Covid-19 Leadership: Is Anybody Leading?

When it comes to Covid-19 leadership, Donald Trump has been a disaster.  Too often he said the virus wasn’t that bad.  Other times he suggested almost quack solutions.  And masks were seemingly verboten around the White House.¹  Clear, confident, national leadership could have made things less bad.  He didn’t provide it.

But too many of our governors and mayors haven’t been effective leaders, either.  I understand it is hard to lead when the national message isn’t clear.  But that doesn’t mean state and local leaders couldn’t have done a better job. 

The key to leadership is relatively simple.  Making the decisions can be tough.  But once they are made, it becomes easier.  You set the rules.  You explain the rules.  You make sure the rules are as fair and understandable as possible.  And then you follow the rules.

A little elaboration.  When you are coming up with the rules, you need to especially look at them from the point of view of people who aren’t your normal supporters; i.e., people who don’t agree with you.  Try to understand where those people are coming from and how the rules, and what you are doing, look to them.  Another part of coming up with rules is making sure they are likely to be followed.  Because rules not only need to work in theory; they need to be followed in practice.  If rules aren’t “follow-able,” they aren’t going to do any good, no matter how great they sound.

Then, when you have a set of rules, you need to apply them to everybody and to all situations.  They not only have to be applied fairly; it also has to look like they are being applied fairly.  This became a problem when protests arose after George Floyd was killed.  All of a sudden, governors and mayors who had been hard-nosed on enforcing the rules against other protests and activities, let big protests and marches about George Floyd go ahead.  This situation was too important, they said.  This problem had to be addressed.  The rules didn’t seem to matter on this.

And they came up with justifications.  The protests were outside.  People wore masks.  Etc.  Maybe those points were true.  Maybe the George Floyd protests did not wind up causing a lot of infections.  But they sure looked bad.  People who were told they couldn’t buy plants at their local superstore earlier in the spring now saw protest marches with hundreds or thousands of people going ahead with governmental acquiescence, if not permission.  Maybe it really wasn’t a matter of one set of rules for causes the governors and mayors liked and another set for those things they didn’t think were important.  But it sure looked that way to some people.  And it weakened the authority of governors and mayors in the process.  Because when you play favorites in favor of your own side, or at least it looks like you are, people aren’t going to listen to you or follow you on other things.

Also, while it seems obvious to say, it unfortunately needs to be said: Leaders need to follow the rules themselves.  Chicago’s mayor got a beautician to come to her house to cut her hair when barber shops and beauty salons were closed for regular people.  The governor of California attended a birthday party of a friend² at a restaurant with more people than state rules allowed because, well, just because. 

Also, when Joe Biden won, Democratic politicians all over the country celebrated in ways that didn’t look like they were following the rules, even if they were.  In Illinois, both Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot celebrated with crowds of people.  In DC, the mayor said that going to the Biden celebration in Wilmington was “essential”.  When you do things like that, because you consider them important, it makes it harder to convince people to give up their family get-togethers over Thanksgiving, which they consider important.

Which brings me to my final point:  Real leaders don’t just follow the rules.  They go beyond the rules.  Because when you are a leader, it’s not just the rules you set, it’s the example you set.  It’s how you act yourself.  The best leaders don’t use their government position or personal wealth to do things regular people can’t do.  Real leaders figure, if it’s good enough for my constituents, it’s good enough for me.  I’m not going to ask people to do anything I’m not willing to do myself.
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¹ One thing President Trump has seemed to get right is the vaccines.  They are coming quicker than most people expected at the beginning of the crisis, but President Trump has been so erratic and has made so many silly statements on the virus that his administration won’t get the credit it deserves for what it has done to help get these vaccines so quickly.
² UPDATE (10/21/20 2:15 pm): I originally said it was the governor's birthday party.  Actually, it was a birthday party of a friend that the governor attended.  I have corrected it.