A few days ago, a new podcast episode all about the differences between Republican sex scandals and Democratic sex scandals was posted. The discussion included the curious, paradoxical double-standard that the social conservatives (Republicans) were actually more likely to forgive a sex scandal than the socially liberal, anything-goes Democrats. Listed were examples of powerful Republicans who made big comebacks or in most cases never went anywhere (Mark Sanford, Newt Gingrich, David Vitter) while Democrats like Elliot Spitzer, Anthony Weiner, John Edwards, and Gary Hart took their place on the side of a milk carton.
With Republicans, it seems like it’s more important to say you’re against something than to actually live it. While with Democrats it’s equally as important to say you’re for social freedom as long as you don’t expect to have it for yourself. One might be hypocritically laizze-faire towards their own elected officials, but the other is almost too scolding and judgmental. A great case in point might be this never-ending, milked-to-death Lewinsky “scandal” that is twenty years old and hasn’t aged all that great.
Yet for some unfathomable reason, politicians on both sides of the aisle still feel comfortable bringing it up to discredit Hillary. In the Republican primary, every candidate seemed to have their own take on it from the loathsome (Carly Fiorina) to the “sympathetic” (Rand Paul admitting it’s not Hillary’s fault Bill cheated on her…while still saying it somehow disqualified her from being president). Bernie started out being incredibly reluctant to trash Hillary’s personal qualities, before eventually getting a whiff of possible victory and trying to have it both ways: saying he’d never criticize the Clintons personally…while saying Bill did a terrible thing. [How is this not criticizing them personally?]
Now professional jackass Donald Trump—who is the last person to criticize somebody else’s personal life—says he’ll definitely use the Lewinsky scandal against Hillary in the general election campaign. So I guess we’ve got a nasty, personal, senselessly Tabloid-driven campaign to look forward to.
I’m still scratching my head trying to figure out why political rivals think it’s okay to use this against Hillary. And I’m even more baffled as to why they think Bill’s sex scandal is something Hillary is any way on the hook for, not to mention it’s flat-out counter-intuitive to keep using it at this point.
Not only did Bill Clinton’s popularity soar when Republicans tried to impeach him over the Lewinsky scandal, but Hillary’s did as well. The only two periods where she’s enjoyed overwhelmingly positive numbers were the years she was Secretary of State and the immediate fall-out of the Lewinsky affair, when America felt sorry for her. I’m not sure how they think they’ll win over a single new person re-hashing a sex “scandal” that America already got sick of twenty years ago. The whole thing seems designed for people who hate Hillary anyway, but for every person they pick up there might be two who actually sympathize with Hillary.
I can’t imagine what it’s like to keep re-living a dark period over and over again. Hillary’s probably mostly immune, but she shouldn’t even have to be talking about it at all.
So please America, let this dead horse go. It couldn’t bring Bill down and Hillary’s got nothing to do with it. Plus, it’d be a larger sign that America is maybe finally ready to give up on its hypocrisy: asking conservative politicians not to practice what they preach, but demanding a puritanical standard from Democratic politicians that actually aren’t telling you how to live (sexually speaking).