OPINION:
The Founding Fathers never intended this country to be governed by separate sets of rules for the masses — by policies and practices that elevated certain classes above certain others and awarded special privileges to some, but not to others.
Nancy Pelosi would disagree.
The House speaker went into a salon in her San Francisco district that was supposed to be closed due to the coronavirus — that had actually been closed by local ordinance for months. And she went in with a face completely free of covering. And according to video of her salon entry, she received a hair dry from a stylist whose own face was covered by a black mask.
And then when the public shaming came, Pelosi blamed the salon.
From President Donald Trump, a tweet that aptly captured the tone of an outraged nation: “Crazy Nancy Pelosi is being decimated for having a beauty parlor opened, when all others are closed, and for not wearing a mask — despite constantly lecturing everyone else. We will almost certainly take back the House and send Nancy packing!”
From Pelosi: I was set up. The salon did me wrong.
Say what?
“I take responsibility for trusting the word of a neighborhood salon that I’ve been to over the years many times and that they said ’we are able to accommodate people one person at a time and we can set up that time,’ — I trusted that,” Pelosi said.
As for the mask-less-ness?
“That picture,” she said, “is when i just came out of the bowl.
“It’s beyond stupid, Pelosi said.
“I think [the salon owners] owe me an apology,” she said.
Let’s just give Pelosi the benefit of the doubt and say, OK, Nance, you were set up, the salon did you wrong, and you were unfairly targeted for political hit. So, who made you take off the mask?
Pelosi, who’s been campaigning for every man, woman and child to wear a face mask for months — as well as stay home, stay out of work and stand by and wait for the stimulus check — didn’t have to remove her mask to have her hair washed.
The average American citizen isn’t given that option.
And this is the main outrage: Pelosi gets privileges not granted the average American citizen.
Pelosi gets the special-class treatment; the American citizens — her employers, her bosses — get the second-class treatment. And it’s not just Pelosi. It’s plenty of other politicians, too — and from both parties. Far too many of today’s elected leaders campaign with humility only to serve with elitism and arrogance.
The Founding Fathers would be ashamed. And outraged. And saddened.
In today’s America, there are two distinct classes: The permanent political class, and the paying peons. We the people, the ones who are supposed to be the bosses of politicians, the ones who are supposed to be even the bosses of presidents, have become the paying peons.
We pay so they can play how they wish.
There is a crisis of arrogance in our political world. It’s time our leaders were term-limited. That’s the only way to wake and shake them to more humble service.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.
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