It’s rare that the GOP gets a policy victory as sweet and concrete as this anymore.

And as you’ll see, newbie politician Glenn Youngkin does pretty well in front of a crowd. The guy’s got retail chops — nothing fancy, but effective. Keep an eye on him.

The end of Virginia’s school mask mandate is a perfect complement to last night’s revolt in San Francisco, a city on the opposite coast where parents have suffered through the same exasperation at protracted school closures and overly burdensome COVID restrictions. In both jurisdictions, the sense that local bureaucrats had lost the plot in prioritizing how best to secure children’s welfare produced shocking political upheaval, first with Youngkin’s upset in November and yesterday with three progressive San Fran school board members experiencing the electoral equivalent of being run out of town on a rail.

One of the organizers of the San Francisco recall exulted in an interview today with Matt Welch:

“We made history,” recall co-organizer and SFUSD parent Siva Raj told me shortly after the results came in. “This is the first time in a long time that the people of San Francisco have had a victory. That’s what this is—it is ‘The People: 3, Politicians: 0.'” Added Raj’s partner and co-organizer Autumn Looijen: “It’s a victory for competence, and for doing your job.”…

“I’ve always thought of myself as progressive, but I don’t use that label anymore to describe myself,” Raj told me Monday. “Because when I see the people who call themselves progressive, and I especially see the elected leaders calling themselves progressive, they don’t seem to stand for any of the values that I believe what progressive should be. It is not progressive to stand back and do nothing while the most underprivileged kids in our city have struggled and suffered the most….It is not progressive to put your own political career above the interest of the people you’re supposed to serve. That is not progressive. All that I can see is that the movement that perhaps started with a lot of idealists in the ’60s and the ’70s and ’80s, is now filled with opportunists who only care about using progressive language to advance their careers, but have no interest, no desire, to actually solve the real problems that our kids are facing today.”

A few weeks ago the San Francisco Chronicle endorsed the recall with a memorable headline, “Competence matters, even for progressives.” That’s how we ended up with a populist uprising by the Bay and with a Republican governor signing a bipartisan bill effectively ending his state’s school mask mandate on the steps of the capitol in a Biden +10 state.

Believe it or not, the version of this legislation that passed the Virginia state senate a few days ago would have added a parental opt-out to the mandate as of July 1. Four and a half months is a long time for masked kids to wait, and would have guaranteed that they’d end the school year with restrictions still in place. Youngkin added an “emergency clause” to the bill making the opt-out effective on March 1 instead along with a clause authorizing him to take further action in the event of a health crisis. I.e. if a new variant comes along that arguably warrants a return to a mandate, Youngkin will have the power to order one — although I doubt he would. That clause was probably just a bit of rhetorical reassurance to anxious COVID hawks that future mandates aren’t entirely off the table.

Virginia Democrats are claiming today that the bill wasn’t passed properly because, under legislative precedent, an emergency clause added by the governor needs to pass by supermajority, not a simple majority. Republicans counter that in the past certain clauses added by Democrat Ralph Northam were passed by simple majority. One wonders how much the national Democratic leadership will want Virginia Dems to fight the new opt-out instead of just standing aside, letting it take effect, and citing the fact that it passed with the support of three Democratic state senators to try to claim partial credit for it. American voters may still be pro-mandate at the moment, but if cases follow the anticipated trajectory and bottom out nationally in the next month, that opinion could shift quickly.

School districts don’t seem to be in the mood to fight, at least:

BREAKING – Loudoun County Public Schools announce parents may opt their children out of face masks in school beginning 2/22. The announcement comes 2 hours after Governor Youngkin signed a law requiring optional masks by 3/1. @nbcwashington

— Drew Wilder (@DrewWilderTV) February 16, 2022

Here’s Youngkin taking a victory lap on behalf of himself, parents, and his party.

WATCH: Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin signs legislation BANNING mask mandates in Virginia schools.

"Today we are reestablishing and restoring power back to parents." pic.twitter.com/wl5dJn6PHK

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 16, 2022