'Another one bites the dust': How a 'monstrous' far-right group’s local chapter met its demise

08 February 2024

When Moms for Liberty held its annual convention in Philadelphia in June 2023, they encountered angry protests from activists who slammed them as a racist, anti-gay, anti-transgender hate group.

Deep-blue Philly, however, isn't typical of Pennsylvania on the whole. Parts of Pennsylvania — the swing state that Democratic strategist James Carville famously characterized as Philly in the east, Pittsburgh in the west and Alabama in between — are much more conservative. And Moms for Liberty was making inroads in the Keystone State.

But the Daily Beast's Michael Daly, in an op-ed published on February 8, lays out some reasons why Moms for Liberty's Lehigh County, Pennsylvania chapter went from having 200 members to closing down.

The last three members of that local Lehigh County chapter, according to Daly, met at a diner in Allentown, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, February 6 — and decided to discontinue.

Daly explains, "The membership had dwindled from a high of 200 in the feverish days of 2020, when Janine Vicalvi first formed this local branch of what the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as an extremist hate group that grew out of heedless opposition to COVID mask and vaccine mandates. She decided she had reached an end point…. The other two at the meeting felt the same, and they voted unanimously to dissolve the chapter."

The journalist notes that Moms for Liberty has "sought to keep its nationwide ranks fired up with bogus calls for parental rights," but the Lehigh Valley chapter was unable to sustain itself with that type of message.

"The national organization preached that the way to power was through the local school boards, and Vicalvi's chapter endorsed a like-minded woman named Laura Warmkessel for a seat on the Parkland School Board," Daly points out. "But there were just not enough haters, and Warmkessel lost badly in the November election. That didn't help morale."

Jennifer Jenkins, a Brevard County, Florida school board member attacked by Moms for Liberty, isn't sorry to see their Lehigh County chapter discontinued. Jenkins posted, "Another one bites the dust" — and Daly is hoping that other chapters suffer the same fate.

"We can hope that the whole organization collapses under the weight of its own monstrousness," Daly comments. "But a chapter-by-chapter dissolution would also be welcome."

Michael Daly's full Daily Beast op-ed is available at this link (subscription required).

From Your Site Articles