Q. What do you call a conservative gay legislator who’s in the closet?
A. A safe vote against gay rights.
As usual, a bunch of politicians have had sex scandals recently. As usual, a good helping of them have been family-values types. And as usual, progressive bloggers have been surprised and appalled that many of the scandalous are family-values types, and even more shocked because a bunch of the conservative family-values adulterers seem to be skating.
How is it that Mark “Appalachian Trail” Sanford is still Governor of South Carolina, Swinging John Ensign is still [Senator] of Nevada, and David Vitter, who may have qualified for a loyalty rewards card at one or more houses of prostitution, is still Senator from Louisiana? How are some of these guys running for re-election while Eliot Spitzer is out of office and Bill Clinton got impeached? How is it that the far right wing, in the person of Glenn Beck, actually made an abortive attempt to recruit Eric Massa away from the Democrats after his sex scandal broke?
There seems to be a double standard here, because in fact there is. And while that’s repugnant, it’s not illogical. If a voter genuinely wants the government to impose public restrictions on sexual liberties, voting for a creepy adulterous hypocrite is a sound strategy.
There are two bedrock political rules in play here. First, you should always vote for the candidate based on their policies. Second, political scandals become harmful when they resonate with some larger concern or anxiety about the candidate.
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