This isn’t an article bashing all of the men in politics who cannot seem to keep their lives in check recently.
The collapse in humanity seems to be coming from we, the viewing public, the ones watching with bated breath as yet another politician admits to sexual scandal.
We, who are ready and willing to judge, and blog and “tweet” about other people’s personal lives. When did this become such entertainment for the masses? Do I support anything that the Sanfords and Ensigns of the world have done? Of course not, they broke their marriage vows, they embarrassed their wives and they let down their public.
The difference between an Elliot Spitzer and a Mark Sanford is how they handled themselves, when someone comes weeping on TV with his stoic looking wife standing next to him about how horrible he feels, and what a horrible mistake it was and how he has ruined everything.
Yes, it is okay to be disgusted, he slept with a prostitute. Mark Sanford came on television and apologized to his wife, the public and his family, but you have to give him credit where it is due. He acknowledged that yes he cared about the other woman. And this is where my censure to the viewer comes in. Every awful scene we watch and every “Inside Edition” that we latch onto as entertainment, there are people in the world whose lives have been ruined. Every time another news anchor uses the word “disgusting” or “mistress” or “liar,” while these things may be true, why must we exploit a family’s pain for television and media ratings? Someone’s son, wife, mother, cousin has to sit and listen to people bash their families. And think about the “other” woman, she is a human, with feelings, and a family as well. Her family has to watch her love life and her transgressions paraded across the nightly news for show as well.
Why do people enjoy this, why do we feel so apt to judge other people, when the average American’s lives aren’t so picture perfect either? Men adulterate all the time, so do women,.People lie, cheat and steal every day.
A politician embezzling money, now that’s something to be up in arms over, stealing money from the public, not doing their jobs and living up the responsibility of being a government official, then take actions. But do not judge their humanity, hold them accountable for what they are responsible for, and let their families deal with their grief in private.
Rachel Carey is a senior political science major. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].
