His seemingly conservative verbiage has been ratified by — nothing.
To remind all: Pennsylvania’s oft-discussed, ballyhooed (a “rising star”), and grossly mislabeled (a “moderate”) Josh Shapiro stood out among Democratic governors, and among most Democratic officeholders, back in 2020 because of his popular election campaign pledge to support taxpayer-funded private-school vouchers and school choice.
That’s proven proofless pudding. Shapiro’s seemingly conservative verbiage has been ratified by — nothing. Despite the opportunities, he’s given vouchers no actual support since he began serving as Pennsylvania’s chief executive in 2021. He even vetoed legislation funding the program.
The rhetoric, which hung in there for a long spell, has now degraded, the pretense evolving (devolving?) to mum’s the word. Earlier this month, as the commonwealth’s split legislature (Republicans hold the Senate, Democrats the House) battled over the annual budget and whether to allocate funding for the Lifeline/PASS scholarship program (to bankroll kids trapped in poor-performing public systems to attend private schools), Shapiro aides assured Democrats that his old position of support is at odds with his new position, which is: no position.
We last visited the governor in this space to report on his cool-kid TikTok antics. Staffed and funded (nine aides costing $1 million annually) by Pennsylvania taxpayers, his video vignettes showed a particular penchant for hep leftist takes on abortion. The penchant continues: In recent weeks, Shapiro has released three new TikTok takes, one dissing pro-lifers who ask him to ban abortion, the second, well, it does the same, and the third — how about you figure it out (I’d describe it as abortion-rights tough-guy posing).
It could be, however, that he’s so public on the issue because there is an ongoing legislative battle on abortion at the state capitol. Except: There isn’t. Which means this is all about 2028 and his ongoing project to be seen as groovy and cool (maybe because Shapiro has so much nerd to overcome).
In other social-issues policy-ghosting, the governor has yet to state any position on the popular Save Women’s Sports Act (it recently passed the Pennsylvania Senate with support from five Democrats). But would Shapiro’s taking a public position matter, given how his school-choice retreat shows a propensity to abandon?
(For those keeping score on the governor and LGBT-etc. stuff, last year he spoke at a pride festival and expressed his support for trans children — “I see you and I love you!” — while also releasing a taxpayer-funded video promoting drag queens.)
School choice, abortion, girls-harming trans sports, drag queen hyping: Maybe it’s time that Republicans and independents who have bought into the “moderate” charade about Governor Josh Shapiro find a new fantasy hobbyhorse to ride.