How to make a Trump voter out of any undecided parent: Take them to a library
A couple of weeks ago, I took my daughters, 7 and 6, to the local library because I had seen a sign for an event that seemed like it would be fun. It was, sort of, if poorly organized and cheaply assembled. But the poor quality of equipment for the event was nothing compared to the poor quality of the atmosphere the staff working in the library created for people who don’t wish to be inundated with left-wing propaganda.
Honestly, if you know anyone on the fence about who to vote for next week, and you want them to vote Republican, bring them to your local library.
I live in western Maryland, a conservative area of a liberal state. This area will go for Donald Trump for president, Larry Hogan for Senate and Neil Parrott (R) for House. But our public library would fit perfectly in San Francisco.
Not many people go to the library. The internet exists, after all. Most of the people you’ll see there are seniors and kids, and many times seniors with their grandkids. And I’m not going to be in a hurry to bring my kids back after what I saw there.
The moment you walk in, there is a large display case on the wall — two stacks of three shelves behind glass. The whole right side, all three shelves, were acknowledging “domestic abuse awareness month.” Pictures, stories, a shoe for some reason, etc. It didn’t make sense, but it did have my kids asking questions about what domestic abuse is. That's not a great way to start a trip to the library with young kids.
But okay, fine. Whoever wasn’t aware of domestic violence is now aware. I wasn't so bothered by the display as by how unavoidable it was. A lot of kids go to the library, after all.
Which leads to the next issue, the one that will flip your friends. It wasn't just that the kids' section was littered with left-wing books about gender-fluidity, climate change destroying the world and the world being racist against Black and brown people. It was that every single out-facing book — every single book on each shelf that staff chose to highlight by facing it out — was about one of these topics.
This is a conservative, majority-white rural town. Not one book featured a white kid’s face, or a traditional family of any race, for that matter. For people who insist “representation” is wildly important to the development of children, it seems odd that not one single book the staff chose to highlight for children seemed designed to make them anything but confused.
And the young kids' section was just the start. The young adult (or “teen”) section was just this side of Penthouse letters, both in the subject matter of the books and in the the cover art.
Play a game with your friend and pull random books out of the stacks — first one to find a book about a straight teenaged crush that isn’t about racism or sexism wins. It will take quite a while to find a winner.
You’ll find books like “Home Field Advantage” about the head cheerleader as she falls in love with the new quarterback — who happens to be a girl that the boys on the team won’t accept.
Or you might come across “Going Bicoastal,” described as “a queer Sliding Doors YA rom-com in which a girl must choose between summer in NYC with her dad (and the girl she's always wanted) or LA with her estranged mom (and the guy she never saw coming).”
Maybe you’ll pull “Some Girls Do,” a "contemporary queer romance from the author of Hot Dog Girl." The plot is that “an openly gay track star falls for a closeted, bisexual teen beauty queen with a penchant for fixing up old cars.”
These are just a few examples.
I couldn’t care less if someone is gay or not. I have gay family members, and my oldest friend is gay. I love them all. But to pretend and intensely brainwash children to believe that’s all there is, or that it’s more prevalent than reality, is to pervert a child’s worldview. This stuff is meant to confuse them at a time many kids feel confused already.
And spare me the “book banning” garbage that Democrats scream. If you want to buy 10 copies of “Gender Queer” — a book so inappropriate for kids liberal school boards forbid the public from reading from it at their meetings — go for it. This isn’t about banning books, it’s about what is age-appropriate for elementary school libraries.
The people screaming “book banning” the loudest are those who’d chain themselves to the doors if religious texts were found on their schools' shelves.
Take your friends in the next week to any public library and see what’s there. Then ask them if they think the library in their kids' school is better or worse. Odds are they haven’t even been in there. See where their mind goes.
Add to that the reality that so many schools are forcing boys into girls' locker rooms, onto girls' sports teams, literally taking opportunities away from their daughters while putting them at risk. Maybe that will help them make up their minds about how to vote.
Derek Hunter is host of the Derek Hunter Podcast and a former staffer for the late Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.).