Casey DeSantis hit the campaign trail solo the other day just after launching a campaign video appealing to the “Mama Bear” voters across the country. It’s a hard-hitting video that drives home the point that parents, NOT the government, play the most important role in bringing up our children.

We will not allow you to exploit the innocence of our children to advance your agenda.

When you come after our kids, we fight back.

We are no longer silent.

We are united.

We are Mamas for DeSantis.

…and we will elect @RonDeSantis President of the United States.

Join our… pic.twitter.com/jo6HUATaVa

— Casey DeSantis (@CaseyDeSantis) July 6, 2023

Of course, the critics are out in full force. As are Republican strategists who, in my opinion, are missing the point entirely. 

“Well, they have to try something,” Republican political strategist John Feehery said. “I’m not sure if having Casey out there is going to help him break through.”

~Snip

On the role of a candidate’s spouse and family and just how measurably effective it could be, Feehery expressed doubt. He recalled that drawing attention to former President Bill Clinton’s spouse, Hillary Clinton, when he ran for president in 1992 and 1996 failed to take him down. “Bill Clinton still won pretty easily. So you know, ultimately, it’s not the spouse. It’s the candidate who either connects with voters or doesn’t connect with voters,” he said.

Of course a successful campaign means the candidate connects with the voters. However, what I believe these strategists are missing or flat out ignoring is the very real issues parents have been facing for the last three years. 

We’ve documented on a multitude of occasions parents getting booted from school board meetings, parents discovering teachers totally disengaged from teaching their children, politicians such as Joe Biden and failed governor Terry McAuliffe proclaiming that OUR children belong to the government, not us, and teachers unions calling parents warmongers.

As parents across the country have continually found out these last few years, their desire to protect their children ends with them being vilified, or targeted by the DOJ. 

Casey DeSantis Doubles Down on Husband’s Anti-Groomer Rhetoric In New Campaign Ad: ‘They’re Not Yours’https://t.co/4YAJlNSDoc

— Mediaite (@Mediaite) July 7, 2023

Rhetoric like that and the misguided pearl clutching over supposedly banned books pretty much makes Casey’s point. If books are completely banned, that means no one can find them ANYWHERE. As in, they aren’t on the shelves, they aren’t being sold, they can’t be found on Amazon, those banned books have disappeared entirely, right? Wrong.

Parents are asking that books such as Gender Queer be moved to more age-appropriate spaces in school libraries or be moved to commercial bookstores. Muslim parents who don’t want the transgender ideologies pushed onto their children because it is against their religious beliefs are being told by the likes of Jen Psaki that they are being brainwashed by the GOP. 

We're noticing the reemergence of an old ploy straight from the GOP playbook, only this time the party has a new target…@jrpsaki breaks it down. pic.twitter.com/wZ55u20476

— Inside with Jen Psaki (@InsideWithPsaki) July 2, 2023

Such rhetoric, once again, proves the ad’s point. Parents aren’t supposed to have a say in their children’s lives. We should sit back and let our kids and grandkids be managed by the state no matter how egregious and dangerous to the children’s health and mental well-being those ideologies are. According to all the critics, protecting our children’s innocence is wrong. Well, Casey begs to differ. 

Casey DeSantis chose the key early voting state of Iowa to officially launch her national initiative, “Mamas for DeSantis,” aimed at mobilizing mothers to support her husband’s presidential bid. “We are going to launch the largest mobilization of moms and grandmothers across the United States of America to protect the innocence of our children and to protect the rights of parents,” she said. A source familiar with the matter said Casey DeSantis didn’t only narrate the video announcing the initiative, she also wrote the script.

Other critics are calling this move one of “desperation.” Evidently it’s extremely far rightwing to want to protect our children. 

On the left, the video met with derision. Ja’han Jones, a columnist for MSNBC, called Mamas for DeSantis “a life preserver thrown to a candidate in distress, a desperate effort to save a floundering campaign before it drowns in its namesake’s mediocrity”.

Is it mediocre to point out that parents have every right to protect their children? According to the Fairfax County School Board, it is. 

In a work session, the Fairfax county school board was presented with a poll showing 84% of parents are against children being taught “Family Life Education” together. It showed, out of the 2,656 respondents, parents overwhelmingly want classes separated by gender.

Parents wrote overwhelmingly in the open-ended comments part of the survey that they were against teaching gender ideology in schools.

However, the Fairfax County School Superintendent, Michelle Reid, responded to the data by saying, “Honestly, the majority doesn’t always dictate, right?”

In other words, no matter what the parents want for their children’s education, the Fairfax school board plans to do whatever the hell they want, the children and parents be damned. Which, again, proves the point the Casey DeSantis ad is making. 

As Kim wrote here, public health is and should be a significant campaign issue. Within that public health space is the health and mental well-being of our children. 

The"parental rights" movement is the most grassroots movement in my lifetime

The need for parental rights was forced onto parents through the obscene behavior of teachers unions & bureaucrats

We didn't pick this fight, you picked it. Now you're angry people are fighting back https://t.co/FXRi9hEun3

— PoIiMath (@politicalmath) July 7, 2023

Indeed. In the coming days and weeks, it will be highly instructive to see who comes out with hit pieces against this ad, Casey DeSantis herself, and parents.

Feature Photo Credit: Original artwork by Victory Girls Darleen Click