The GOP & Parental Rights: Principled Leadership vs. Mixed Messages

Last week’s Monmouth University poll reported that 77% of New Jersey voters support notifying parents if their children seek to change their gender identification in school.

By Rubashov

Last week, Senators Doug Steinhardt and Mike Testa stepped up and provided the principled leadership New Jersey Republicans so desperately need. Senators Steinhardt and Testa filed motions to intervene on behalf of Hanover, Manalapan-Englishtown, Marlboro, and Middletown Public School Districts in support of the parents and elected school boards of those districts and against Attorney General Matt Platkin.
 
Steinhardt and Testa unambiguously placed themselves in the fighting ranks of parents and against government indoctrination and overreach. Senator Steinhardt made the bedrock conservative argument that the right of a parent to be involved in the raising of their child is a God-given natural right – and not a privilege granted by government:
 
“I can’t sit by idly while an activist Attorney General abuses the power of his office by trying to assert the State’s will over the God-given rights of good parents everywhere to protect and love their own children. It’s wrong, and they won’t be silenced – not on my watch.”
 
This was strongly reinforced by Senator Testa: “Raising your kids is a fundamental right that no unelected liberal politician in Trenton will take away from New Jersey families on my watch.”
 
Today, they were joined by Assemblyman Bob Auth and Senate candidate Mike Byrne. Auth and Byrne announce the formation of a “Moms for Liberty Coalition of Candidates” on the November ballot in New Jersey.
 
Moms for Liberty was founded to stand up for parental rights at all levels of government and now includes chapters in 45 states with six chapters in New Jersey alone. The goal of the new Moms for Liberty Coalition of Candidates is to win control of the state legislature and reverse Phil Murphy's radical, anti-family policies:
 
“Moms for Liberty is the fastest growing, pro-family, pro-child, pro-parental rights organization in America,” Auth said.  “The work they're doing to hold politicians, bureaucrats, and school boards accountable is vital.”
 
"The moms of Moms for Liberty know that the future of our country is inextricably linked to the strength of families," Byrne said.  "No one can hold a family together like a strong mom and Moms for Liberty is proving that no one can save a country like a group of moms."
 
In New Jersey, chapters of Moms for Liberty have been formed in Cape May, Burlington, Mercer, Ocean, Morris, and Bergen counties.  Auth and Byrne recently spoke at the monthly meeting of the Bergen County Chapter of the organization.
 
“Bergen County needs a strong Moms for Liberty organization to promote and defend the integrity of the family unit,” Auth said.  “And New Jersey needs Moms for Liberty to end Phil Murphy's secretive gender identity policies in our schools.”
 
Auth and Byrne noted that the recent Moms for Liberty National Summit in Philadelphia drew four of the top Republican presidential candidates as speakers: President Donald Trump, Governor Ron DeSantis, Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and Ambassador Nikki Haley.
 
“All across the country, Republican lawmakers are uniting with Moms for Liberty to protect parental rights and preserve the innocence of American children,” Byrne said.  “We're proud to stand with them and endorse their work in New Jersey.”
 
The principled leadership of Republicans like Doug Steinhardt, Mike Testa, Bob Auth, and Mike Byrne stands in contrast with the schizophrenic GOP playbook being executed by GOP establishment operatives across New Jersey. The state’s GOP establishment has played both sides of the parental rights issue. Just follow the money. No less than 14 incumbent GOP legislators (along with Assembly candidate Al Barlas) have the endorsement of the anti-parental rights NJEA. Senate Republican Leader Tony Bucco has taken money and support from and is endorsed by the anti-parent NJEA. Earlier, then Senate Republican Leader Steve Oroho pulled the plug on a pro-parental rights campaign in targeted legislative districts. SRM chairman Senator Bob Singer – along with Senators Jon Bramnick and Vince Polistina – voted to make Murphy’s anti-parent sock-puppet Matt Platkin the state’s Attorney General. Consultants for SRM and ARV advised GOP Senate and Assembly candidates to “stay away” from the pro-parental rights group Moms for Liberty. NJGOP Chairman Bob Hugin is affiliated with a pro-transgender PAC that targeted a GOP State Committeewoman for defeat simply because she was a biological female. In the June primary, the GOP establishment defeated parental rights advocates using dark money from a union that endorsed Joe Biden for President.
 
This latest “mixed message” was posted today on the Trenton News Network: 

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“It was a thoughtless, mindless action… It’s really disturbing to think that the kids were targeted.”
 
Dr. Paul Saxton, Fort Lee School District

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."

George Orwell