This past week Americans were introduced to a new extremist group. Unlike so many others that have dominated the news in recent years, it consists predominantly of women.
Founded in 2020 by Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich, two former Florida school board members who opposed mask mandates, Moms for Liberty now has 120,000 active members of 285 chapters in 44 states.
The group presents itself as a parental rights organization “fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents.”
However, the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated Moms for Liberty a far-right antigovernment group that “opposes LGBTQ+ and racially inclusive school curriculum, … has advocated books bans” and “spread[s] hateful imagery.”
While it claims to campaign peacefully for school board candidates and educational policy, a well-documented article in Vice accuses Moms for Liberty of conducting “orchestrated harassment campaigns against individuals, that’s resulted in many fearing for their safety and, in some cases, their lives.”
With good reason. The head of communications and media of the Lonoke County, Ark., chapter spoke of plowing down librarians “with a freaking gun.”
Local chapters have focused on school board elections, endorsing 500 candidates nationwide, more than half of whom have won. Moms for Liberty, who proclaim themselves “joyful warriors,” also show up at board meetings to protest curricula.
The group has so much political clout that presidential candidates Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) and Nikki Haley (R) spoke at its national symposium in Philadelphia last week.
“Don’t mess with America’s moms,” Trump declared, vowing that if reelected he would, “take historic action to defeat the toxic poison of gender ideology to restore the timeless truth that God created two genders, male and female.”
“As president, I will fight the woke in the corporations, I will fight the woke in the schools, I will fight the woke in the halls of Congress. We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob,” DeSantis proclaimed, in a lame effort to mimic Winston Churchill’s famous wartime speech.
Haley told a cheering crowd: “When they mentioned that this was a terrorist organization, I said, ‘Well, then count me as a Mom for Liberty.’”
In addition to presidential hopefuls, prominent extremists also addressed the gathering, including antigovernment activist and purported Oath Keepers member KrisAnne Hall, who reportedly compared Capitol riot police to Nazi S.S. Troopers.
Other speakers included anti-LGBQT+ activist James Lindsay, who asserted that the pride flag is a “flag of a hostile enemy.”
Dark money funds Moms for Liberty as it does so many conservative organizations. The group catapulted from obscurity to national prominence thanks to the support of conservative media personalities. During its first year, it raked in $370,000, including large contributions from undisclosed donors.
So far Moms for Liberty has not engaged in violence, but it has ties to extremist groups that have. Journalist David Gilbert found links between local chapters and “extremist groups like the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, sovereign citizen groups, QAnon conspiracist, Christian nationalists,” and others. He also noticed an increase in neo-Nazi content on social media posts by members.
The Hamilton County, Indiana chapter of the organization quoted Adolf Hitler in its newsletter: “He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.” It later apologized for the quote, but the message was clear.
As many women as men hold extremist views, but historically they have been far less likely to act violently on them. A demographic study of the alt-right by George Hawley found that 5.99 percent of women and 5.24 percent of men had strong “white identity, solidarity, and feelings of discrimination.”
Until recently, however, women made up a small percentage of domestic extremist group membership and rarely engaged in violence. That may be changing.
Women now constitute the majority of QAnon followers, and some have attempted to carry out attacks based on the group’s conspiracy theories. In May 2020, authorities arrested Jessica Prim, who live-streamed her trip to New York City to “take out Biden” with the dozen knives she was carrying.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Dawn Bancroft took a selfie video in which she declared, “We broke into the Capital. … We were looking for Nancy [Pelosi] to shoot her in the frickin’ brain.”
Harassment of teachers and school board members by Moms for Liberty could easily escalate to assault and even murder.
Gun ownership among women has increased dramatically in recent years, increasing 77 percent from 2005 to 2020. Most purchase a weapon for protection. However, a 2020 survey of 6,000 first-time female firearm owners found that 14 percent indicated “riots/fear of mobs and civil unrest” and 12 percent claimed “upcoming elections/concern of bans” as prompting their interest in gun training. Both ideas figure prominently in conspiracy theories.
Moms for Liberty can, of course, contribute to violence without perpetrating it themselves. Their bigoted rhetoric adds to the toxic slurry of hate in which extremists swim. Lone wolves who drink the ideological Kool-Aid but do not belong to a formal group have carried out the most recent domestic terrorist attacks.
The rise of this new, female group fits into a pattern of post-Jan. 6 domestic extremism. The arrest of more than 1,000 people who participated in the Capitol insurrection and the sentencing of nearly 500, including Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stuart Rhodes and former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tario, forced groups to adjust.
Extremist organizations shifted their attention from the national to the local level. Denise Aguilar’s all-female Mamalitia is a case in point.
“We figured out that going to the Capitol and working that particular piece doesn’t do anything,” Aguilar told NBC News in a December 2021 interview. “It’s all about local legislation, your local school districts, your City Council Board of Supervisors.”
This new approach has authorities bracing for violence against local officials and volunteers during the 2024 presidential election.
The failure of these groups to disrupt the 2022 midterms offers hope that serious trouble can be averted, but defenders of democracy must remain vigilant. In Florida, liberal “blue moms groups” have arisen to oppose Moms for Liberty. Their example should inspire all of us to organize against extremists in our communities.
Tom Mockaitis is a professor of history at DePaul University and the author of “Violent Extremists: Understanding the Domestic and International Terrorist Threat.”