Youngkin sprints out of the gate in Virginia

Governor Glenn Youngkin is just a few days into his administration, but he’s already giving Virginians a lot to be happy about.

Youngkin, the first Republican to win statewide office since 2009, was sworn-in on Saturday in Richmond alongside Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears and Attorney General Jason Miyares. In his inaugural address, Youngkin assured Virginians that his administration would allow parents to have a say in their children’s education and that law enforcement would be fully funded and supported.

Youngkin immediately delivered on several major campaign promises through the use of executive orders. He

• Banned the teaching of Critical Race Theory and other divisive concepts in Virginia public schools
• Lifted the public school mask mandate
• Declared there would be no more lockdowns for Virginia businesses
• Ended the vaccine mandate for state employees
• Opened an investigation into Loudoun County for its alleged cover-up of a sexual assault in a high school bathroom
• Fired the entire Virginia parole board, which is under investigation for releasing a murderer against the victim’s family’s wishes
• Pulled Virginia out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

It was shocking enough that Youngkin could be elected in an increasingly blue state. Are conservatives now to believe that he’s actually going to govern effectively?!

The commonwealth has come unglued over the past several years. Parents have been kicked out of school board meetings, numerous local businesses have shut down permanently, crime is up and gas and grocery prices are in outrageous territory. Even before the pandemic, the saner and freer alternative to DC and Maryland was in peril thanks to poor Democratic leadership. It would be foolish for right-wingers to place their hopes of rectifying their state on a single gubernatorial administration, but Youngkin’s first few days in office are certainly angering all the right people.

Arlington County Public Schools announced they they would keep their mask mandate in place, despite Youngkin’s executive order giving parents the right to decide if their children wear masks in public schools. Youngkin responded by promising to use state resources to force ACPS to comply.

This incensed White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who tweeted, “Hi there. Arlington county parent here (don’t believe you are @GlennYoungkin but correct me if I am wrong). Thank you to @APSVirginia for standing up for our kids, teachers and administrators and their safety in the midst of a transmissible variant.”

That comment is coming from a woman who briefs the press indoors, maskless every weekday. Yet Psaki thinks that children, who have a near-zero risk of severe side effects or death from Covid, should wear masks for eight hours a day in school. This is also the same woman who mocked the concerns of families about gas prices, shortages at their grocery store and delayed Christmas gifts. We could be forgiven for thinking she doesn’t represent the average Virginian.

Conservatives will be hoping the governor is starting as he means to go on: by inducing bouts of Youngkin Derangement Syndrome from highly strung Beltway elites.