates and how race is taught in school. Cole lost by more than 200 votes. “The race was basically sabotaged by the national narrative,” Cole said. She sounded incredulous that parents felt best represented by a Three Percenter whose kids aren’t even in public school: “I don’t even know how to explain it except to say, in the face of the facts, they still chose to run with fears.”

snip

[andym]

1. Culture wars have been working for the GOP for a long time

The only way to neutralize them is to mock them for it-- that they are focused on trivialities.

[Moebym]

7. I don't agree

In this day and age, mocking people like Sova by calling their concerns trivial and attempting to make them feel stupid is a good way to lose more elections. We may know that their concerns are based on lies, misinformation, and bigotry, but to them, those are very real and dead serious, especially when they have to do with children.

My opinion is that hammering in the facts by repeating them consistently and often is the best way.

[andym]

12. We will never convince brainwashed people like Sova-- it's the bystanders that we target

who are being drawn in by the propaganda, and the teaching of "CRT" as a threat needs to be naturalized, one good way is by trivializing the threat. Facts can be used-- but only to show that CRT is not at all threatening-- that it is an artificial issue, far from the true concerns of a quality education. Serious time can't be spent playing on their territory-- the culture wars, because it lends gravitas to their attack. We need to shift the ground to our territory: quality of education etc.

[unweird]

18. Facts only work in a rational debate

Irrational fear based dumbasses must be dealt with in a more primal, emotional way. Ridicule and laughing at them and their trivial nonsense is a more appropriate response. And much more effective than trying to relate to them on an intelligent and rational plane.

[Buckeyeblue]

24. In many ways I agree

Instead of allowing them a free pass by rolling our eyes or assuming the majority will quickly reject them, we need to treat them like qualified candidates and make them explain their positions. Over and over again. We need to challenge their sources. But in a respectful way.

And then we need to make solid arguments about their views are not only wrong but dangerous.

[keithbvadu2]

2. whose kids aren't even in public school

[cilla4progress]

3. Near where I live.

While we have A++ Senators, Governor, and my US representative, our local government and populace lean dark red.

[CrispyQ]

4. Once again, I'm not sure our side is paying close enough attention.

Think our public education system isn't as good as it used to be? That's cuz the right wing started filling positions on boards of education across the country back in the 80s while our side was running as fast as it could from the word liberal.

"As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing." ~Karl Rove

IMO, the Democratic Party has put & continues to put way more focus on national elections & not enough at state & local levels. I know a republican woman who registers as a democrat so she can be one of the democratic election judges. There's going to be more of that, & ratfucking like you won't believe, the next two elections. I have little confidence that our side is ready for it. Is there time to challenge all the voter suppression laws that have gone into effect?

[RKP5637]

5. Well said!!!!!! n/t

[Moebym]

8. My friend is guilty of this

He has readily admitted on multiple occasions that he pays more attention to and cares more about state and national elections than local ones. I've tried to tell him that local politics is worthy of his attention, but I could tell he was never quite convinced.

[soldierant]

22. I worry about schoool boards more tan

other local offices.

A mayor or a Councilman can screw up an area for a term or two. A school board can screw up the intire electorate for a generation or more.

[albacore]

17. One problem...

The Repubs pick their people with an eye to extremism. And availability.
While Dems are working and living their lives, the Repub extremists are ... plotting is the only word I can think of.
She's part owner of a business, and she's got the time.
Look at all their candidates that are like this.... all of them have lots of time and lots of paranoid activism.
It's the same reason Leftwing radio doesn't work. Most of us don't have the time, and we don't need the constant drumbeat of activism.
We just want to live.
And also.... who is brave/foolhardy enough to oppose those creatures in these local elections? Have you noticed the rise in threats to local officials?

[Lonestarblue]

20. Completely agree!

The texas Democratic Party has begun more outreach, but for the first decade or so I lived here they were invisible. I believe that the state and local Democratic parties in many red states do very little to recruit and train candidates for local and state elections, perhaps because most of the money goes to the national organization. If we want votes, we need an effective DNC, a desire to support local and state elections, and a message that resonates with voters. John Dean was our last great head of the DNC. It has atrophied in recent years. I no longer watch must television, but could someone let me know if they’ve ever seen Jaime Harrison on a program defending Democratic policies and priorities? All I get are emails begging for more money with no clear indication of how my money would be used other than the same old “we need money to win.” Democrats do need money to win, but I contrast these emails to those from Beto O’Rourke’s group describing their voter registration efforts (including specific college campuses), their travels to all the counties in Texas, their discussions with voters, etc.—essentially telling me that my money is being used effectively.

[gratuitous]

6. While this is a regrettable development

If it happens in your area, start going to school board meetings, and put these numbskulls to the test. What are they doing to improve test scores, hire good teachers, and make sure we have top of the line state of the art school facilities? Whatever you want out of your school district, put it on their plates. Most states have open meeting laws, meaning that school boards have to have public meetings to get anything done. Be there (or, get a like-minded ally to be there). Get the local media involved, and asking questions about the board's failure to carry out its most basic duties.

[captain queeg]

9. I have a sister who works for a remotes school district

She’s part of a program to support home schooling, going around and offering support and performing mandated testing. It’s a strange set up, any family in the state can apply. None of her families live within a couple hundred miles of the physical school district. The school gets the public dollars that they’d get if the student lived in the small town and attended school in person. They buy laptops for the students, some other kinds of stuff. My sister came up the position because she was a teacher who left work to raise her child. She’d planned on going back to work when her son started school but when they got to that age she decided she wanted to home school her son.

Anyway, we’ve discussed what kind of families she works with. Certainly in my experience home schooled kids always came from fringe religious families. While there is still many of those, probably the majority, there’s other reasons today. RW beliefs are pretty common. The kids and families I’d met growing up gave me a pretty poor opinion of home schooling, but like many things results vary greatly. Some parents are very organized and do a good job. Sounds like there are plenty that aren’t really that devoted to making the necessary time to do it well. Not that much different than parents of brick and mortar schools. I’m wandering away from my original thought, and that is that politics had not been a driver for most families going that route, but it’s getting more so now. She’s been doing it for 15 yrs and especially since Covid families political stance is much more obvious. I used to think kids who were home schooled got short changed, but I’ve seen kids who turned out good. My nephew is a good example but my sister was really dedicated and not just scholastically. She made a great effort to get him socialized which is often lacking for some of the kids.

[gopiscrap]

10. I live 35 miles from this hick town

this place has always been a political disaster. I have a friend who teaches there, he says it's crazy town.

[intheflow]

11. Homeschoolers should be exempt from serving on public school boards.

Not gonna happen, but a girl can dream, can't she?

[cilla4progress]

15. Too commonsense -

Silly!

[Rural_Progressive]

13. Back in the early 80s I realized that this whack job version of evangelism

had the very real potential of becoming a potent force in US society and politics. I started watching things like CBN and other televangelists and became even more convinced. Never will forget how my liberal housemates mocked me and thought I was a "conspiracy" nut to believe there was any chance something so whacked out would move beyond the fringe.

I've always been a pretty good "dot-connector" and I saw the grass roots beginning of a powerful counter-movement to changes of the 70s. Organized, validated, and might I say demanded by a network of church congregations these people began taking over local governments, school boards, library boards, county commissioners, judges, anything that was being ignored by liberals as being beneath their need to focus on.

Well here we are a little over 40 years later and we're still doing too little, and possibly too late, to offset what has been created. I defy anyone to tell me that without the decades of consistent financial, boots-on-the-ground support this network has generated there is anyway TFG would have found his way into office.

All of this was happening right where we could see it and just like my housemates it has been laughed at, belittled, and ignored. Hope we learn from this mistake.

[Beartracks]

14. "In the face of the facts, they still chose to run with fears. "

==========

[obamanut2012]

16. THree Percenters don;t think women should be able to vote

How ironic.

[forthemiddle]

19. When you tell parents they have no rights when it comes to curriculum

Like Terry Mcauliffe did, you will lose.
Parents want the power (good or bad) to educate their children in their views.
School boards are the ultimate grass roots election.

[BradBo]

21. Its just a cover fore racism and...

… not wanting to help the poor.
Especially the ones with the brown skin.
But that will also include all women.
Just look what happened when a group of racist women started there own Proud Girls group.
The dudes freaked out and told them to go back to the kitchen and have white babies to save the race.

[ancianita]

23. Threats of III% death conditions a society's fear & adaptation to white supremacists, and

that fear is covered up by teeth gritting civility. Temporary agreements can create unjust peace but they don't solve unjust fear. Illegitimate fear.

What drives militias adjacent to a III%er household is their illegitimate fear -- fear of a black planet. They fear racial retaliation, their own safety; their own enslavement.
And so white supremacist organizations and politicians' policy and ideology is that America is for white people only. Local supremacists tattoo their warnings to all; they threaten anyone who allows anything multicultural, even if it's by majority rule and rule of law. They spoil for public win-lose clashes so they can fill public spaces with fear and threat.

Local "Working together" with tattooed militant racists is really appeasement to murderous white supremacy. Their deep illegitimate fear of being replaced by another race is the basis of their violence disguised now as patriotic self defense. These whites wait for that race war, gauging and testing any weakness in their white enemies.

What militant racists pretend is to work with other whites until their decision making power is unassailable, which is why they groom local law enforcement to be legacy of the slave patrols that existed all over the nation, not just in the South.

What we antiracists pretend is that they can change.

At local levels, we are the ones who have become ... not stupid, but scared-stupid, cowering under cover of 'adulting,' afraid to confront, take a stand, believing that if we don't talk about it, if we ignore it, white supremacy will go away.

Those of us who have lived around white supremacists, we have no excuse for not knowing they will not go down without a fight. They have to be soundly beaten and jailed. Which is why the Ahmaud Arbery white murderers are spending life in prison. That is the only way the rest of their kind learn.
Black people know that. It's time that their white allies know that.