Trump is convicted but that isn't the real battle

While we are focused on Trump and his insanity, the raging fight has been right in your local schools and victory in that long war is still in doubt

Trump is a convicted felon

I can’t tell you how long I’ve wanted to be able to write those words. As most of you know I’ve been in this battle for a long time. Even before I joined the Lincoln Project in August of 2020, I was dealing with him and his machinations as a veterans advocate and small businessman outside of Washington D.C. I have taken the potshots and attacks from the usual bits of being called a ‘pedo’ to questioning my veteran credentials to, of course, being sued by his militant minion Mike Flynn for $150,000,000 over a single tweet.

So…it’s somewhat personal to me.

Yet, here we are. I’m writing this at my home in St. Louis where I remain a free and happy citizen and Donald Trump is now a convicted criminal. Sometimes there are moments that have bigger satisfaction than others.

But there is more

The thing is that this is far from the end of the MAGA movement even if he ends up in jail or his diet of McDonald’s ‘hamburders’ finally catches up with him. We have to accept that the extremism he unleashed was as much rolling already and he simply became their icon or cypher. The true extremist movement that has brought together Christian Nationalism, old time racists, and more was already there but has only taken fuel and accelerated under Trump and his collaborators.

You need to look no further than your local schools to know this. We have talked before about the ‘Moms for Liberty’ movement and their attacks but I wasn’t even aware that all of that actually started in an idyllic suburb of Dallas and Fort Worth called Southlake.

It was there in the early months of the COVID Pandemic that the paranoia about Black Lives Matter and COVID restrictions morphed into a local movement to seize control of the school board and implement culture war policies and Christian Nationalist extremism.

It began with angry protests about wearing masks and now they are stripping funds from public schools and chasing off teachers of color and the LGTBQ community.

A Colorful Cast

Journalist Mike Hixenbough was not far away and caught wind of the changes when his local community Facebook Page was lit up just before July 4th, 2020. He saw his neighbors in the subdivision posting tips that ‘antifa operatives’ were seen buying ammunition locally and planned to attack the subdivision and Independence Day celebrations.

No…really. This actually happened.

It led him on a journey to document this moment and what it meant. Mike ended up being in the front seat for what would become a national wave full of the most colorful characters you can imagine from failed Army officer and former Congressman Allen West, former NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch, Christopher Rufo, and so many more.

He ended up producing an award-winning podcast about the experience and now is out with a new book called ‘They Came for the Schools’ that lays out the entire moment in breathtaking fashion.

The story is both fascinating and depressing but incredibly important for us to understand now. That even as we see Donald Trump finally seeming to face some accountability, much of our country is lost to his delusions and extremist movement. They don’t care if he comes or goes because their agenda remains the same. Remake our country as a Christian theocracy in their image of a fantastical bygone era where white men ruled and everyone else knew their place.

So, while you are watching the unfolding insanity around Trump, I hope you will take a moment to watch this interview and pick up his book. Our fight is far from over.

The new show

Mike Hixenbaugh

A coordinated and well-funded movement has been sweeping the nation to roll back diversity, support for LGBTQ and minority students, and leverage vouchers to defund public schools. It started in Southlake, Texas and Mike Hixenbaugh has been following it all along. His new book ‘They Came for the Schools’ details his painstaking research and what this movement means nationally, and how they are starting to lose too. Hixenbaugh is a senior investigative reporter for NBC News, has been named a Pulitzer Prize finalist and won a Peabody Award for his reporting on the battle over race, gender, and sexuality in American classrooms. They Came for the Schools, his first book, is the winner of the prestigious Lukas Work-in-Progress Award. Hixenbaugh’s work at newspapers in Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, and Texas has uncovered deadly failures in the U.S. military, abuses in the child welfare system, and safety lapses at major hospitals. He lives in Maryland with his wife and four children. Learn more at www.mikehixenbaugh.com.

Thank you so much for being part of this community.