"If this doesn't demonstrate the validity and utility of the critical theory worldview to at least some extent, I don't know what does."
If you listen to the actual debate, it's not about whether CRT has validity/utility or not.
Think of it this way: There are multiple paradigms in existence that provide a lens for understanding history, sociology, current events, and politics. CRT is one such lens. Another is humanism. Another is religion; Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc., all provide a different lens. Nietzsche. Aristotle. Marx.
See where we're going, here?
What parents are saying, generally speaking, is DON'T PICK A LENS FOR MY KID; THAT'S MY JOB. I suspect if a public school district were to adopt an Islamic curriculum written by Saudi Arabia, you'd be the one screaming at the school board meetings. Or if they were to pick A Beka. Etc, etc, etc. The message would be the same. "Don't indoctrinate my kid into your way of thinking."
Parents are not keen, it seems, on having detailed discussions on nuanced partisan issues like white privilege, systemic racism, intersectionality, etc., when they want their kids to be learning STEM. School hours are a finite resource of which there are already too few.
"The controversy is the handiwork of one conservative activist Christopher Rufo who went about deliberately remaking CRT into a generalized racial resentment dumping grounds for White conservatives by using a hefty amount of fabrication, exaggeration, and mischaracterization of documents, reports, books, articles, lesson plans, etc.: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/07/christopher-rufo-and-the-critical-race-theory-moral-panic.html"
Yes. Rufo took something that already existed and he and others found objectionable seeping into the standard curricula, labeled it, targeted it, and weaponized it. Whether it's fabricated and exaggerated or not is debatable; what's not debatable is that parents are finding things in curricula they take issue with. And in a free society it's their right to do so, especially when they're footing the bill.
"As a strategy for the midterms, what Democrats could do is reassert its modern role as the party of civil rights and recommit itself to the practical goals of the Civil Rights Movement; affirm a narrative of racial progress while acknowledging the existence of a legacy of racism that still needs to be overcome; emphasize the need for accurate, comprehensive teaching of American history that doesn't resemble any sort of propaganda"
Gee, that's what the critics of CRT in the schools want too. Kumbaya. :-)
