Sacramento, CA—Five thousand years of recorded human history is dominated by tyranny and oppression. Kings, khans, despots, dictators, oligarchs and other sorts arbitrarily and capriciously coerced, killed, crushed and enslaved the masses. Tyranny has been the rule; freedom the exception. Indeed, freedom is fleeting and fragile. But it is worth fighting for and preserving.
Power can be toxic, and few can handle it magnanimously without it going to their heads and without others losing theirs. Whether taking the form of totalitarianism, authoritarianism or a dictatorship, the human capacity for oppression is breathtaking. Man’s documented inhumanity to man has been enormously devastating. In the twentieth century alone, more than a hundred million souls suffered and perished under the oppression of communist cabals coercively trying to usher in the ever-elusive Marxist utopia. Under their iron fists, other legitimate spheres of authority, including religion, the family and individuals have endured great suffering as a result. Ideas have consequences. Bad ideas can lead to harm and death. Conversely, good ideas lead to human flourishing.
The American experiment, with its concepts of limited government, government by the consent of the governed, check and balances and inalienable civil rights, among other fantastic ideas, was the beginning of the end of tyranny and oppression. Even with our many flaws, our exceptional constitutional democratic republic has created the freest, most successful, most prosperous and most compassionate empire this world has ever known. Tragically today, with the rise of neo-Marxism in the form of patently stupid and reality-denying woke ideologies like defunding the police, critical race theory and child abuse via radical transgender ideology and mutilation, America sits at critical crossroads. If we forget key lessons of history, we may be doomed to repeat them.
Totalitarianism is a system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state. As a student of history, philosophy and sociology, I can assure that Marxism, even in its shiny new woke packaging, is definitely not the answer for our problems. Woke is broke, ideologically speaking. Yet, day in and day out, our children are being indoctrinated in radical leftist woke ideologies in our public schools. Every day, in many ways, we are slowly killing the truth and allowing more breathing room for obvious lies. Currently, we are experiencing a “soft totalitarianism,” which may rapidly become more solidified, if not opposed and resisted. Don’t just believe me, ask the experts. Emigrants from China, the former Soviet Union or North Korea will confirm that the increasing instances of governmental and culturally sanctioned thought control and suppression of dissent we are experiencing today in the United States are eerily similar to their personal experiences of totalitarianism.
Are we awake yet? Are we paying attention? This actually is not that complicated. Marxism’s game plan is quite simple. Deconstruction and reconstruction are the battle cries of the cultural revolution. First, deconstruct truth by destroying nearly everything that is good, true and beautiful. This includes undermining the U.S. Constitution, the family, religion, the economy and our very form of government. This is accomplished by thought control in the form of propaganda and indoctrination. Dissent is demonized, silenced and crushed. Freedom dies. Second, reconstruct culture based on fear, deception and lies where the state is God and has total control of us, including our thoughts, words and actions for our own “good.” In this ugly “utopia,” orthodoxies of the state coercively replace the orthodoxies of religious groups, the family and the individual citizen. Tyranny thrives. Freedom dies.
Here, the government is controlled by an arbitrary and capricious oligarchy of unelected and unaccountable “experts” who ignore objective truth, distain the will of the people and rob us of our freedom to think and act for ourselves (think Anthony Fauci). Cancel culture has run amok when dissenting voices are suppressed and silenced. Good people are being de-platformed and some have lost their jobs. Why? Often merely because they committed the Thoughtcrime of not bowing in obeisance to the ersatz religious orthodoxy of the woke gods. During the pandemic, we all experienced the soft-tyranny of excessive government power and overreach. Unlimited government. Limited freedom. Closed churches. Bankrupt businesses. Closed schools. Vaccine and mask mandates.
California’s attempted deconstruction of the U.S. Constitution has been obvious to anyone paying attention. The Golden State’s loathing of constitutionally protected human rights has been exposed and repeatedly rebuked. In 2018, for example, the U.S. Supreme Court declared California’s AB 775 unconstitutional because, as we warned the legislature, it violated the freedom of speech of life-affirming pregnancy centers (NIFLA v. Becerra). Recently, the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) thought it was a great idea to try to force a Christian church and preschool to capitulate and forfeit their religious beliefs about human sexuality in favor of the state’s new sexual orthodoxy (gender identity and sexual orientation) if they wanted to continue to receive the federal lunch money they used to feed poor immigrant children in their community (Church of Compassion v. Bonta).
Many have described the feeling that we are going collectively insane in this mad metastasizing Marxist milieu. Currently, the cultural revolution of deconstruction is already nearly complete and the reconstruction phase is well underway. But is this really what we want? The deconstruction of truth and reality is perhaps nowhere more evident than in recent weeks in the bizarre behavior of our political leaders in the Peoples Republic of California (PRC).
Brave School Boards Resist State School Bullies
When it comes to public education, California has long prided itself as having local control and actively including parental involvement in public education. Certainly, one of the ways local control is affirmed and maintained is by voters electing school board members who reflect the values and desires of the community. However, as recent events have demonstrated, ideals and reality are worlds apart in California.
How do you solve a problem like Temecula? Perhaps the pandemic is at fault. Parents saw for the first time what their children were learning and many didn’t like it. Primary concerns were woke ideologies including critical race theory (CRT) and comprehensive sexuality education (CSE). Parents engaged, not only starting to show up in greater numbers at school board meetings, but nominated and voted in more moderate or conservative school board members.
In Temecula, this trend resulted in the school board’s rejection of CRT, removal of an obstructionist superintendent and legitimate questions and concerns about LGBTQ+ promoting history and social science curriculum. This is consistent with existing law (SB 48), which gives school boards the discretion to decide how young, how aggressively and how often to introduce LGBTQ+ “heroes” in the curricula. Governor Newsom threw a political tantrum, threating TVUSD that if they didn’t immediately adopt California Department of Education (CDE)-approved curriculum, he would have the CDE buy the books and deliver them to the district, charge the district for the cost of the books and fine TVUSD 1.5 million for its purported “willful violation of the law.”
AB 1078 is a massive political power grab that would radically shift local control and discretion to Sacramento, more specifically the Marxist bureaucracy of the CDE. It would amend SB 48 to take away the local discretion of school boards. This bad bill would allow parents, teachers or the County Superintendent to lodge a complaint with the CDE over concerns that a history of social science curriculum is not woke enough. This would allow the CDE to purchase the books, charge them to the district, and fine the district for its alleged woke transgressions.
But Newsom’s despotic ultimatum was a paper tiger. At the time his bluff was issued, AB 1078 had not passed the legislature. But that didn’t stop Newsom from playing the part of schoolyard bully and issuing a hallow threat. One thing that was clear is that Newsom and bill author Assembly Member Cory Jackson were conspiring together on this draconian bill as a means to target three duly elected school board members and deal with the “Temecula” problem. Yet, as of the publishing of this article, this overreaching bill sits in the suspense file.
As Governor, Newsom is supposed to execute actual laws, not threaten the prosecution of school boards for laws that do not even exist. Apparently, the “law” is whatever Governor Newsom says it is. Due process of law be damned. Transparently, Governor Newsom’s threat to Temecula, was an extreme overreach—a flagrant, arbitrary and capricious abuse of his power and a corruption of the due process of law. Love or hate Newsom, this is the very definition of tyranny.
Unfortunately, the California political scheming during this bummer summer of oppression didn’t end there. Chino Valley Unified School District (CVUSD), just up the road from TVUSD, was the next target on Sacramento’s hit parade. This time, it was not just one school bully, but two. The first on the scene was none other than attorney general Rob Bonta. Bonta’s powerplay was to write a legally misleading letter to TVUSD, ominously warning the board of education that a parental notification policy, which had been vetted by an army of attorneys, including yours truly, may violate the civil rights of students. His letter prompted a complaint to the California State bar alleging that his letter was false and misleading. Second, on the night of the vote, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond spoke against the pro-parent and pro-family policy at the CVUSD board meeting, but refused to stop talking after his time had expired. In spite of these obviously overreaching threats, Chino boldly passed the policy by a vote of 4-1. But that didn’t stop Bonta from initiating a specious civil rights investigation of CVUSD.
It almost seems like Newsom, Bonta and Thurmond are competing with each other for the crown of the radical left-coast’s most woke, petty tyrant of 2023. And as I write this, we are receiving word that Bonta just filed a lawsuit against CVUSD, seeking to enjoin the parental notification policy. Bonta’s lawsuit is a direct threat to both local control and parental rights. Local control, because he is trying to overturn the will of the people as expressed through their duly elected school board. Parental rights, because the policy simply empowers parents to know what is happening at school with their children.
The right of parents to direct the care, education and upbringing of their children is a fundamental right of all Americans, safeguarded by the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment and recognized by more than 100 years of U.S. Supreme Court precedent. Having failed to “persuade” Chino Valley Unified School District of his legal prowess via his specious threatening legal demand letter and baseless civil rights investigation, California Attorney General Rob Bonta continues to trash parental rights and now resorts to the courts to coerce CVUSD to conform to his will as a final desperate power play. His transparent purpose is to slow down the growing number of school districts adopting the model parental notification policy. Why? Because he is apparently more concerned about woke ideology than sound constitutionality. Overreaching Bonta apparently believes the absolutely insane notion that parents have no right to know what is happening with their child’s health and safety at our public schools. I submit that Bonta is about to be “schooled” in an expensive legal lesson in federalism, specifically that the U.S. Constitution is the “supreme law of the Land” and supersedes all state laws to the contrary, including the California constitution.
Earlier this month, I wrote a rebuttal letter pointing out that AG Bonta’s misguided missive completely ignores the big elephant in the room—that parents have a fundamental right to direct the care, education and upbringing of their children and that this Fourteenth Amendment civil right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution supersedes any state law or state constitutional provision to the contrary because of the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution. This letter was preceded by another legal memo, which the NCLP published back in June, urging school boards to adopt the model parental notification policy. Both the U.S. Constitution and cultural momentum are clearly in favor of protecting parental rights. CVUSD’s model policy, which has since been adopted by three other California school districts, merely requires schools to notify parents and guardians if their child was manifesting gender dysphoria at school.
Shortly thereafter, on the same day that hundreds of parents were rallying at the State Capitol for parental rights, Governor Newsom held a “California’s Family Agenda” press conference in Elk Grove. Clearly fearing that he was losing the argument, Newsom floated the specious air biscuit that California is more pro-parental involvement and for local control than other “bad” states. He argued that the TVUSD School Board opposed parental engagement. Without any evidence of irony or self-awareness, he tarred parents and school board members raising legitimate concerns about the appropriateness of radical books as engaging “Orwellian doublespeak” and argued that parents have been misled by “organized groups.” One thing that was clear from Governor Newsom and his partner’s comments is that, although Jesus is locked out, they think that it’s a perfectly great idea to coercively impose unsafe Buddhist religious practices on our children at public schools in the deceptively concealed form of “mindfulness” and “breathwork.” When it comes to LGBTQ+ issues, he encouraged “grace and humility” in this conversation. Sadly, Newsom, Bonta and Thurmond have demonstrated the very opposite. If bullying ideological dissenters were a political sport, they would be gold medal champions.
Speak Now or Forever Lose Your Children
Parental involvement and local control in public education have been under a sustained assault and have been rapidly diminishing in the Golden State for years, and we are now facing an existential threat. The foul winds of tyranny are blowing. Dark despotic forces in Sacramento are trying to bully us into complicity and silence. If we truly love our children, grandchildren and neighbors, and if freedom is to endure, we must not let them.
We don’t have any physical Gulags yet, but we definitely have psychological Gulags when our citizens no longer experience the freedom to think, speak or act in dissent to the seemingly omnipresent toxic woke orthodoxy. If we want to remain free, we must resist. We resist when we refuse to be silent. We resist when we speak the truth in love. If we love our neighbors, our children and our grandchildren, we must dissent and resist.
Do not allow yourself to be confused by Newsom’s Newspeak. Do not listen to what he says, rather pay attention to what he does. This emperor has good looks, great hair and slick words, but no clothes—and by clothes I mean any legal justification whatsoever for his bullying and threats. Refuse to be silent. Tell him. Children do not belong to the state. Children belong to God, to their parents and their families. Live not by lies.
Action Steps: Please pray that more California school boards will have the courage and boldness to step up and do the right thing to protect students and their families. Encourage your local school board members to adopt the Model Parental Notification Policy and direct them to the CPR website.
Dean Broyles Esq. 