Even in MAGA country, fiercely standing up against extremism wins!

At least it did in Ohio. School board candidates who had won waging their LGBTQ bathroom wars, lost big.

David Pepper focuses on important state and local happenings that also have lessons for anti-MAGA candidates everywhere.

From his substack, Lesson: People Don't Want Crazy on their School Boards

The article goes on to the case study of Matt Wyatt for Talawanda school board (in Republican stronghold Butler county). It's a great example of how exposing and fighting back fiercely against the ACTUAL consequences of extremism works -- and works amazingly well.

David Pepper shares what Matt Wyatt wrote to him about his campaign. It's a great read. One of the highlights was what Matt did when he found out the crazy MAGA opponent posted pictures of bathroom doors at the school, a clear violation of privacy and policy. He got stills from the school's surveillance video and made a flyer. His opponent, fortuitously named "Tom" (Tom Heisler) became Peeping Tom Heisler.



The bullies, the bathroom obsessed, the book banners get away with it because voters simply don't know how extreme they are.

And candidates pull punches because they don't want "backlash" from voters they mistakenly think endorse the insanity.

But when a fierce opponent powerfully calls out the extremists, voters get how their own schools are being upended. When voters see the actual consequences -- how extreme the extremists are -- they reject it.

The case of Matt Wyatt is covered in the first 9 minutes of David Pepper and Lisa Senecal's Nov 13 discussion. And they cover a lot more ground. Here's a quick summary:

From about 9 to 19 min, David and Lisa have a great discussion of the frustration over the defection of the 5, where our focus needs to be as we move forward, the dynamics at work, points of our strength, and how things could play out.

From about 19:30 to 30 min, the Epstein emails and document drops, and the politics of it all from the perspective of members of the House and Senate who are getting very, very nervous about being branded part of the cover up when things explode -- and the growing belief that there is no way this is not going to explode.

From 30 to the end at 37, Trump is costing Trumpublicans so much, but they keep going back to the well. Vivek's troubles against great candidate, Amy Acton. In Ohio there is a revolt on the right against the party for having embraced him.