Super Bowl highlights the hypocrisy of public officials

One would’ve thought that when the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers played in the NFC Championship before the Super Bowl that most of the news would be focused on that historical matchup. Yet, the fact that coronavirus is still the most prevalent issue in daily life, it reminds the public that there’s no escaping this pandemic unless government officials and the public get on the same page to work in unison.

The viral images of some of our cities’ and states’ most powerful elected representatives, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and other state leaders, photographed in multiple social media posts posing with luminaries such as Magic Johnson huddled together, maskless, with great big smiles of enthusiasm, had major reverberations for Angelenos. 

It should not be lost on us that the hypocrisy and entitlement of elected officials that spend hours at press conferences urging the public to follow rules, stay home and refrain from social activity are partying it up, mask free, in sky boxes with champagne, taking selfies with superstars.

Perhaps the intended purpose of the posts was to signal that the state and the city were getting out of the pandemic — a sign of normalcy, an image to project optimism for a future in which many can gather maskless without having to worry about the risk of infection.

In truth, it projects a far different message: the rules don’t apply to those at the top; those who govern and the governed live in separate worlds. The public was asked to stay home because of the Omicron variant, schools were shut down and once again, the all-too-familiar recommendation to stay away from large gatherings rang out. Yet, elected officials chose to do the opposite of what they preached, further damaging their already broken reputation and credibility.

To make matters worse, Garcetti and Newsom did nothing to walk back their blatant disregard for their own protocols. Newsom, who early on in the pandemic was globally criticized for dining indoors in a Michelin starred restaurant in Napa Valley while hospitals were overwhelmed, stated that he participated in the photo sessions because he felt the need to be “gracious.” Perhaps it would be best to put graciousness aside and act bravely — be brave enough to say no to multimillionaire donors and stand up for the laws that bear one’s own signature. 

Garcetti’s defense was even more laughable, as he was quoted saying, “When people ask for a photograph, I hold my breath … There is a zero percent chance of infection from that.” That type of snarky elitism suggests that his action was justifiable, and his reasoning ignores the fact that it creates a public relations nightmare and assumes the public is ignorant enough to buy such a story. Elected officials should try something new for a change: to back down when they get caught with egg on their face, rather than simply digging themselves deeper into a more laughable and hypocritical hole.

For students in particular, this has a more salient ramification. The last two years have been nothing less than a non-ending roller coaster for students. Be that kindergarteners, high schoolers or college students, the lasting damage the two years in a pandemic has caused cannot be undone. 

Students have gone through enough trying to create a bearable environment for themselves amid constant pressures to stay safe, to ensure that they can learn with such arduous protocols and precautions and that they themselves do not break the rules, only for the rulemakers to suddenly turn and laugh in their faces. It makes students wonder whether all this effort and suffering was worth it, for it seems that those pressures and hardships of the pandemic are worth nothing for a governor or mayor who want to have fun at a football game.

This Sunday, the Super Bowl will still take place at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium at full capacity.The fact that the Super Bowl will continue exactly as planned reinforces what the photo a week before shed light on: that big money interests, the whims of the powerful and rich and the desire to project normalcy in the face of a much harsher reality override the actual safety of citizens. 

It begs the question: at what point does public opinion take precedence over economic revenue and catering to the rich and powerful? The games on Sunday will simply send another message of tone deafness and hypocrisy. 

It is indeed tragic that over two years into this pandemic, the flouting of rules by elected officials continues to be one of the most prevalent acts in our society. The public is unified in outrage and disgust, but the question is when that contempt for such blatant and overt hypocrisy will boil over and cause far greater damage than a Twitter outcry. Next time, Gavin and Garcetti, don’t take the picture.