Connecticut Democrats share cartoon comparing parents angry at school boards to horror villains

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In media news today, Joe Rogan defends Dave Chappelle, Condoleezza Rice denounces critical race theory, and the reporter who alleged Joe Manchin was mulling an exit from the Democratic Party doubles down

The official Twitter account of Connecticut Senate Democrats raised eyebrows after sharing a cartoon Thursday comparing parents angry with their school boards to horror movie villains.

The cartoon depicts a woman encountering a group of famous horror movie killers like Pennywise the Dancing Clown, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees, asking them, "Going trick-or-treating?" They reply, "Going to a school board meeting."

Liberal cartoonist Nick Anderson, whose recent cartoons include depicting Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., being sold at auction, produced the work.

Concerned parents at the Fairfax County School Board Meeting (Fox News Digital)

Startled media figures and parents were stunned that a political party would launch a direct attack at parents.

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Fox News contributor Joe Concha called it "political suicide" to "make parents the enemy," while fellow contributor Guy Benson said the "contempt is real and it is deep."

"Protest isn't supposed to make you feel comfortable," columnist Tim Carney tweeted.

"What would Democrats do differently if they were deliberately trying to show utter contempt for parental rights?" writer Mark Hemingway asked.

One school superintendent noted that school board members themselves were "also once angry parents who spoke out for what they believed in."

"They're not movie monsters, they're just parents who care about their kids," he wrote. 

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The state made headlines last month when a group of conservative activists in Guilford, Conn., opposed to critical race theory swept school board primaries. The issue of parents' role in their children's educations has animated the Virginia governor's race as well, with Democrat Terry McAuliffe facing criticism for suggesting parents shouldn't dictate what's being taught.

(Getty Images/iStock)

The Connecticut caucus shared the cartoon as Attorney General Merrick Garland faced grilling from House Republicans on Capitol Hill over a range of controversies, one of them directly involving parents across the country who've criticized school boards for controversial teaching methods and coronavirus mandates. 

Garland rejected claims that the Justice Department would label parents as domestic terrorists following an Oct. 4 memorandum he sent to DOJ employees about intervening in incidents of violence or intimidation targeting state and local school board officials. 

 U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland testifies at a House Judiciary Committee hearing at the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 21, 2021 in Washington, D.C. Garland is expected to give testimony about the status of the Justice Department's investigations into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.  (Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images)

Left-leaning media outlets like CNN and MSNBC have run frequent footage of over-the-top language and threats from some parents to depict the overall atmosphere of fed-up parents as "out of control," as one MSNBC anchor put it.

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Host Alicia Menendez – the daughter of Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. – played two clips of parents earlier this month criticizing mask mandates at a school board meeting, with one woman saying, "I will come after you," and another saying the board was allowing "child abuse." The clips were, to Menendez, proof of how "out of control" things had gotten.

Fox News' Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.