Public Health Policy Reviews 41:
VALKYRIES 2 – From “Daughters of the Confederacy” to “Moms for Liberty.”
On June 3rd, 2024, Emma Vigeland of The Majority Report with Sam Seder interviewed Doctor Eviane Leidig of Tilburg University in the Netherlands about far-right women influencers and her 2023 book, “The Women of the Far Right.” YouTube video clip courtesy of The Majority Report with Sam Seder.
Who are the women supporting Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement since he announced his campaign for the US presidency in 2015?
What are the ultimate goals of female Trump supporters as they promote domestic and international public political policies that will completely reverse the reproductive rights, civil liberties, personal autonomy, and economic prosperity women and girls have gained since the 20th century?
When did conspiratorial thinking and delusions begin to dominate the minds and emotions of modern American Christian conservative women?
Where do the far-right-wing and evangelical Christian political movements promoting misogyny, racism, homophobia, and public divestment of local communities originate from?
Why is it so difficult for White women to realize that the most extreme right-wing political policies directly counter their individual social and economic interests?
How can voters save the country from Donald Trump, the MAGA movement, President Joe Biden, and the Democratic Party in November?
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“The Women of the Far Right,” a 2023 book by Doctor Eviane Leidig. Photo image courtesy of Eviane Leidig.
We began our VALKYRIES series yesterday by focusing on women in the national media who support Donald Trump and promote conservative Christian beliefs and values.
Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson are noteworthy because of their sexual harassment disputes with Fox News. Mrs. Kelly was also involved in a well-publicized public argument with Donald Trump over debate questions during the 2015 - 2016 Republican party primary.
Only after gender bias and social inequality affected Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson personally did they each decide to speak up and advocate against sexism. Their aggrievements were more about Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, Donald Trump, and other White men sullying their honor as White women – over any recognition of what all women must face in society.
Despite the prominence of wealthy and influential women who paved the way for Mr. Trump’s rise to power in 2016, poor and working-class White women became the vanguard of his MAGA movement in America during the Trump era.
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A 2020 “Women for Trump” campaign logo. Photo image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.
In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic became the focal point of extreme social anxiety, severe economic stress, and social ambiguity for many American citizens and people worldwide.
The United States of America and every other nation on earth suspended civil rights, shut down government functions and temporarily halted free-market commerce as COVID-19 spread across the globe. The world economy eventually shattered upon a proverbial iceberg of public health uncertainty and paranoid propaganda.
Individual psychological attributes and group dynamics can predispose people to interpret economic insecurity as an existential threat to their survival. The competition to survive and the fight for natural resources, material goods, and social status can create such conflict among ethnic groups that racism and xenophobia can seem normal. There is ample anecdotal evidence to suggest that economic insecurity amongst poor and middle-class White Americans also fueled the launch of Donald Trump’s Presidential run in 2015.
White working-class voters are perpetually preoccupied with diminishing employment prospects and psychological concerns motivated by a perceived lack of individual prestige in the social hierarchy amongst and against African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and various other ethnic minority groups in the US.
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Moms for Liberty: A Polarizing Force in Public Education and Politics
Moms for Liberty co-founder Tina Descovich in December 2021. Photo image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.
“Trumpism” has helped spawn a large number of politically radical groups dedicated to preserving what they define as traditional American cultural values.
Moms for Liberty is just one of a plethora of right-wing organizations that have gained social prominence in synchronicity with Donald Trump’s MAGA movement. Founded in 2021 by former Florida school board members Tiffany Justice, Tina Descovich, and Bridget Ziegler, Moms for Liberty has rapidly expanded into a nationwide network with over 250 chapters across forty-two states.
Moms for Liberty portrays itself in the media as a defender of parental authority and a bastion of student civil rights against what it perceives as government overreach and leftist indoctrination in schools. The group has garnered national media attention while drawing criticism for its divisive tactics and controversial stances.
Since 2021, the organization has emerged as a contentious force within American public education and national politics for opposing what it terms “woke indoctrination” in schools. Moms for Liberty has campaigned publicly against issues ranging from COVID-19 regulations to public school curriculums promoting racial justice and LGBTQ+ inclusion.
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The “Lost Cause”
The Elba, Alabama chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 2013. Photo image courtesy of Teresa Reed.
However, Moms for Liberty is simply the modern iteration of a long history and tradition of far-right-wing American female organizations and conservative women dedicated to preserving the social and economic dominance of White people.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is the prototype for contemporary groups like Moms for Liberty, which revel in embodying pride in “traditional American heritage” and perpetuating a distorted view of history. Established in 1894, the UDC emerged after the US Civil War with a dual mission: to honor Confederate veterans and perpetuate what they termed the “Lost Cause” narrative.
This “Lost Cause” narrative glorifies the Confederacy as a noble struggle for “states’ rights” while downplaying the vital role of American slavery in Southern secession and the Civil War. The UDC seeks to shape a view of US history and public education by promoting the “Lost Cause” mythology that minimizes the horrors of chattel slavery and glorifies Confederate leaders as honorable defenders of their homeland.
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The headquarters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia.
Through the manipulation and censoring of public school textbooks, civic commemorations, and political lobbying efforts – The United Daughters of the Confederacy remains a significant and contentious force in American society.
During the nineteenth century, the UDC advocated for school textbooks that portrayed slavery as a benign institution and the Reconstruction era after the Civil War as a period of Northern oppression, thus shaping generations of Southern children’s understanding of history. Central to the UDC’s mission is erecting monuments and memorials across the Southern United States.
A monument dedicated by the United Daughters of the Confederacy on August 8, 1908, in Bentonville, Arkansas.
These UDC monuments are not mere physical structures but ideological markers, reinforcing a narrative that sanitized the Confederacy’s motives and actions.
The UDC constructed the largest number of Confederate memorials in the early 1900s. The period is also notable because of the enormous number of laws passed in all the Southern states, which disenfranchised Black Americans and segregated Blacks from Southern society.