Fear of CRT
Promoting racist fears (having run out of all governance ideas), Republicans show they can only rely on the votes of the frightened. “Vote for us and we will save your children from vaccine-mandates, Critical Race Theory and transgender bathrooms.”
Your child’s actual need is to be saved from lead in the water, mold in the classrooms, diesel exhaust and school shooters. Utterly incompetent to deliver actual safety from real threats (bad for business), Republicans invent imaginary enemies and hire the Marc Thiessens of America to frighten you.
In his recent “The danger of critical race theory is still real”, columnist Marc Thiessen proudly weighs in on a topic he researched with one phone call. No matter, Thiessen weaves in all the memes but Jesus: CRT means “totalitarian regimes … Marxism and Nazism … teaching whites are the oppressors … rejects democracy … rejects reason and cannot be questioned … inversion of color power ... led to the rise of ideologies that have killed millions ... the only solution becomes violence ... is so dangerous and must never be used to indoctrinate America’s children.”
Be afraid, White America (now known as “suburban moms”). Trust us to save your child from the threat we invent. There isn’t a single program of Critical Race Theory being taught anywhere in American public schools. No matter, be afraid anyway.
Of course, Thiessen is not being paid to tell the truth. That is the job of the United States history teacher at your child’s school. Thiessen’s job is to frighten you into intimidating local school boards, frothing at the microphone during public comments, and turning out the Republican vote.
Pretending that CRT is lurking in wait for Virginia schoolchildren just won Youngkin the Virginia governor election. CRT was never in Virginia schools, and it was a lie to run on eradicating it. “Seizing back control of the education issue from liberal elites” is how conservative media frames it, but it is only forcing public education to continue dispensing the same white-washed baby food that it always has fed our children. The “CRT” fantasy has become a conservative label for broadening the American History curriculum to include the shameful bits. CRT terrifies Thiessen because those shameful bits continue today, giving the lie to “a level playing field,” “equal opportunity,” “equal before the law,” and other mythologies that imply Whites are only on top because of their merits.
— Thom McCombs/American Canyon