The modern Republican party is no stranger to sinister moves: there’s gerrymandering, voter obstruction, baselessly questioning the 2020 presidential election result to the point of a deadly insurrection at the Capitol, aligning itself with Donald Trump in the first place; the list goes on. Still, the GOP’s latest trick is especially hollow: attempting to rebrand itself as the “party of parents.”
It began bubbling with Republican businessman Glenn Youngkin’s win over Democratic stalwart Terry McAuliffe in the much-watched Virginia governor’s race. In his victory speech, Youngkin declared he was “going to embrace our parents, not ignore them” and “press forward with a curriculum that includes listening to parents’ input.” (In a debate, in relation to school curriculum decisions, McAuliffe had stated he “did not think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”) Youngkin seized upon this statement, repeated it ad nauseam and out of context, and appeared to tap into the anger and frustration of parents in a state where public schools were largely closed throughout the 2020-2021 school year, stoking ire against teachers unions and COVID restrictions.
Seeing this as a winning strategy, other Republicans pounced: The day after Election Day, political journalist Julia Ioffe shared on Twitter that the Republican Study Committee—a cluster of conservative House members—circulated “a memo saying that ‘Republicans can and must become the party of parents.'” Members like Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican from Ohio, subsequently toed the new party line on Twitter.
The memo’s recommendations were as backwards as the rebrand itself, from opposing funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in schools to urging the Department of Justice to “ensure federal funds are not being used to fund racist CRT curricula.” Which parents and families, exactly, are helped by blocking diversity measures and curriculum that teaches children about the realities of systemic racism? These “ideas” were presented as new but rooted in the same bigoted thinking. The GOP doesn’t want to be the party of parents; it wants to cement itself as the party of white parents.
The Republican Study Committee went on to advocate for ending mask mandates and vaccine mandates—measures that masquerade as being about parents, but are really focused on the broader—and often warped—notion of “American freedoms,” as House Leader Kevin McCarthy phrased it in a post-Election Day memo of his own. The “freedom” to not wear masks or be vaccinated, doesn’t help parents: It comes at the expense of public health.
If Republicans really wanted to be the “party of parents,” they’d support the policies that actually benefit parents and their children, like paid family leave (in the latest congressional fight, one Republican lawmaker likened it to “government dependency”); affordable childcare and the child tax credit that provides much-needed relief to working families still struggling through the pandemic. They’d quit hacking away at women’s reproductive rights and allow people to determine when and if to become parents at all. If the GOP cared about the health wellbeing of schoolchildren, they’d stop advocating against masks and vaccines and for gun reform. The opposition to such measures traditionally comes from—you guessed it—the very Republican lawmakers now engaged in a performative state of concern. Parents have been consistently devalued by government systems. We’ve heard enough cutesy slogans and empty promises. The only “party of parents” will be the one who delivers the policies to prove it.
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