What do you get when three ardent mask-pushing politicians in California come together at a social event with a mask mandate? An opportunity for blatant hypocrisy.
Many politicians love to impose rules on the common people and then excuse themselves from the burden of complying. California Governor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti demonstrated such an approach this weekend at a sporting event in Los Angeles, California
Eric Ting relates in a Monday SF Gate editorial the details of this new mask mandate hypocrisy of the California governor and mayors of two of California’s highest population cities. Ting writes:
California politicians have had a difficult time following COVID-19 restrictions written by an unelected public health apparatus they have willingly empowered and been afraid to challenge publicly.
Gov. Gavin Newsom likely does not face last year’s recall election without the French Laundry fiasco. San Francisco Mayor London Breed has violated her city’s mask mandate on multiple occasions. On Sunday, both politicians — along with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti — were photographed posing maskless for photos with Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson at a luxury box at the NFC Championship Game at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
The problem, as Ting explains, is that the event the three politicians were attending was subject to a mask mandate, the sort of bossing around of people the three maskless politicians have put into effect.
Looking at the hypocrisy on display, Ting makes the astute observation that the lesson is not that the politicians should have worn masks. Instead, the lesson is that the right of all individuals to chose to leave their faces uncoverd should be respected.
Writes Ting:
Sunday’s SoFi incident has demonstrated that Newsom, Breed and Garcetti have already gauged their risk tolerances, (correctly) determined they’re at minimal risk of a bad outcome from COVID-19, and decided to go maskless and live their lives.
When will the rest of the state have that luxury?
Read Ting’s editorial here.
