COVID Hypocrisy Runs Rampant Among Dems | Opinion

As we barrel towards the midterm elections with many Democrats' pandemic policies angering everyday Americans, what exactly is the party's strategy?

Increasingly, the Democratic party establishment turns over its reins to members of the Squad and other socialist-progressive elected officials to be the party's voice on significant issues that affect millions of people. But for a party that barely kept control of the House—thanks to voter perceptions that it has veered so far to the left as to become unrecognizable—that's an odd decision.

Consider the recent controversy over whether the CDC would continue to ban evictions, or even cancel rent for those who claim to be impacted by COVID-19. The party decided to get Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) in front of cameras.

One could argue that radicals like Pressley activate the party's base and churn out votes. Media outlets understandably air these members' opinions with enthusiasm—given their outrageous sound bites, wouldn't you? Their activism and interviews have national reach, making these members de-facto leaders in the party, at least in voter perception.

That may have helped build the individual brands of these Squad members, but those brands begin to falter under scrutiny. At some point, that will hurt the Democrats.

Pressley, for example, was front and center in the debate over struggling renters during the pandemic. Seemingly not caring whether landlords and property owners would be able to pay bills due to late rental payments, she called to "cancel rent, extend eviction and foreclosure moratoriums."

But privately, Pressley and her husband actually collect rental payments, Fox News reported.

Pressley just filed her 2020 financial disclosure. She reported receiving between $5,000 and $15,000 in rental income from property registered in her husband's name. This appears to mean she was collecting rent during the pandemic while demanding that rent be canceled, and while other landlords struggled to collect rent.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib disclosed even more rental income from property in Detroit: between $15,001 and $50,000. Like Pressley, the congresswoman cosponsored legislation to cancel rent.

Both Pressley and Tlaib reported the same earnings the year before—pre-COVID.

Pressley declaring that "America needs us to cancel rent," while simultaneously collecting rent is somehow not worth commenting on to the many press outlets asking for clarification.

Tlaib and Pressley both push for legislation that punishes landlords with burdensome mandates like rent hike freezes for five years or a ban on using credit scores for applicants. These are steps they can voluntarily implement now with their own properties. Are they doing so?

The two radical representatives could answer these questions, but either they're not adopting their own policies or they don't want it too public that they're property owners. A good portion of their socialist base, after all, is repulsed by the very concept of private ownership of housing.

And then there's Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, who preaches the importance of indoor masking to fight COVID, even when the CDC advised people could take them off. You'll sometimes see her wearing a mask when taking photos in large groups—only to take the mask off when the photo op is over.

Hypocrisy appears to be as contagious as COVID to members of the Squad. But other Democrats appear to have caught the hypocrisy bug too.

"My body, my choice!" has long been a favorite Democratic mantra when it came to a woman's right to choose her health care. That notion seems to have gone out of style during the coronavirus pandemic.

Washington governor Jay Inslee, for example, recently signed into law the Reproductive Parity Act, which mandates abortion coverage for all insurance plans—public and private. While running his failed presidential campaign, he bragged that he's the "one candidate that's actually advanced the ball" on abortion access.

However, last week, Inslee required all public and private school staff—from teachers to bus drivers—and state workers to get the COVID vaccine. If not, you'll be fired and be ineligible for unemployment payments: your body, his choice.

There's little doubt that some of these policies are popular among large swaths of the American voter base. If you're struggling to pay rent, you like the idea of rent cancellation. If you're concerned about COVID, you are not annoyed at mask mandates or even forced vaccines.

But we can all see that these politicians don't practice what they preach. It's one thing to take a strong position while secretly getting away with actions that conflict with your public stance. One could understand why so many Democratic politicians think they can get away with it—and indeed, before 24/7 cable news and the internet, many did. But it's another thing to do it in the age of Google searches.

These politicians know their lives are under a public microscope. Yet they still can't act with any semblance of consistency and sometimes, like with Cori Bush, tell people they don't care if they know they're frauds.

So do Democrats believe what they say? It seems unclear. Will that be a winning strategy in the midterms? I hope not.

Jason Rantz is a frequent guest on Fox News and is the host of the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH Seattle, heard weekday afternoons. You can subscribe to his podcast here and follow him on Twitter: @jasonrantz.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.