Even though I have enjoyed the long, protracted self-destruction of Anthony Weiner as much as any red-blooded conservative, I must say that I am a bit disturbed by the logic used by many conservative commentators to condemn him. Specifically, I am not convinced that Weiner’s sexual indiscretions by themselves make him unfit to hold public office.
Before you accuse me of hedonism, let me say that I am not. I am a strong defender of the old morality – the one that was in effect before the 1960’s. And there is no question that this moral code was much harsher on sexual indiscretion than the present day, post-60’s, whatever-floats-your-boat sensibilities.
Nevertheless, I believe it is wrong to conflate personal and public morality. One of the most odious principles of the left is the idea that the personal is political, which has led to the noxious rule of Political Correctness today. The right should not go down that road. We do not need religious leaders probing into our personal thoughts any more than we need human rights commissars probing into whether we have ever had racist thoughts.
Have I ever had a racist (or impure) thought? Of course I have and I defy anybody to tell me with a straight face that he has not. Human beings are made from a very crooked timber. We are not angels, and our moral code must take that into account.
So how did the old morality deal with human imperfection? That is a good question with a simple answer: hypocrisy.
While the old morality was indeed much harsher in what it condemned in the abstract, it was often more tolerant when it came to specific individual failures. There is no doubt that the old morality would roundly condemn the actions of Anthony Weiner, but there is also no doubt that the old morality would have tried to sweep things under the rug first. The fangs would only come out if the matter blew out into the open.
Look at how the press corps protected America’s politicians in the past. And I am not just talking about Democrat icon JFK and his bevy of girlfriends. They looked the other way too when it came to Dwight Eisenhower and his comely English driver, Kay Somersby. The old morality protected America’s leaders because the people implicitly realized that human beings are inherently flawed but that America, nevertheless, still needs effective leaders. And for a leader to be effective, he needs a modicum of dignity. We must keep in mind that dignity is a virtue primarily about appearances and surface. What determines your outward dignity is not what you are on the inside but what your fellow man thinks of you.
All of which gets me to the public crime committed by Representative Anthony Weiner: he turned himself into a joke. As a Congressman, Anthony Weiner is a man who wields power. To be effective at wielding power, the people must be able to look up to you with respect. If Weiner had been able to keep his indiscretions under wraps, his followers and his constituents would still have been able to do this. But he wasn’t able to do this because he transmitted text messages and compromising photos of himself to women he barely knew in a medium where the retransmission of information is very easy. His reckless behaviour made what happened to him a foregone conclusion. As of right now, nobody can take him seriously. No constituent can say, “Anthony Weiner is my representative” without feeling a sense of embarrassment. As a result, he can no longer wield power effectively. This makes him weak. And that makes him despised. And this is the real reason why he must go.
If it were adult women that he was flirting with I'd give him a pass. That's goofy and pretty unbecoming of a politician but hey whatever if you can survive the furor of that then all the best to you. The problem I think is that he was sending explicit photos to young women. Like younger than the age of 18. That's not just some goofy bizzare behaviour.
Posted by: John | June 14, 2011 at 11:45 AM