Democratic governors in states like California, New York and North Carolina are pouring cold water on the excitement Americans normally feel this time of the year by mandating indoor gatherings, including those that take place at private residences, be limited to no more than 10 people, in what they say is an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
But while they’ve publicly declared indoor get-togethers be strictly limited for the holidays, privately, some of them are singing different tunes on their own soirées. For example, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) was recently caught mingling at the very type of intimate get-together he blames for a virus spike in his state.
Back in September, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was exposed as a mask hypocrite when she was seen maskless in a widely circulated video getting a haircut and highlights at a shuttered indoor San Francisco hair salon on the very day she scolded Republicans for attending their national convention without strictly observing the recommended CDC guidelines on social distancing and masks.
Not surprisingly, she’s another who doesn’t practice what she preaches on gathering limits.
Last Friday, NBC News reporter Leigh Ann Caldwell posted a photo of the indoor dining hall where Pelosi was set to host a rather ritzy indoor gathering of incoming Democratic House members. Pelosi told her it would be safe. “It’s very spaced,” Pelosi claimed.
It did not take long for the condemnations to pour in. There were thousands of quote retweets from those on the left and right. Liberals were upset Pelosi yet again made them look like the elitist hypocrites they are, and conservatives were furious over her hypocritical actions at a time when Republicans are being shamed for publicly stating they have no intentions of abiding by Democratic mandates on indoor gatherings during the holidays.
The party was canceled thanks to the backlash.
MSNBC’s “All In” host Chris Hayes, a Democrat, is another who sends mixed signals on when people should take extra safety precautions in the middle of a pandemic.
“Right now, if we had [an] administration that cared one whit about protecting Americans there would be national coordinated messaging all over the place about making Thanksgiving virtual this year (or outdoors where weather permits)! But there is none because they don’t care,” Hayes tweeted a week ago.
People are tired of doing as their told only to see the people doing the most lecturing on staying safe not following the rules they mandate for others.
When a Republican NYC Councilman announced he would be defying Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s gathering limits on Thanksgiving, a sour-faced Hayes then accused the Republican party of having “basically taken the side of the virus,” saying they were “actively trying to spread it.”
But a few days prior to Hayes’ call for “virtual Thanksgivings” and accusing Republicans of “taking the side of the virus,” he encouraged Democrats to take to the streets to celebrate a Biden-Harris “victory.” He did advise revelers to wear masks, but surely someone like Hayes, who has covered the George Floyd protests for months, knows there will be many in the crowds who don’t.
Newsom, Pelosi and Hayes are but three of many examples of the left’s “do as we say and not as we do” mentality, and arguably are at least part of the reason some states are seeing a rise in COVID cases.
Simply put, people are tired of doing as their told only to see the people doing the most lecturing on staying safe not following the rules they mandate for others.
After eight months of restrictions on how many people can get together in one place, many (at least 40%, according to one recent survey) have decided that at Thanksgiving they’re going to spend the time with their extended families around the dinner table — time that, up until this point, has been denied to them.
Who can fault them for that stance?
Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah and is a regular contributor to RedState and Legal Insurrection
