Over the past few months, a disturbing trend has developed. The very people who have imposed Covid-related restrictions upon their citizens have brazenly broken their own orders. There was California Governor Gavin Newsom attending a birthday party at an upscale restaurant, with multiple people outside his household. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo inviting his elderly mother over for Thanksgiving. Austin Mayor Steve Alder vacationing in Mexico. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock traveling to Texas for Thanksgiving. These are indefensible and disgusting actions that in the most egregious cases are grounds for resignation.
For the past nine months, political leaders have asked their constituents to make countless sacrifices. They’ve asked parents to miss their children’s graduation. They’ve asked families to cancel holiday meetup plans. They’ve asked children to endure the struggles of remote schooling, and give up precious days in their childhood, which we all know passes in the blink of an eye. They’ve asked nursing home residents to spend their last months alone. Any leader who asks so much of their constituents needs to be prepared to not only follow their own rules, but go above and beyond and make even more sacrifices than they expect of the average citizen. When the very leader who tells people that they need to make a sacrifice refuses to make that sacrifice themselves, it says to the people that they aren’t as important as the leader. That their sacrifices are worth it for the sake of the greater good, but that the leader is simply too important to have to make such sacrifices.
A leader breaking their own coronavirus rules is also terrible from a public health perspective. Many people will look at the leader and think “If the person who tells me to follow all of these rules isn’t following them themselves, why should I?” People will be far more likely to listen to someone who leads by example than someone who operates under the mantra “Do As I Say, Not As I Do”. Quite simply, if a leader is not prepared to lead by example in this time of crisis, they are categorically unfit to be in charge right now.