On the issue of mask mandates, I stand with moms and dads fed up with so-called leaders who pass the buck and wash their hands of problems. I stand with parents who go to war to protect their children and who stand for liberty against COVID tyranny.

There has been enough abdication of leadership in Ohio to last a generation, enough hot potato passing by a classic protector of establishment interests, Gov. Mike DeWine. It’s time for leaders who will take a stand and fight for the liberty and freedom of parents to make decisions on what’s best for our children. It’s time for our kids to stop being pawns in this endless political charade. It’s time to give rights back to parents.

“If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.” This warning from Proverbs 24:10 might as well have been written for Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. While other governors have risked the ire of the radical left by leading and prohibiting mask mandates, DeWine has passed the political hot potato to faceless bureaucrats at school districts, empowering them to gladly trample on our kids’ well-being and our liberty.

And for what? To protect children from a variant less deadly than accidental drownings? Are we stopping children 12 and under from entering swimming pools or Ohio lakes? Where does this end?

Because of the lack of efficacy of masks – look at Sweden where 1.8 million children were sent back to school without masks, and there wasn’t a single COVID-19 deaths – DeWine is putting his own fright of making decisions over the freedom and liberty of our kids.

And don’t think for a single second that the next phase won’t be to shut down schools again, sending children back to the isolation of the last year, and the associated problems of loneliness, depression and increasing suicide rates. Make no mistake about it, mandating masks at schools is tantamount to child abuse.

Here’s an idea: leave it to parents to decide what’s best for our children. Let us determine whether our child should wear a mask at school, or whether in-person learning is right for our child. No longer can the bureaucrats argue this is a health issue – not when the data shows so few children are at risk – this is an issue of freedom and liberty.

If you think parents aren’t onto this whole political charade, look at the outraged moms, like the ones of Sycamore Township in the Cincinnati area. At first, there were just ten of them launching a protest against mask mandates. Then overnight it blew up. Hundreds joined them. Parents were fed up with bureaucratic edicts that had little to do with the health and well-being of their children, and that amounted to a tremendous trampling of liberty, especially for young children. The Sycamore moms backed down the school bureaucrats almost overnight. They made masks optional.

The media and the squishy establishment politicians say that money is the most powerful force in politics, but I beg to differ. I believe the most powerful force in politics is a motivated group of moms. For any political battle I’m waging, I’d take an army of moms over a warchest of money any day of the week.

And as our jelly-kneed governor Mike DeWine washes his hands of all responsibility and gives parents little assurance that their kids will be put first, moms are activating in a big way. Democracy in action is a sight to behold, and I am inspired to join moms across Ohio as we fight to end mask mandates in schools and give the rights back to us parents.

Josh Mandel is the former Treasurer of Ohio and U.S. Senate candidate for Ohio.