OPINION:
The do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do Democrats have reached a new level of absurdity.
For the last two years-plus, top members of the party, including governors and mayors of large cities, have insisted that everyone wear masks at all times (even in the shower). But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came out last month and finally acknowledged that cloth and paper masks don’t do much (even a poorly fitted N95 mask, worn by medical personnel, is all but useless if not put on perfectly).
But that’s not the absurdity. These same Democratic leaders — who have mandated masks across their states and cities — keep getting caught not wearing masks!
A rising star in the party, Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams (who lost her 2018 race and then insisted she didn’t lose), sparked outrage this week when she posted a photo on Twitter showing herself — maskless — surrounded by a throng of masked school children and teachers.
Of course, a photo op isn’t worth much if no one can see your face, so Ms. Abrams just didn’t don a mask. And of course she, like many other Democrats, has been a staunch supporter of mask mandates, slamming Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in July 2020 for his ban on mask mandates and saying it showed “incompetency” and “immorality.”
Mr. Kemp, for his part, didn’t miss the opportunity to point out what he called “mask hypocrisy.”
“Stacey Abrams wants state government mask mandates for Georgians and their children. But it looks like they wouldn’t apply when she’s attending a photo op,” Mr. Kemp wrote on Twitter.
Let’s move further into the Democratic absurdity, shall we? Team Abrams slammed critics for, yup, racism.
“It is shameful that our opponents are using a Black History Month reading event for Georgia children as the impetus for a false political attack, and it is pitiful and predictable that our opponents continue to look for opportunities to distract from their failed records when it comes to protecting public health during the pandemic,” Ms. Abrams’ campaign said in a statement posted on Twitter.
Ms. Abrams is just the latest Democrat to say but not do. Among the other Democratic hypocrites are multiple offender California Gov. Gavin Newsom, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, beloved Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney.
Newsom’s hypocrisy was classic: He mandated masks and limited gathering — then had a huge maskless birthday party. But Mrs. Pelosi’s was even better: She supported full lockdowns and advocated a national mask policy in the early months of the pandemic, but then days later was caught dropping into a hair salon in California — ordered closed by Mr. Newsom in another mandate — and walking around without a mask.
Like Ms. Abrams, Mrs. Pelosi put the blame on others — and even demanded an apology.
“I take responsibility for trusting the word of the neighborhood salon that I’ve been to over the years many times, and when they said, ‘We’re able to accommodate people one person at a time.’ I trusted that,” the speaker said after she was caught. “So I take responsibility for falling for a setup. And that’s all I’m going to say on that. I think that this salon owes me an apology, for setting me up.”
And in the latest sign that mask mandates have been all hat and no cattle, a Democratic governor has decided to end them in schools. “I look to a time in this school year where we are no longer masking in our schools,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said last Tuesday.
And while nothing changed in the next six days — like, the CDC didn’t come out and say the pandemic is over or anything — boom, Mr. Murphy announced he’s ending the school mandates.
But the very best example of the Democrat’s hypocrisy came Sunday from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who posed bare-faced with NBA great Magic Johnson in a packed sky suite at an NFL playoff game — then, as critics abounded, said he was holding his breath during the photo!
Just how stupid do these hypocrites think we are?
But here’s a warning to all those Democrats mandating we do one thing while they all do another: Take a look at what’s going on in our neighbor to the north. The Freedom Convoy there has brought life to a standstill in Canada’s capital city, and protesters angry about lockdowns and mask mandates show no sign of throwing in the towel any day soon.
It’s clear the Democrats — paid with our hard-earned money, mind you — aren’t following science, but instead exerting control on an unhappy citizenry.
That doesn’t go over well in America (just dig up King George III and ask him).
And now into year three of the pandemic, Americans won’t stand for much more of this hypocrisy.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @josephcurl.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
