Opinion | Manatee commissioners flirting with fascism at public libraries
Board's theocratic wing wants to crack down on LGBTQ and other 'woke' topics. But it's not really about the books.
You can make book on this: the Manatee County Commission’s discussion on Tuesday about changes the theocrats on the board want to see in the books and other materials available in county public libraries had little to do with the books; and everything to do with them wanting to use the libraries, one of the truly democratic institutions in any city and county, to bolster their “anti-woke” credentials, cover up their anti-LGBTQ bigotry and impose the narrow-minded political, religious and anti-intellectual views of their far-right base on the rest of us.
For a bunch of self-professed “conservatives,” the theocrats on the board — Amanda Ballard, Vanessa Baugh and James Satcher; and to a lesser extent Jason Bearden and Mike Rahn — sounded ready to take a very un-conservative, almost fascist approach and expand the power of county government to limit what the public can find in libraries and to ignore and denigrate many of the people they represent because of how they live their lives.
Watch the meeting for yourself, starting at the 1:05:45 mark, to see how frightening it got.
To understand what the discussion was really about, just listen to what they said.
As usual, Baugh said the quiet, very scary part, out loud, with a pronouncement that made her seem more like a tinpot TV preacher or an ayatollah in Iran, than someone who truly understands the role of public libraries or has ever read a book about American history.
“This government was based on God, and we seem to have lost that,” Baugh said. “With what I’m hearing about in our libraries, we seem to have really lost it.”
To her credit, Baugh almost never is subtle about her un-democratic views.
In Vanessa Baugh’s Manatee County, there would be no room in the public library for books on LGBTQ issues. In Vanessa Baugh’s Manatee County, she said, “if we should be putting anything in our libraries, it should be the Constitution, the freedom that we have in this country, the form of government we have in this county, especially here in our state.”
What Baugh was “hearing” about the libraries was a report from Ballard, who maybe is the most frightening of the commission’s “anti-woke” caucus because she a) seems to do actual research, if only to confirm her predetermined position, and b) can present her views in a more coherent, more soothing fashion than some of her colleagues, especially Satcher who spent most of the discussion tossing incomprehensible word salads about how gay viewpoints are smacking us in the face every time we go to the library and the evils of the American Library Association.
Based on keyword searches she had done in the library’s electronic card catalogue, Ballard said there were too many books, for example, about the LGBTQ lifestyle, Marxism and veganism and too few about libertarian economics, Catholicism and those who take a more critical view of transgenderism.
Libraries should be repositories for all sorts of perspectives and Manatee County should try to remedy any unbalances by buying more books. Commissioner Bearden, in maybe the most ridiculous comment of the day not delivered by Baugh, suggested instead getting rid of books to make everything even.
Especially worrisome for Ballard is the possibility, narrow as it might be, that her children, ages 3 and 5, might somehow check out book about being gay or transgendered or worse, ask her what those words mean.
“It seems we have an outsized focus on these books,” Ballard said.
Ballard and Satcher, in another fit of non-conservatism, said they want to a create a new layer of government to review what books and other materials are in the library’s 1.2 million-item collection, superseding the training and experience of the library’s professional librarians, and to hear appeals when the professionals reject a demand that a particular item be removed from the shelves. Maybe, Satcher said, that could be a job for the commissioners themselves!
More public involvement with the libraries is not necessarily a bad thing but commissioners should take a truly conservative, freedom-based approach: Tell your constituents if there is a book in a library that offends their sensibilities or how they want to raise their children, then don’t check it out. Just because they don’t like a book doesn’t mean it’s not a must-read for someone else. (And while you’re at it, keep a tighter rein on your kids so they don’t go into a part of a library that might have books you find “objectionable.”)
Unfortunately, as long commissioners feel like they can scapegoat the libraries as part of their cultural war against all things woke, even if it means flirting with fascism, that’s not going to happen.
The culture war over libraries in Manatee County has spread from the schools to county government, making it even more imperative for the silent majority of residents to respond to the creeping fascism.
Public libraries have large, diverse constituencies. Now is the time for library supporters in Manatee to rise up in support of and to preserve these wonderful places as beacons of true liberty before the Manatee County Commission goes too far.
Marc R. Masferrer, previously a newspaper and digital editor in Bradenton for more than 16 years, was recently named a first place winner for commentary writing in the Florida Press Club’s 2022 Excellence in Journalism Competition for work published in The Bradenton Journal. You can reach him at Marc.R.Masferrer@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @mrmasferrer. You can also like The Bradenton Journal on Facebook.
How ironic that this Board professes to be “real republicans” and they consistently want to grow government and don’t honor freedom of speech, guaranteed by the Constitution.🤔
This government is based on God?? I actually had to listen to this discussion. Obviously, Vanessa has NOT read the Constitution, the Bill of Rights-as it is very clear, that the Government of the United States is NOT based on ANY Religion. That would be Iran, Afghanistan-not the US, as the establishment clause in the 1st amendment was intended specifically for the separation of Church and State. For some founding fathers a central reason for escaping England was to escape religious tyranny . Please educate yourself Vanessa-even you can go into library and check out a book.