Do as I say, not as I do.
This common phrase is almost 400 years old. Somehow politicians never got the centuries old memo. Two weeks ago Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot told residents in the Windy City she would fine them or arrest them if they continued to exercise outside as the city was trying to flatten the COVID19 curve.
On March 26, Lightfoot said, 'Your conduct, yours, is posing a direct threat to our public health and without question, your continued failure to abide by these lifesaving orders will erase any progress that we have made over the past week in slowing the spread of this disease and could lead to more deaths.'
Social distance or be arrested. Social distance she warned or cause death.
Lightfoot is serious about this. So serious, Lightfoot went as far as changing Twitter name to include #StayHomeSaveLives.
But those rules don't apply to her.
See, over the weekend, Mayor Lightfoot got her haircut.
Do as she says, not as she does. The ruling class always has different rules. She admits it.
'I’m in the public every day. And candidly, my hair was not looking the way it did. I thought maybe I’d do it myself, but I knew that would be disaster,' Lightfoot said. Those same rules she was going to arrest people for violating don't apply to her because she's 'in the public every day.' Lightfoot didn't stop there. The Chicago Mayor doesn't think anyone cares about the obvious hypocrisy. 'I think what really people want to talk about is, we’re talking about people dying here. We’re talking about significant health disparities. I think that’s what people care most about.'
This is called the pivot. Pivot away from the criticism and focus on the worst part about the disease. Clever. But, not clever enough to show she thinks the rules don't apply to her.