Republican Attacks On Critical Race Theory Flopped Hard In Midterms

What happens to children in public schools played a major role in how people voted in the midterms, but not in the way that Republicans wanted. Republicans wanted parents to be concerned about non-existent threats like "critical race theory," but it turns out that parents were far more concerned about their kids being slaughtered by a gunman in the classroom. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins discusses what happened based on the results of a new survey.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

According to a new study by the National Education Association, it turns out that Republican attacks on critical race theory, which we've heard nonstop about of course, until after the election, then of apparently all the problems went away with it. But, uh, according to this study, voters didn't care about critical race theory in the midterms. Now, that doesn't mean that voters in the midterms didn't care about what's happening in our classrooms. They absolutely do. It's just that they weren't motivated by critical race theory. They were concerned about the fact that their children could be slaughtered by a gunman while sitting in class. That issue the safety of our schools is one that motivated far more voters than the critical race theory ever could. And in fact, many of the Republican attacks on education, whether it be critical race, the gotta warp your children, or we gotta ban these books because they're teaching 'em things they shouldn't know.

All of it backfired spectacularly. Here is what they found. The survey found that a full three fifths of midterm voters said school shootings were a major factor in their vote. More than any other education issue, voters placed far less importance on right wing culture. War topics 43% were worried about school's teaching critical race theory to be politically correct. While 42% said they were worried about indoctrination from radical left-wing teachers. By comparison, voters were notably more concerned about book bans and conservative attempts to censor history. 55% said a major concern for them with students not getting a complete honest history of our country, and an identical percentage expressed worry about too many politicians banning books on topics that don't align with their personal beliefs like Martin Luther King Jr. Rosa Parks and the Holocaust. The findings reflect that while the idea of critical race theory fired up Republican base voters, it did not significantly move persuadable voters in 2022.

To put it another way, parents would rather have their kids learn the real history of the United States than the Republican version. They would rather have our kids not have to worry about being shot up in the classroom than they are about critical race theory. It's really sad that we had to have a study to show this, but we did because Republicans want you to be afraid of history while parents are more afraid of whether or not their kid is even gonna come home in the evening. That is what motivated them in the midterms, and that, of course, is something Republicans refuse to address, which is why they go for the culture war, low hanging fruit, which as the report says, it motivates the base, but it turns off everybody else.