Which means either that "top public officials" don't have kids and don't have a clue, or else they have kids but just don't give a flying flip.
New possibility here (hear me out):
Liberal groups incl. gov't. bureaucracies founded on liberal shibboleths (such as those instituted by Lyndon Bastard Johnson) make local pols dance for the money. They offer fungible, "this-can-all-go-away" marginal dollars for purposes the donors want funded, conditionally on the pols' performing as instructed (i.e. the pols are bribed, but we don't use that word because they're all fine fellows and their intentions are all the best).
So when the NGO's asked the pols before, about these SSM issues, the pols told them what they wanted to hear. It'll all be swell, do your thing, rock the house, party 'til you puke ...... did you bring the check?
The pols told them what they wanted to hear, and then they ...... absquatulated.
They can't even stay bought any more. Isn't that sad?
“absquatulated”!
As in, ‘abscond’—”The gold prospector absquatulated with our nuggets”.
Well done, FRiend.