Politics, morality, and hypocrisy
: Hypocrisy is the word of the week. Lots of it going around and lots of accusations using the word as a sword: See the Kelly vs. the CIA scandals and some hypocritical treatment; see the Arnold vs. Bill scandals and some hypocritical comomentary on both; see the Limbaugh scandal (the drug one, that is) and the hypocritical mess he got himself into. Now see all the hair-splitting going on trying to attack Clinton but not Schwarzenegger or vice versa; Blair but not Bush or vice versa; Limbaugh or not Limbaugh.
I judge this on a few pretty straightforward standards.
First, I do not expect politicians to be moral beacons; I expect just the opposite. I want them to run the government well; that’s their job. I don’t care about their sex lives; none of us should; it’s irrelevant to the jobs they are doing and it’s naive if not insane to think that they will be anything other than human. I’ll take it one dangerous step more: Looking to government for moral guidance is damned near a violation of the separation of church and state; I don’t want government legislating, dictating, or lecturing on morality; I want them to protect the country and the economy and give us the services we pay for. Period. Go f’ all you want; just don’t f’ up the country, that’s all I ask.
Second, I do abhor hypocrisy. The reason I so gleefully go after Limbaugh (or Bennett before him or various televangelists before them) is precisely because they do set themselves up as moral beacons and when they fall, they deserve every nya-nya they hear. Limbaugh went after Clinton; now he’s fully fair game. Hypocrisy is his sin.
