Bad News: This Republican Governor’s Move Just Made His Supporters Furious
There are a few issues that have helped Republicans consistently get elected to office when they’ve supported those issues. These include a strong military, fiscal responsibility, and traditional morality such as opposing abortion. Even borderline unelectable Milquetoasts have been able to get support from the Republican core supporter base when campaigning for those types of issues.
This isn’t even in question. That these issues are important to Republican voters is exactly why a moderate (on everything except military issues) like John McCain chose a solid conservative like Sarah Palin as a running mate. No one was excited about McCain’s candidacy until she was added to the ticket. She campaigned on these values and got people excited about voting for that ticket.
Which is why a recent veto by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey is so bizarre. Nicholas Silverio writes,
Republican Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona vetoed a sex education bill intended to require parental consent for schools to teach LGBTQ issues Tuesday.
The bill, S.B. 1456, would have prohibited an Arizona school district from teaching about sexuality, gender identity, HIV and AIDs without parental consent and allow parents to opt children out of LGBTQ content if it contradicts their beliefs on sex, religion and morality. Ducey wrote a veto letter saying the wording of the bill could lead to serious consequences regarding child abuse prevention.
Now, to be fair, Ducey followed up by issuing an executive order “that seeks to encompass the heart of the bill and strengthens parental choice and involvement.” Again, from Silverio:
The executive order requires new sex education courses to be accessible to the pubic sixty days before approval, conduct at least two public hearings about the courses in a sixty day period allowing the public’s feedback, and post the approved curriculum online for parents to view. But going with an executive order instead of protecting children from LGBTQ+ indoctrination under the guise of education is still going to make a lot of people angry.
Even with the strong language of the executive order, it would have been smarter for Ducey politically to work with Republicans in the Arizona legislature to pass legislation that fits his criteria, but it doesn’t sound like this happened. Hopefully, this won’t come back to bite him, but time will tell.