Why That Salacious GOP Scandal In Florida Surprises Exactly Nobody

Florida's Republican Party has stripped Ziegler of his chairmanship, with the vice chairman telling him, "You cannot morally lead the Republican Party forward."

Which could fool the rest of us. If sexual propriety of the old-school variety were really the heartfelt concern that morality-minded conservatives say it is, then they would not be voting for a twice-divorced libertine who arranged sex with a porn star while his third wife was pregnant.

"I think apologizing makes you weak," Christian said, parroting the master.

Without a doubt, the Moms' aggressive behavior at school board meetings earned them outsized attention in the media. And that lured exhibitionists to the mikes where they could abuse school administrators, treat teachers with insolence and flash their ignorance with that what-you-gonna-do-about-it attitude.

Some right-wing school board members in Temecula, a city in California's Riverside County, got their mugs on "Fox and Friends" after passing a resolution condemning "critical race theory." The interesting part was that CRT wasn't being taught in the Temecula public schools.

This parental rights business is polling poorly among independents, and some self-respecting Republicans. "We don't want culture wars," a parent who worked for Orange County Republicans told Politico. "We don't want Fox News appearances. Our schools are not ideological battlegrounds."

In 2021, Republican Glenn Youngkin was elected governor of mostly Democratic Virginia partly on a vow to ban the teaching of CRT. That virtually none of that was happening in Virginia public schools seemed to have escaped notice. The following year Democrats swept the state legislative elections. Abortion had overtaken CRT as a matter of voter concern.

At least one Moms for Liberty leader halfway defended Bridget by arguing that the Zieglers' romp was conducted in the privacy of the bedroom. She did have a point. Now extend that understanding to the LGBTQ groups the Moms made war on.

Must we feel sorry for the self-described cultural conservatives who got taken in by the Zieglers? No, their role in American politics is to play the dupe. Some other con artist is surely waiting in the wings to take over.

In July, Trump praised Moms for Liberty as a "grassroots juggernaut." We always knew they were his people, though never in ways we imagined.

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.