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When it comes to flouting COVID-19 rules, there are three kinds of violators: public, private — and Democrats.

Public flouters loudly protest mask rules or browbeat clerks for reminding them to wear a mask.

Private flouters are those who don’t make a big deal out of resisting but join crowds at the beach, go to indoor weddings, or pull their masks down below their nose.

And , hypocritical violators, thanks to the antics of some key Democrats who have been leading the fight against the pandemic but do not follow those rules themselves.

Big city mayors, big state governors, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Sen. Diane Feinstein who had gone about her airport business without a mask — these are supposedly the good guys, the sensible, rational, risk-assessing ones who claim to follow the science.

These pols have taken a lot of criticism for their hypocritical transgressions. They deserve even more.

It’s evidence that there is in fact a liberal elite, a political class that’s arrogant and disconnected and that these politicians are full-fledged members. Not in the exaggerated way Republicans talk about this. But bad enough.

You can see this in the phony, disingenuous, calculated apologies they’ve made for their violation of COVID-19 rules.

Let’s start with some apology-buts. An apology-but is insidious and phony because it’s not an apology at all. It is self-justification disguised as an apology.

If you try an “I’m sorry, but” after an argument at home, you know what happens. But if you are the mayor of Austin, Texas, well, give it a shot.

That mayor, Steve Adler, recently recorded a Facebook message encouraging people in his city not to travel during the coronavirus surge.

Oops! His Honor failed to tell them that he was sending this no-travel message from a high-class Mexican timeshare and that he had flown there on a private jet with eight others.

Nonessential work enough for you?

In his apology-but, Adler said, “I regret this travel … In hindsight, even though it violated no order, it set a bad example, for which I apologize.” (my italics)

I’m really, really sorry … but what I did really wasn’t all that bad because, well, because I violated no actual rule.

Who cares? You flew to Cabo, dude? Why is that?

Like Adler, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom also went high-end when he should have gone low.

Newsom was caught out attending a lobbyist’s birthday party for 12 at the uber ritzy Napa Valley restaurant French Laundry. (If you think that’s a place that does shirts, then you are one of the little people.)

He begins with the non-apology. “While our family followed the restaurant’s health protocols and took safety precautions …”

He goes on to say, “we should have modeled better behavior and not joined the dinner.”

OK, why did you? You followed protocols in a place you should not have been at in the first place.

Visiting your friends in high places. What about your friends in low places, your constituents?

Then there is the excuse disguised as an apology, like the Democratic mayor of Denver Michael Hancock’s I-was-wrong-but-I-couldn’t-control-myself apology.

Hancock officially tweeted that people of Denver should not travel during the holidays.

Whereupon he headed for the airport and boarded a plane to meet his wife and daughter for Thanksgiving dinner.

Hancock’s apology is an especially smarmy play on voter sympathies.

“I made my decision as a husband and father,” Hancock said, “and for those who are angry and disappointed, I humbly ask you to forgive decisions that are borne of my heart and not my head.”

“Borne of my heart?” That sounds so Biblical.

Which is apropos because the mayor’s apology is simply a ginned up, pseudo-therapeutic version of the-devil-made-me-do-it, the oldest excuse in the book — that little guy with the pitchfork sitting on your shoulder saying, “Do it!  Do it!”

Because of the coronavirus, it has been over a year since I’ve seen my children. I guess I need help getting in touch with my inner dad.

The underhanded behavior alone is awful enough. It undermines COVID-19 rules. , “The message that comes through loud and clear: Wink, wink — COVID’s not really that big a deal.”

Their lame apologies indicate something more: their elitism, the very elitism that gets Democrats into trouble.

Hindsight is the key puzzler. “In hindsight,” as Denver’s mayor put it. These folks needed hindsight?

What were they thinking in plain sight that made them decide to carry out their capers they so regretted in hindsight?

With iPhones and social media there is simply no way that they could have gone undetected. Any politician knows this.

The only other explanation is arrogance. They simply assumed that if they got caught, well, then they got caught. Big whoops. A little apology with an excuse mixed in, and we’re off the hook.

There’s also a whiff of plutocracy. Private jet to a timeshare in Cabo, dinner with select big shots, not a good optic.

In fact, it’s worse than a bad look. It’s a moral failure based on self-conscious, calculated decisions.

They are democracy norm-violators, not in the egregious Trump way, but enough to be a problem.

Leaders are supposed to set good examples, especially in crises. That’s a norm. They violated it.

Democracy is not about apology. It’s about accountability. Apology asks for forgiveness. Accountability requires explanations, no matter how humbled and chastened the violator claims to feel.

If former Department of Health Director Bruce Anderson had apologized for his COVID-fighting mistakes, would that have been enough? No, because that would not have held him accountable for his mistakes.

Poor Joe Biden. His COVID-19 policies are going to run into lots of enemies. Now he also has to worry about his friends.