Newly elected Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia is changing the dialogue when it comes to COVID mandates. His first act in office was to move the decision about children wearing masks in public schools to the parents, rather than the school administrators. It was a bold action that is worthy of other governors to contemplate […]
Newly elected Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia is changing the dialogue when it comes to COVID mandates. His first act in office was to move the decision about children wearing masks in public schools to the parents, rather than the school administrators. It was a bold action that is worthy of other governors to contemplate as we enter year three of this never-ending pandemic.
The reaction from the left was so predictable it was almost humorous. Five school districts have sued the governor over his rule. They are spending taxpayer dollars that could be spent on education, on demanding that they have the authority to determine if children should wear masks, over the rights of the parents. They are literally fighting for the right to have masking done indefinitely under the auspices that School Boards know best.
What Governor Glenn Youngkin has done is brilliant. He altered the rules of the political game with the stroke of a pen. He has elevated the discussion about masks to where it belongs…the rights of parents. It was bold, decisive, and demarcated exactly where the problems were – with the left and the media.
His opposition have tried to shift this away from individual liberties and play in the ballpark where they are most comfortable: Fear. The first weekday after the announcement, a local station did a poll and the results were that 97% favored Youngkin’s decision. Whoops – those polling results were quickly taken down – it didn’t fit their narrative. Instead they were replaced with images of teary-eyed parents who were afraid for their children’s very lives. The ratio of upset parents to those who were pleased with the decision was easily three-to-one. They are trying to use anecdotal interviews to create the illusion that most citizens are against the governor’s making wearing a mask the choice of parents.
The left desperately wants this to be a debate about masks and science. It was never about that though. It was about the fundamental right of Virginians to determine what was best for their children’s education – and masking was not making for a highly productive learning environment.
My grandson is 12 and attends a school that adhered to the governor’s action. He loved it. Surprise, he saw the faces of some of his fellow students for the first time in three years! He told me that some students still wear masks, but that is their choice. These parents who are so afraid to have their children in school unmasked still have the right to have their kids masked. Their fear does not mean everyone else has to change their behaviors.
Choice is what this was all about. Our nation is split evenly on the lines of choice versus mandated control. The left strongly believes you must force things to make them change. As a former change manager, I can say that doing so generally generates more resistance…which is what they’ve done with the endless series of restrictions and policies. While I like to think that people in our country yearn to be free; COVID has taught us all that a segment of the population doesn’t want to think for themselves, they want to be told what to do, then forced to do it.
This move is much larger than just an occurrence in Virginia, this is a nationwide issue. What Governor Youngkin has done is pave a path for conservatives to stake out safe territory in terms of education and individual freedoms. Other elected officials or those running for office should be paying attention. Youngkin hasn’t just taken back Virginia for the Republicans, he has served them up a strategy that only makes the left look desperate and bad.
Governor Youngkin hasn’t politicized this, he simply took action to restore the basic freedoms people desired. He has, in doing so, demarcated where the resistance is and to what steps they will go to try and prevent parents from once more having control over their children’s lives. They are, essentially, agents of tyranny – attempting to inflict their ideals and values and perception of how to move forward with this pandemic on others.
