Glenn Youngkin Gets the Last Laugh on School Mask Mandates – Opinion

Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s new tenure in Virginia. Youngkin, on his first day of office signed an executive ordering that allowed parents to opt out from district-level mandates. The debate has been raging ever since, with Democrats treating masking of children as a sort of quasi-religious principle that needs to be preserved; data doesn’t need to be applied.

At times, they’ve seemed to gain the upper hand as well, with a recent court ruling putting a restraining order on the opt-out order going into effect. The question was always whether a pre-existing state law that required schools to follow CDC guidelines superseded Youngkin’s order.

This debate has ended. Youngkin just got the last laugh from Virginia Senate

Senate of Virginia approves Dem, with bipartisan support⁦⁦@ChapPetersen⁩Amendment to the floor for R⁦@Dunnavant4VA⁩Bill giving parents right to decide if their children wear masks. pic.twitter.com/xH2Bm8wgoj

— Laura Vozzella (@LVozzella) February 8, 2022

Democrat State Senator Chap. Peterson pledged that he would be the deciding voice on this issue and it seems that he fulfilled his promise. Yet, his vote didn’t end up being decisive, as the final tally was a shocking 29-9 in favor of the amendment.

The attention-seeking President pro Tempore Louise Lucas, who tried to be the anti-Youngkin by using Twitter, actually voted no. She ended up being part of a tiny minority. Lucas spent the last week trying to attack Youngkin over his team’s response to a high-school-aged political activist. She failed to grasp the importance of an important issue.

So, how did we go from Democrats in Virginia almost universally opposing Youngkin’s order to voting to make it a reality via the legislative process? They realized when it was.

Virginia’s Democrat Senate Majority Leader tweeted this three days ago.

He voted today for the end of school mask mandates. pic.twitter.com/hkxCa5sb3a

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 8, 2022

Democrats have done their best to spin Youngkin’s early moves as disastrous, but when push came to shove, they voted the way the wind is blowing, and it’s blowing firmly in the direction of parental choice on masks.

Things move to Virginia House now that the GOP has a majority. Considering multiple Democrats are likely to cross over, the vote probably won’t be close there either. The passage of this amendment seems almost certain.

This shows that Twitter is not real life. If you had just paid attention to the too-online leftists, including Louise Lucas, screaming on social media, you’d have thought Youngkin was having a rough go at it. Youngkin knew his strengths and is now celebrating another victory. The Democrats can expect many more defeats in Virginia.