This week, photos surfaced of California Governor Gavin Newsom dining at one of the most expensive restaurants in the world. He wasn’t alone, and he wasn’t in a mask.
Newsom was in a tightly packed, indoor room with a dozen other people. It was a birthday party for longtime lobbyist Jason Kinney, and a number of California Medical Association members attended. That’s right, doctors described as “top brass” were in attendance and also flouting the rules — the same rules doctors and politicians have been demanding everyone else comply with in the name of “science.”
But getting caught red-handed didn’t deter Newsom or cause him to reevaluate whether the rules were purposeful or simply put in place to “do something.” Instead, just days later, his government imposed additional, harsh closure measures as cases of Wuhan coronavirus increase. The measures likely won’t stop the spread of the disease, but they will continue to crush businesses and kill off desperately needed jobs. He's also reinforcing "private gathering" rules, which police people's private homes, just ahead of Thanksgiving.
These actions have been reported as “hypocrisy,” but it goes well beyond that. Newsom, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser and others, are engaged in tyrannical elitism. They get to do whatever they want, justify it and then punish citizens for daring to think or do for themselves. After all, they’re “important people” with “important things” to do.
In California alone, thousands of businesses have closed permanently thanks to Newsom’s harsh lockdown orders. Business owners and their workers have been forced to comply with orders, fearing criminal action and hefty fines from authorities. The businesses that remain open are suffocating.
“According to Yelp's local economic report, restaurants and retail continue to struggle, and total closures nationwide have started to increase. The September report noted more than 19,000 businesses in California have permanently closed,” ABC10 News in San Diego reports.
That’s the destruction of 19,0000 dreams and livelihoods. Those closures represent real people as owners and countless employees.
Across the country, suicide rates have skyrocketed, and drug overdoses are on the rise.
ABC News reports that stay-at-home orders “created downstream consequences such as social isolation, eroding support networks and additional financial strain” and that “all of these factors are contributing to more suicides, overdoses and violence, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
One-size fits all policies have been a complete disaster. All Americans should be able to behave in the same way their elitist politicians do by making decisions for themselves. The problem isn't with Newsom and others like him going to dinner or another social event; it's that they tell everybody else not to.
It’s been 10 months since Wuhan coronavirus came to America. We know now, according to CDC data, the survival rate for even the most vulnerable populations who contract the disease is 94 percent. Americans can decide for themselves whether the risk of going to dinner, to the gym, the grocery store and wherever else they choose is worth it.
Simple hypocrisy is frustrating and infuriating, but tyrannical elitism is destroying people’s lives.