Since the beginning of the lockdown in March, hair stylists have ranked among the hardest hit service sector workers, and nowhere more than in California where a draconian anti-Covid regime forbids salons from meeting clients indoors. That did not stop House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, however, from scheduling an appointment anyways.
Pelosi, like many of her other Democratic colleagues, has demonstrated such a lack of connection and compassion with her constituency that it literally borders on the criminal. Caught red-handed on video having her hair done inside of San Francisco’s eSalon – and without the de rigueur face mask – the top-ranking Democrat broke with the state’s strict Covid-19 restrictions that the state’s 40 million other residents are expected to follow.
Conforming to the fashions of the times, however, Pelosi portrayed herself as the victim of a ‘set up’ for which she believes she is now owed an apology.
“It was a set up, and I take responsibility for falling for a setup,” the speaker told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I think that this salon owes me an apology for setting me up.”
Salon owner, Erica Kious, had a different take on the situation.
“It was a slap in the face that she went in, you know, that she feels that she can just go and get her stuff done while no one else can go in, and I can’t work,” Kious told Fox News. “I have been fighting for six months for a business that took me 12 years to build to reopen…I am a single mom, I have two small children, and I have no income.”
No word yet on possible any Russian connections at the salon.
As a San Francisco resident, I’ve followed the law & done my own hair for the last 5 months. My stylist also follows the law & hasn’t opened her salon all this time and is struggling. It’s pretty disgusting that @SpeakerPelosi plays by different rules. https://t.co/SeqXBFD60H
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) September 1, 2020
The Democrats, however, seeming to relish the power trip that the pandemic has afforded them, seem to be unfazed by the economic fallout. Back in April, shortly after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the shelter-at-home orders, Pelosi appeared on a late night show where she provided viewers with a peek into her refrigerator – which was possibly more spacious than your average trailer home – that was heavily stocked with gourmet ice cream. At a time when millions of Americans are staring into the abyss of unemployment and a possible depression, Pelosi was staring into the freezer section of her personal supermarket. It was a remarkably tone deaf moment, and certainly not an isolated one.
Indeed, Pelosi’s ‘blow out’ at the hair salon is all the more unforgivable considering the negative publicity Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot received for getting a haircut back in April.
Lightfoot defended her decision by explaining that she is the “public face of this city.”
“I’m on national media and I’m out in the public eye,” she told a reporter. “I take my personal hygiene very seriously. As I said, I felt like I needed to have a haircut. I’m not able to do that myself, so I got a haircut. You want to talk more about that?”
Is Miss Lightfoot the only person in the Windy City who “takes her personal hygiene very seriously,” or is regularly in “the public eye”? Probably not. But she is a Democrat, which seems to make all the difference.
Just this week, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, yet another privileged Democrat, took a road trip to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. His goal? Enjoy a meal inside of a restaurant. Kenney was not ‘masked up,’ nor was he seated outside away in the uncontaminated air. What American right now would not like the luxury of taking a trip to some distant free state just to enjoy the simple pleasure of eating in a restaurant? And let’s not forget the people who rely on this industry for their survival: an estimated 8 million Americans in the restaurant business have been made redundant by the coronavirus lockdown and are now struggling to make ends meet. Kenney’s arrogance ranks up there with Marie Antoinette’s ill-advised outburst about eating “cake” at the most inopportune time.
Restaurant owners are among the hardest hit by the pandemic. I’m sorry if my decision hurt those who’ve worked to keep their businesses going under difficult circumstances. Looking forward to reopening indoor dining soon and visiting my favorite spots. https://t.co/Ki3lIZV8i4
— Jim #MaskUpPHL Kenney (@PhillyMayor) August 31, 2020
These Democratic leaders are sending the message that they are important enough to behave ‘above the law,’ as it were, because they are the only “essential” people in the country. What that sheer arrogance overlooks is that millions of Americans, even with the occasional stimulus check, are fast approaching the breaking point. Food does not magically appear on family tables every evening; it gets there by hard work and sacrifice, with many families living paycheck to paycheck.
Sooner or later, the Democrat-run regimes are going to have to decide whether or not it is more dangerous to keep the economy shut down or finally come to terms with a virus that, according to updated statistics by the Centers for Disease Control, is not as fatal as we have been led to believe. Just 6% of the some 160,000 deaths recorded in the United States died from Covid alone, that is, without any other comorbidities. Meanwhile, the average age of the person who succumbs to Covid-19 is around 78 years old, which just happens to be the average life expectancy of Americans.
If some Democratic leaders have reached the conclusion that Covid-19 is not some kind of new Black Death, they should not wait until after November 3rd to inform the public of their revised opinion. Otherwise, they should be expected to follow the rules just like everyone else.
