The Nebraskan Republican Party took some flak for posting images from Maia Kobabe's graphic novel Gender Queer. To be fair, the images depict what appear to be minors engaged in sexual acts and are highly inappropriate. However, as the book is available in school libraries around the state, it can't possibly be child pornography...right?

The tweets came in response to Nebraska Democratic Party chair Jane Kleeb making fun of Republicans and their position that "gambling devastates the family" calling them "fun haters."

The GOP account shot back with

"Like fun haters against fellatio being taught to school age children? @janekleeb Well u are right !! We have principles and values, not "everything goes" policies. Sorry to be sane."

And then attached the pictures from Gender Queer.

The post was quickly pulled down, and the Republican chair said it had not been authorized, but of course, this is the internet, and several screen grabs were taken before it disappeared.

That's when the former chair of the Nebraska Democratic party accused them of peddling child pornography and called them disgusting.

And this is where the disconnect in the party comes in.

Some Democratic followers saw the GOP's post as being disgusting and their claim that the book is in schools as being a Republican conspiracy theory.

But others were upset that the Democrat leadership had called the images child pornography and thought this book and similar LGBTQ books for children should remain in schools rather than being banned.

How are these people engaging in the same conversation?

And the Democrat leadership is playing both sides. On the one hand Kleeb says,

"Nebraskans are tired of Republican conspiracy theories and weird antics. The party has gone off the rails. They think lying about our public school teachers is a strategy to win elections."

On the other hand Kearney Public Schools Superintendent Jason Mundorf defended the inclusion of books like Gender Queer because

"We have students who are facing internal questions regarding their gender and sexual identity," he wrote. "These books can provide a context by which some student readers can identify with someone (even if it's a fictional character) who has had similar struggles."

And Democrat Deb Neary, a State Board of Education member said, the uproar involving the tweets

"risks hurting some of our more vulnerable student populations. I am quite certain that there is no school administrator, no policy maker, no librarian, no educator, no Democrat, or no parent in NE, that is intentionally promoting the use of inappropriate materials in our schools…[but]

I do know that Nebraska is one of only 2 states in the country that does not have an age appropriate and standardized health education."

Honestly, with all of the talking out both sides of their mouth that the Democrats are doing, the GOP backpedaling here was probably the wrong move.

Now is not the time for cowardice.

It's time to press forward and drive this stuff out of the schools. Our children and our future as a nation depend on it.