Democrats see an opportunity to flip the script on the culture war issue
By Nicole Gaudiano
Democrats and progressive groups are upping their efforts to push back against conservative-led book bans that have sprouted across the country, using legal action, protests and legislation to respond to opposition from voters and keep books on library shelves.
Democratic elected officials in blue states are primarily leading the charge, taking action to protect book access as works dealing with LGBTQ and racial themes face record challenges, all while Republicans have tried to use the issue to fire up their base. Illinois recently became the first state in the country to outlaw book banning and lawmakers in New Jersey are pushing for their state to be next in line.
The White House has also sought to seize on the issue, with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris citing book bans as an example of “extremism” in the Republican Party. And the Education Department is investigating when the removal of books potentially violates students’ civil rights.
While Republicans have seized on culture war issues in recent election cycles, Democrats see an opportunity to flip the script on book banning and paint them as out of touch with most Americans.
“Our school boards are becoming hotbeds of personal, political, limited viewpoints where one parent or a small group tends to be the loudest but they really, even across the country, represent the minority when it comes to this space and this value,” said New Jersey Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz, who cosponsored legislation similar to the law in Illinois.
Polls show that book bans are generally unpopular with voters across party lines. A recent CBS News/YouGov survey found overwhelming bipartisan opposition to bans of books in schools dealing with race or slavery or criticizing U.S. history. Support for book bans in schools increases – more so with Republicans than Democrats – when the subject is LGBTQ characters.
Texas leads the way in attempts to restrict access to books, but the challenges to titles — mostly by or about members of the LGBTQ community or people of color — exploded across the country last year, totaling 1,269 – nearly double the 729 book challenges reported in 2021, according to the American Library Association. A record 2,571 unique book titles were challenged in 2022, up 38% from those targeted in 2021.
Several states have passed laws that could result in fines or even imprisonment for librarians and school personnel for providing sexually explicit, obscene or “harmful” books to children, a Washington Post analysis found.
Before 2020, most library book challenges were brought by a single parent trying to remove or restrict access to a book their child was reading, the ALA says. By 2022, 90 percent of the reported challenges targeted multiple titles.
Legislation, lawsuits and local organizing
This has all started to result in increased backlash from the left. Illinois’ recent decision to outlaw book banning was the most historic move against censorship. The legislation Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed will withhold state grant money from libraries that ban books when the law takes effect in January.
New Jersey Sen. Andrew Zwicker, a Democrat, said he sponsored legislation modeled after Illinois after meeting a high school librarian who was bullied online because she “refused to censor a book.” He expects it to pass this session.
“We’re seeing this increase of book challenges in New Jersey like we’re seeing around the country,” he said. “The difference here is, in a blue state, we can try to do something about it and go the other route.”
In New York, Senate-passed legislation aims to protect book access in school libraries. And California Gov. Gavin Newsom warned local education officials that book removal decisions may be subject to review by the Attorney General’s Office.
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of center-left legal and advocacy nonprofit Democracy Forward, said she expected groups to rise up as censorship efforts picked up pace.
“What we found is … the far right has just really been quite strategic in how they're waging this campaign,” she said.
The group is now taking legal action on behalf of parents, teachers and librarians. Their coalition filed an administrative challenge against the DeSantis administration for rules they say are causing teachers to shutter classroom libraries. They also filed a lawsuit in Arkansas pushing back against a recently signed law that could lead to jail time for librarians who fail to prevent minors from accessing books considered “harmful.”
Lawsuits are an effective response for the long-term, but local organizing is needed to address the immediate challenge to libraries, said Peter Bromberg, of the nonprofit EveryLibrary, which is backing anti-censorship groups with training and financial assistance through its Fight for the First platform.
“It’s taken time to get people's attention, and to help them understand what's happening, and also to help them understand that they have a path to do something about it,” he said.
At the grassroots level, groups of suburban women and grandparents are among those scheduled to rally this month in Philadelphia as Moms for Liberty, a conservative group on the front lines of education culture wars, hosts its “Joyful Warriors” national summit, featuring GOP presidential candidates Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley.
The progressive advocacy group People for the American Way is launching “Grandparents For Truth,” a group of grandparents and allies organized to “defeat this generation’s book-banners, censor, and authoritarians.” The June 30 rally in Philadelphia is their inaugural event. The suburban women’s group Red, Wine & Blue will be there, too, distributing some banned books.
View from the White House
At the national level, Biden highlighted the issue in his reelection campaign launch video, citing book bans among the “bedrock freedoms” that “MAGA extremists” are trying to take away.
“Can you imagine book bans in this year of our Lord 2023?” Harris said at a fundraising gala in May.
The White House announced this month that the Education Department is appointing a new coordinator to address the “growing threat” of book bans. A Department spokesperson said the “Office for Civil Rights will charge a coordinator to provide trainings for schools nationwide on how book bans that target specific communities and create a hostile school environment may violate federal civil rights laws.”
“They are trying to ban books, dictate what health care decisions women can make; make it more difficult to vote; and tell people who they can love,” Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a statement. “His message and his campaign's message is that these aren't red or blue issues - these are issues of freedom, and we all need to unite together to protect our freedoms from attack."