When North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper vetoed the manipulatively titled “Free the Smiles Act” last month, House Speaker Tim Moore promised an override.
Unfortunately for Moore, the bill will not be making it back to the House for a vote, as Senate Democrats successfully sustained Cooper’s veto on Wednesday.
Senate Bill 173 would have made it illegal for school districts to require students to wear masks:
When this legislation was first passed by both chambers of the General Assembly, it was supported by a handful of Democrats, including two in the Senate.
A successful override (three fifths of members present voting yes) would have required those senators to stand with Republicans and support the measure again.
Leadership isn’t about blind party loyalty, but it is about making sensible decisions on behalf of your constituents.
If this pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we have no idea what the future holds when it comes to COVID-19 or potentially other viruses down the road.
It’s shocking that the party of small government thinks it’s a good idea to take away the power of local health departments and boards of education to respond to their communities’ health needs, but that’s where divisive politics, social media misinformation, and the utter loss of common sense have brought us.
Just be glad North Carolina Republicans don’t have a veto-proof supermajority.