Far-right group’s plan for Texas: School prayer, crosses, executions for ‘grooming’ | Opinion

Every now and then, somebody will show you who they really are.

When they do, pay attention.

The current example is the Weatherford-based Young Conservative Federation, a small group founded by a Denison man who has said he wants to execute adults if minors go to a drag show and try women for capital murder if they get an abortion.

Amid a statewide victory party for Republican legislative challengers who support private-school vouchers, the Young Conservatives took to X.com and posted their own plan for Texas:

“We will put Prayer back in schools. But why stop there?” the post read. It also suggested requiring: “daily, communal Psalm recitation; Bible class throughout Public School; all government buildings must display the Cross of Christ; Ban school counselors, hire local pastors/clergy.”

I looked first to see whether it was a satirical post or account.

It is not.

Look, I have been skeptical of all the warnings about a Great Christian Nationalism Conspiracy Theory, the idea that evangelical conservatives secretly want to take over the government and run the country under biblical doctrine.

But for a few, it isn’t so secret.

The Young Conservative Federation’s leaders include Jake Neidert, 24, of Denison, a Baylor alumnus fired last year as Arlington state Rep. Tony Tinderholt’s legislative director, and Joshua Medeiros, 23, of Weatherford, identified at different times as the group’s chairman or president and treasurer of its political committee.

It was Neidert who wrote on X.com in June 2022: “You want to force kids to see drag shows, I want to ‘drag’ you to the town square to be publicly executed for grooming kids.”

Yes, minors see R-rated content every day in movies. It’s not for little kids. But it’s also not a death penalty crime.

In 2019, Neidert wrote in the Baylor University newspaper about another capital crime. Neidert wrote outright that women and doctors should be tried on capital murder charges over abortion.

True, the official Republican Party of Texas position is that the unborn should have equal protection under the law. But even the party platform does not openly suggest the death penalty.

In 2023, Neidert was also seen on X.com in a photo posted by gun-rights celebrity Kyle Rittenhouse. They were with Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn, out shooting clays.

The Young Conservative Federation group broke away last year from a chapter of the more stable Young Conservatives of Texas.

Basically, the federation amounts to a few political hirelings, determined to either scare or numb Republicans into ignoring their toxic rhetoric.

The group makes no secret of its goal: to “promote Christian and conservative values” and “virtue and morality in order to secure the future of a Christian society.”

Nothing about freedom.

Nothing about the Constitution.

Not even anything about evangelism or Christian witness.

Just enforcing a “Christian society.”

The group also unearthed and reposted an old X.com comment by Chad Shoemake of Victoria.

He’s the treasurer of Texans United for a Conservative Majority. That’s the new PAC that channeled millions of dollars in campaign donations to GOP challengers from West Texas moneybags Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks.

“My legislative priority,” Shoemake wrote in 2021, “is to remove the pagan goddess that’s on top of the Texas Capitol and replace it with a crucifix.”

In place of the Goddess of Liberty.

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