When Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was captured in a photograph with Magic Johnson and San Francisco Mayor London Breed -- all maskless -- at an NFL playoff game at SoFi Stadium, violating both California and County of Los Angeles mask mandates, he explained: “I wore my mask the entire game. And when people ask for a photograph, I hold my breath.” (Bill Clinton didn't inhale; the LA mayor didn't exhale.)
Richard Carpiano, a UC-Riverside professor of public policy and a public health scientist, observed, “It’s not sustainable and advisable to hold your breath.” Suggesting that Garcetti should have worn a mask, he commented, “So much about politics is about public relations and leading by example.”
Mayor Breed and Governor Gavin Newsom (also pictured with Johnson), chronic scofflaws when it comes to masking, are -- with Garcetti -- abject failures in leading by example. Public officials who defy public policy lose credibility. This is not advisable, nor does it contribute to sustainable public policy. That's true of COVID mandates and recommendations.
More generally, such poor examples contribute to a cynicism regarding government and resistance to calls by public officials for people to step up for the common good. Defiance of public health mandates by elected officials casts doubt on the authority of science and medicine, which should undergird those mandates. This creates mistrust of states, cities, counties, and school districts when they seek to act in the public interest.
All this is bad for the Democratic Party, which relies on an activist agenda -- on enacting and implementing public policies (grounded in facts and evidence to establish their worth) to benefit Americans.
Yeah, of course, Republicans are worse. In a recent column Michael Gerson reviewed "three varieties of GOP political necromania."
To summarize Gerson's critique (with just a sentence or two about each variety, beginning with the version practiced by Ron DeSantis):
a) "In the name of freedom, politicians such as the Florida governor employ the power of their office to prevent other social institutions from taking responsible, lifesaving steps in the midst of a pandemic. This is an effort by populists to prove that their MAGA commitments outweigh all common sense, public responsibility and basic humanity."
b) "A second type of the Republican romance with death comes in the vilification of those most dedicated to preserving the lives of Americans. Public officials such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) invent a conspiratorial backstory to the covid crisis and depict the most visible representatives of the United States’ covid response as scheming, deceptive deep-state operatives. Any change in emphasis or strategy by scientists — an essential commitment of the scientific method — is viewed as rich opposition research."
c) "A third category of Republican death wish is the practice of strategic ignorance. In a case such as Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) — America’s most reliable source of unreliable information about covid-19 — such ignorance might not be feigned."
As A.B. Stoddard observes ("COVID Derangement Is Working Out Just Fine for the GOP"), each of these approaches is a winner for Republicans:
You mix doubt with denial, look past the lost lives and then wait. When the infection spreads, the virus replicates and mutates, and new variants jolt the economy, you then blame President Joe Biden.
For nearly two years we have witnessed an entire cohort of Americans reject the social compact and discard the welfare of others, including their own loved ones. In the name of liberty they have proudly protected the rights of Americans to reject vaccines, refuse masks, spread the virus, demand expensive therapeutics, claim ICU beds, clog up hospitals, and gum up the economy.
These efforts advance the immediate political interests of the Republican Party, though they are antithetical to the welfare of Americans. They make it difficult for any party to unite the country (or a state or locality) to come together for the benefit of all. They disable the capacity of government to advance the public good.
Republicans have made a choice. By tearing down government, by casting doubt on science (and even in "our collective ability to distinguish truth from falsehood" in Jonathan Rauch's words), they seek to gain and hold political power.
Democrats' interests -- achieving public policy goals -- require viable, trustworthy political institutions. Democratic leaders should not be giving Americans reason to lose faith in government.