Hypocrisy Abounds On Both Sides Of The Aisle

I am troubled by the recent revelations about marital infidelity of certain lawmakers. The infidelities are not the problem, nor that they are Republicans. Ds have issues as well. My underlying concern is that we are so hypocritical about what we expect from our leaders. The so-called vetting process we use to determine who is worthy of public office is going to reduce the pool of available suspects to the point wherein there is no one left with any real potential for success.

Is the press largely responsible for the revelations of humanity exposed by their incessant search for gossip, or is the public responsible because we make our political determinations based on our desire to have the “perfect” candidate rather than an imperfect candidate who has the capacity to achieve success.

Most recently, we found that a family values Governor had spent 5 days in Argentina getting laid when he should have been at work or at least hiking. Before that, a conservative Senator got caught in an affair with a staffer.

A quick internet check revealed a shocking number of “scandals” at the federal level. The party in power at any given time seems to command a lead in scandalous behavior. State and local government provide even more interesting incidents of corruption of morals. Check this site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_scandals_of_the_United_States

My point is that these human but “holier than thou” elected officials are no more hypocritical than anyone else who falters because they are human. We, the voting public and the press, are the real hypocrites because we require that they either lie or at least pretend to be perfect in order for us to vote for or approve of them. After they have told the lie, we search until we discover the lie, then we act like they betrayed us by doing what we demanded.

Since we assume that all politicians are either morally corrupt or on the take, why do we react so unfavorably when we find they have lived up to our expectations? Who are the hypocrites?

In order to be considered for public office, one must NOT smoke marijuana, drink to excess, cheat on a spouse, need money, smoke in public, lust after women or men, be gay, be a Muslim, Jew, atheist or agnostic, like to party or be influenced by trusted friends and allies That is not all. A candidate must pander to the right to lifers and to the freedom of choice groups, must hug trees yet want to extract all the oil that exists in North America as well as clear cut the trees for copy paper. A successful candidate must be intelligent but not too intelligent and must speak to the general public in terms only a junior high scholar can understand.

That same candidate must want government to provide only certain limited services and at no cost to the public. Which service will depend on who is in the audience.

No wonder these people are so corrupt. That kind of pressure to be hypocritical would cause practically anyone to lie, cheat and steal.

But that is just my opinion and… Oh yes, Have a nice day! wjc