Texas Wants Turning Point USA In Every High School

Look, I’ve made this argument before — numerous times, actually — but MAGA conservatives have simply been lying when they claim their anti-woke or anti-critical race theory agenda is about protecting students from ideological indoctrination. The truth is, conservative leaders in and outside of the government absolutely want children to be indoctrinated; it just has to be the right kind of indoctrination. And they prove this every single day.

Especially in Texas.

According to the Texas Tribune, the Lone Star State has launched a partnership with Turning Point USA to create chapters of the right-wing organization founded by slain racist Charlie Kirk on every high school campus in the state. Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and Turning Point USA Senior Director Josh Thifault revealed the initiative during a news conference at the Governor’s Mansion on Monday, and not only are they planning to put a right-wing extremist organization in every institution where teenagers go to learn, but they’re already threatening anyone who tries to block it.

From the Tribune:

They did not outline any plans that would require schools to initiate the clubs, but Abbott said that he expects “meaningful disciplinary action” to take place against “any stoppage of TPUSA in the great state of Texas.”

“Let me be clear: Any school that stands in the way of a Club America program in their school should be reported immediately to the Texas Education Agency,” the governor said, referring to the name of the high school clubs.

The announcement comes after Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, who stood behind Abbott at Monday’s gathering, privately met with Thifault in early November to discuss expanding the organization’s presence in the state’s schools, which was first reported by The Texas Tribune. Four days after that meeting, Patrick said he would commit $1 million in campaign funds to help bring the project to fruition.

Just think about that for a second: Texas’ top officials haven’t even revealed a concrete plan for how they’ll implement their agenda, but they’re already threatening their imagined opposition with “disciplinary action” for trying to stop it. Could it be any clearer that Abbott and Patrick know what they’re doing is wrong?

After all, they’re perfectly aware that Turning Point USA isn’t a non-partisan, ideologically neutral organization. They know it’s a right-wing non-think tank that invites Kyle Rittenhouse to speak at colleges that don’t want him there, plans invasions of HBCUs to force anti-DEI debates on Black students, and wants an alternative Super Bowl halftime show that features Caucasian, MAGA-friendly artists instead of a Puerto Rican pop star who sings songs in Spanish. They’re fully aware that the organization they want in every single high school classroom in Texas was founded by a loud and perpetually wrong white Christian nationalist, who made racial resentment virtually his entire personality, and that it’s the type of organization that would give Uncle Ruckus acolyte Jason Whitlock a platform to mansplain why he doesn’t think women should be voting.

Of course, we’re talking about the same governor who signed anti-CRT legislation that dropped requirements for educators to teach the works of Martin Luther King Jr., the women’s suffrage movement, or that the Ku Klux Klan was “morally wrong.” And we’re talking about the same lieutenant governor who wanted to end tenure for college professors who taught CRT, an academic framework that is literally meant to be taught in colleges.

But this isn’t just about Texas leadership; it’s about white conservatives in power everywhere, who talk about political and ideological “divisiveness,” but are really only referring to things that make white people uncomfortable and contradict the notion of American exceptionalism.

I really don’t want to hear about how liberals and democrats are indoctrinating the youth when it’s conservatives and Republicans who sign action pledges to combat CRT with President Donald Trump’s ahistorical and inherently racist 1776 Commission report, and require teachers to teach that enslaved people benefited from slavery and that Black victims of racial massacres also committed acts of violence.

Just this year, the Trump administration’s Department of Education — which is currently being dismantled — announced that it was creating a “patriotic” civics course, and to do so, it joined forces with some 40 right-wing organizations, including Turning Point USA, the 1776 Project Foundation, and Prager U, an unaccredited conservative non-profit organization founded by a loud and proud racist. By the way, I can never mention PragerU without pointing out that it once produced an animated video for children that teaches that abolitionist and former enslaved person, Frederick Douglass, would have agreed with the U.S. government’s decision to prioritize the greater good of America over ending slavery.

Again, who’s really doing the indoctrinating here — educators who want to teach about the reality of systemic racism and the complexities of gender and sexuality, or red states like Louisiana, Arkansas, and, of course, Texas, that are fighting court battles to put the Ten Commandments in every classroom?

Still, to let Abbott tell it, Texas’ partnership with Turning Point isn’t about controlling children and pushing them towards conservatism.

“This is about values,” Abbott claimed in a statement. “This is about constitutional principles. This is about a restoration of who we are as a country.”

Nah — it’s about indoctrination. The least these people could do is not be cowards and just admit it.

SEE ALSO:

DOJ Investigating Protest During Turning Point USA Event

MAGA Plans To Invade HBCU Homecomings: What Students Should Do

Texas Plans To Put Turning Point USA Chapters In Every State High School, Threatens ‘Disciplinary Action’ For Dissenters was originally published on newsone.com