Rules for thee but not for me. Among the truest indicators that one is a totalitarian elitist is an unwillingness to submit to the very rules one imposes on everyone else. The coronavirus pandemic, like climate change, has served to expose the number of elected officials who display this authoritarian hypocrisy.

California was one of the earliest states to lock down in response to the coronavirus, and it has maintained varying degrees of shutdown measures ever since. Therefore, it was a colossal display of hypocrisy when Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom, who has repeatedly preached the Left’s social-distancing and mask-wearing gospel, was caught blatantly disregarding both.

Newsom was caught arrogantly and flagrantly violating his pandemic group-gathering diktats for his subjects — ascribing to the Democrat Party’s statist principle, “law for thee but not for me.” Newsom was dining at one of the state’s most expensive and exclusive restaurants with a dozen high rollers, including ironically, his longtime friend and party host, lobbyist Jason Kinney, California Medical Association CEO Dustin Corcoran and the association’s chief lobbyist Janus Norman — all of whom were in close contact without masks, violating Newsom’s mandatory rules for number of party guests and masking.

Newsom’s own Department of Health has issued COVID rules that limit the number of households in all private gatherings — even outdoors — to only three, with people required to maintain at least six feet of distance from other households at all times. In fact, this same Health Department last month infamously issued a bulletin directing individuals dining in restaurants to wear masks between bites. Most folks have figured out that Newsom’s draconian rules put Thanksgiving on the chopping block.

Newsom joins the growing list of elected Democrat officials who, like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have been caught flouting the very rules they so adamantly insist everyone should adhere to — under the threat of punishment. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board calls out two other exemplary hypocrites: “Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser traveled to Delaware to celebrate Joe Biden’s election victory even as she told her residents not to travel to other states. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is saying that people must ‘cancel traditional Thanksgiving plans,’ and invite no guests, even as she joined a street party celebrating Mr. Biden’s apparent victory and spoke with a bullhorn.”

Clearly, these elected officials don’t take the virus as seriously as their hype and regulations would suggest. Worse, they see the American people as peons to be ruled, not as fellow citizens whose rights they have been tasked with protecting.

(Updated.)