Or, I am less concerned about Republicans keeping it in their pants than I am about keeping it out of legislation.
So Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina was derelict in his duty, not only to his state but to his wife. So Senator John Ensign had a fling. So what? (Although Sanford’s neglecting the responsibilities of his office are more troubling, in a different way, than Ensign’s dalliance. Then again, it is just South Carolina.) That’s their business.
The problem is that they belong to a party that believes that your business is their business. The Republican Party has made personal morality a central part of their philosophy for decades, ever since Ronald Reagan united the social and economic conservatives under one big, hideous banner. The members of the New Republican Order have perched atop government buildings across the nation, loudly proclaiming their pro-family, pro-heterosexual marriage, pro-life, pro-traditional values identities like red tie-clad, U.S. flag button-festooned cocks.1 But for all that noise and bravado, what do we find? Republicans cheat on their wives. Republicans go looking for gay sex in public bathrooms. Republicans wake up with friends’ penises in their mouths.2 Republicans get divorced and remarry, then get divorced and remarry again.3 But they are more moral than Democrats, and (probably) more moral than you – because… well, because… well, because they say so.
It’s a tired old act, and it’s long past time to retire it. The politics of morality are all bullshit, because there shouldn’t be any politics of morality. I couldn’t care less when President Clinton was caught lying about getting a blow job in the Oval Office, just as I wouldn’t really care if it comes to light that President Bush was fond of licking whipped cream off of Laura’s ankles while they both bounced naked on a trampoline. I want to know about public policy, not private peccadilloes.
What makes Republican tom-foolery more fascinating than Democratic goofiness is that the Republicans have set themselves up as Upholders Of All That Is Godly, Decent, And Wholesome. They have made virtue a factor in our politics. They use their public positions to preach about the evils of gay sex or abortion or sex education or smoking pot4, and they vote to push their view of morality onto the rest of us. But then they get caught doing the very things they want to stigmatize at best, or outlaw at worst!
It’s not the cheating. It’s the hypocrisy. Don’t tell me you’re a disciple of Jesus and then have it come out that you like to host dog fights in one room, orgies in the next, all while wearing a frilly pink tutu as Billy Buff the local boy prostitute is servicing you with a vacuum cleaner.
In short: keep your personal morality out of our politics.
_________________________________________________
1 Pun intended.
2 Glenn Murphy Jr., the former head of Indiana’s Clark County Republican Party and chairman of the Young Republican National Federation.
3 Newt Gingrich.
4 Tobacco, of course, is A-OK.
4 comments:
It's the old do as I say not as I do. I however think that as long as we as a society allow our leaders to be immoral our society will only get worse. Our leaders are allowed to break the law, get kickbacks, cheat on there spouses (yes that one bothers me because they took a vow [remember when vows meant something just like a promise] and are allowed to break that vow without consequences), cheat, lie, even kill to hide their incompetence (BUSH, YOU SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN PRESIDENT) and nothing is done. Republicrats and Democans will continue to run the show pretending that they are for change but it's all a big show. The mantre is, look at what that Democrat/Republican did isn't that awful. When that looser Sanford got caught with his dick hanging out the talk wasn't about which type of knife will she use on him, cerrated or straight edge but how can he save his political career. My God, the man skipped out of the coutry to go have a fling and Fox news is wondering if he can still be salvaged to run for President. I wonder when Rome was falling from corruption and decadence where their citizens doing what we are doing now.
Lying about your whereabouts whilst On The Clock and using taxpayer money to fund an international tryst isn't too hot either.
I couldn't agree more. I hope his wife takes him to the cleaners.
His recent statements have been funny - that God wants him to complete his term, that he's had other affairs, that his Argentinian lover is his "soul mate" (Christ, but I despise that term) but that he'll "try to fall in love" with his wife again... This guy is a major league clod. I wouldn't be surprised if he has a nervous breakdown soon.
Jennifer makes the most important point: he used state money and state time to get some hot Latina action. If there's one legit complaint about l'Affaire Clinton, it's that he was taking care of the wrong affair - his own, as opposed to the affairs of state - on (our) company time and dime.
Post a Comment