Americans who like basic American things like apple pie, baseball, and the Constitution are considered domestic terrorists these days.
If you think we should honor George Washington instead of George Floyd, you are a fascist colonialist pig who deserves to die a slow death. If you think censorship is bad and kids shouldn't be at drag shows, or that the free market is pretty neat, the media wants you to know that you are the abnormal one.
Cue this story about a Colorado school board that went red in the last election and started implementing basic policies that wouldn't have been controversial until five minutes ago when the racist rainbow brigade took the reins of power. The media had a field day painting the board as evil neo-Hitlers who want to implement The Handmaid's Tale on the free world:
You can go read our prior article if you want to peruse the details, but NBC News painted the Woodland Park school board as abnormal, evil thugs trying to strong-arm innocent teachers and staff into teaching horrible things, like "promot[ing] positive aspects of the United States."
These rapid and sweeping shifts weren't coincidental — instead it was a plan ripped from the MAGA playbook designed to catch opponents off guard...
I had the opportunity to connect with David Illingworth, the vice president of the Woodland Park, Colorado school board, to unpack his thoughts on the media's hit piece and the reaction thus far.
I also had the chance to ask him about his board's vision for education in America. Is it really that radical to teach students that America is pretty awesome, or to ban teachers from sharing the finer points of their own transgender communist religion?
I first asked David about the response to the media coverage. The obvious goal here was to apply public pressure. The leftist media thinks that traditional beliefs held for thousands of years are backward and regressive, so they hope to shame squishy conservatives into believing that conservatives are the weird ones. Far too often, we see the media spin but don't hear what happened as a result.
To my relief, David said the response was "overwhelmingly positive," with "tremendous national enthusiasm for a school board focused on improving children's education instead of acting lockstep with Big Union demands."
What the media doesn't see is that this isn't primarily a right-left issue at heart. Parents who could care less about politics are getting frustrated after years of lockdowns and increased demands from teachers' unions while schools continue to fail and kids suffer. Everyone except the radical lefties know the system is broken.
I get people who come up to me all the time and tell me they're praying for us and support us. Since the NBC story, I have gotten about 5 anonymous emails and several anonymous harassing phone calls calling me a Nazi f***ot and fascist that should rot in hell, but honestly that's not much more than the abuse heaped on us daily by the local fringe element that shrieks at us regularly.
The people who regularly call conservatives Nazis are usually leftists who believe in using government-corporate alliances to squash dissent. It never ceases to amaze me that they label others what they actually are.
Here's what David and the Woodland Park board believe. See if this vision for education fits within a "fascist" framework:
Schools should be a welcoming place for children to learn what they need to become independent citizens ready to make their own way in the greatest country on Earth. Schools do that by developing knowledge as well as character. We must provide a culture of freedom, competition, and kindness, if we want kids to grow on their own and learn to stand tall on their own. School choice is an important tool to ensuring parents find the right fit for their kids and maintain control over their child's education and development, but those principles must be ingrained at all levels — macro and micro.
Basically Hitler, amiright? Only an extremist would believe in [checks notes] freedom, competition, and kindness within a system that builds character and fosters independence!
And did you notice he called America "the greatest country on Earth"???
Now compare that to what the Colorado teachers' union believes:
I asked David about his response to NBC News' claims. The outlet says it makes "ill-advised decisions and lacks transparency." Those of you who read Not The Bee know that we put our own personal flare on stories, but I can objectively say that this response struck me, since I am someone who lives in a school district where I feel my voice is not heard:
Before we were elected, people didn't attend school board meetings because they didn't think they mattered — and they didn't. The Woodland Park School Board didn't represent the people because they saw themselves as representing teachers and administrators. We hadn't even had a school board election in about a decade. Now people know their voice matters, and whether you're for or against me, that's a good thing.
He's inviting open dissent and debate – you know, like only fascists do!
As I mentioned, I live in a school district where the voices of parents are not heard unless they are transgender activists of color. Despite living in the Midwest in a "purple" city that's surrounded by a sea of red – a city where the most prominent international businesses are owned by outspoken conservative Christians – our school boards have been captured by leftwing ideologues who have pursued power while the rest of us were trying to live our lives.
When my children's leftist school board says they want "inclusion" and "democracy," they mean they want people who look different but think alike and they want people who are free to make the choices they pre-approve. My personal pushback to school administrators on issues such as virtual book readings of Robin DiAngelo's "White Fragility" for parents (that I affectionally referred to as Communist Bible Studies) was met with Marxist gobbledegook about me not being "tolerant" enough.
But the leftist activists who have taken over most school boards in America don't care about debate and the beliefs of various families. They only care abut advancing their own religion under the guise of secularism.
To think that I could actually speak freely and be listened to at a school board meeting is a refreshing thought indeed!
Sadly, it isn't just the school boards that have been conquered by the woke, but the classrooms too. One of the media tactics used in the hit piece against Woodland Park was to quote disgruntled far-left teachers, along with a little heroic pose to let their readers know that the activist educators are the good guys. In the NBC piece, one such teacher was David Graf.
"This is an active case study on what will happen if we allow extremist policies to start to take over our public education system," Graf said.
In a way, that quote was the heart of what NBC News wanted to say. These conservatives are dangerous, they imply, using extremists like Graf to paint the picture.
I asked David about men like Graf. How do you push back against an insane statement like that without seeming like the "pouncing Republican"? The media loves to portray conservatives as bullies when they respond to very insulting, extreme statements like Graf's.
Here's what he said (emphasis mine):
People like David Graf don't hear themselves but I do, and parents all over the country like me do. What he's saying is that a middle-aged man who happens to have a bachelor's degree somehow answers to no one when it comes to what is taught in our schools — he won't suffer the parents of the children in his class, nor even the people's duly elected representatives vested with total authority over the government of the school district. Teachers work for the people, not the other way around. The idea that a teacher should be totally unaccountable to parents and the democratically elected government is not just dumb, it's dangerous. Parents should be in charge, and in Woodland Park they are. As to those exiting, I can't and wouldn't want to stand in the way of anybody exercising their liberty to work where they want. That's freedom. For teachers who put politics above their students, maybe Woodland Park just isn't the right fit for them.
I'm giving you all the block quotes here so you can judge Woodland Park's perspective for yourself. What seems more extreme here: The teacher who calls accountability "extremist" or the school board that wants to give power back to the parents?
I know about 12% of the U.S. population has an I.Q. under 83, but even the people in that category would have to work overtime to answer that one wrong.
On the issue of who is extreme, I asked David his thoughts. How do we let normal Americans know who is who? So many people still believe the media.
We must never give in to those who use inflammatory language to try and shut us up and force us out. They try to drive us out everywhere, and now they are trying to drive parents out of their own children's destiny. There's nothing more extreme than removing a child from a parent's love, care, and guidance. We must not only hold true and steady, but we must expose them for what they are, like LibsofTikTok. Chaya Raichik, Chris Rufo, and James O'Keefe have shown the way. They cloak their objectives and methods behind words like "gender affirming" and "equitable." The reality is discrimination, strife, and ruined lives. We have the receipts and we have the tape. That's the way. They win by censorship; we win by truth. That admittedly takes a little courage. But it's worth it.
Every day, I see more and more people exhibiting this little bit of courage. In any great story, the good guys are always vilified by the bad guys, sometimes to the point where the good guys want to give up. But then something happens – a cascade preference, where things move slowly but then quickly. All of a sudden, what was powerful a moment before is ruined.
We're starting to see this everywhere. Bud Light might be the most clear example. No one would have dared criticize a company's transgender advertising two years ago, but now something is shifting. It's palpable. As Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillion says, never let them censor you. Never give in to the lie. The truth is the most important weapon you have.
So what should you do if you're sick of the woke religion dominating the classroom and scaring off anyone who disagrees?
David had thoughts about that as well:
I encourage parents and educators sick of politicians and activists undermining their schools from within like termites eating away at the foundations, to make your voice heard, at public meetings, at schools, and in elections. When I ran, there hadn't been an election in ten years for school board, and people told us we would never win, and that if we did win, we couldn't accomplish anything. I won in a landslide, I've beaten a recall effort, and now we're making national news because they're afraid our record of success will light the way.
It's easy for people to sit back and criticize conservatives in the trenches. I'm sure you could find a legitimate criticism of the Woodland Park board since they're human and everyone has flaws, but to do so behind your keyboard from the safety of your own home is cowardice. It takes guts to get out there and lead in a chaotic arena.
I'll admit there are times I've thought I could never make much of a difference in my own district, but David's story dispels such nonsense.
You'll never know what's possible until you try.
Since I was elected 18 months ago, we've accepted the first charter school in district history, Merit Academy (now our most popular school!), we've given the biggest pay raise in district history, we've extracted ourselves from teacher union influence (see the Colorado Education Association's resolution to destroy capitalism, and our responsive resolution to value freedom, including economic freedom), and we have grown student enrollment by 15%, placing us in the top five growth in the state. We're doing something right, and they're worried it will spread.
Think of the billions of dollars spent yearly to get you to stay complacent and follow what the talking news heads tell you.
Information is power and we've got oodles of information in 2023. What we need now is wisdom and truth, because when you have that, you can see through the lies of the most orchestrated propaganda machine in history.
I found David's story and words encouraging. To that end, NBC News and its allies have failed so spectacularly that they not only failed to convince me that Woodland Park's school board is doing anything wrong, but they actually amplified their work as a benchmark for Americans everywhere.
