U.S. Senator John Ensign of Nevada recently admitted to an extramarital affair. We have gone through this many times before with other elected figures under different personal circumstances, including the failed impeachment of President Clinton. Some people who have inherited the faulty combination of prurient and puritan genes are getting themselves all worked up in a tizzy over something that is none of their business.
History has proven that some of the most philandering and sexually slimy characters make the best leaders. In contrast, many of the most religious and unexciting officials have turned out to be uniformly disastrous politicians. Some people argue it is a question of “trust” but whose trust and for what purpose? The spouse is the person aggrieved who has had her trust shaken. When the situation involves unmarried individuals having dalliances with other adults of the same or opposite sex, then others of the morality police will scream hypocrisy or general fornication. The silliest arguments bring up the need for proper role models, as if our sports and entertainment figures are not dysfunctional enough for our impressionably stupid children.
It has become all too evident over the past two decades that politicians are more beholden to their largest campaign contributors than to their own families. They will fight for the interests of the wealthiest 10% of their constituents rather than consider the long-term best interests of 90% of the American people – on issue after issue. (Of course having voter turnouts between 30 and 60 percent in most elections permits our politicians to ignore many of the public’s needs.)
Who are more damaging to the vast majority of citizens and our country’s best interests? Politicians that are corrupted by money from special interests, or politicians that have poor self-control in sexual matters? It would be preferable to have one continuous televised orgy of sex and debauchery in Washington so long as our representatives voted in the best interests of the vast majority of Americans. Instead we have false piety and fidelity in personal matters as most throw away their souls and legislative votes to the special interests with the most money.
The press should be fully investigating the all-too-obvious nexus between large campaign contributions and the voting records of our U.S. representatives in Washington. Perhaps this work would be too difficult and boring for the Media in light of its current dedication to the 24/7 info-entertainment industry. Instead it has been far easier to investigate the sexual peccadilloes of our elected officials and endlessly follow the meaningless lives of our celebrities. We can’t solely blame the press because too many Americans prefer it that way – so they do not have to actually take some responsibility for the many large messes we face as a nation.
Sometimes I think following the news is just a waste of time – except I can console myself by reading a few Internet sites that provide good investigative journalism and the insightful commentaries on really important current events by the writers on TMV. I also take comfort in the realization that the majority of Americans are not paying much attention to the Internet News Media – or to anything else of consequence.
By Marc Pascal in Phoenix, AZ