Sunday, January 22, 2012

FAMILY VALUES CROWD STRUGGLES WITH THEIR HYPOCRISY

This past week I read through a thread on one of my conservative friends FB site. The thread focused on Newt Gingrich's ex-wife, and whether she revealed anything new in her most recent interview (she didn't).



The comments on the FB site were dominated by the conservative Christian crowd, so there was much said about media conspiracies (against conservatives), comments akin to "why doesn't the media look at Democrats who cheat?" (ignoring how Eliot Spitzer, Anthony Weiner, etc. got pushed out of their jobs), and a whole bunch of "nobodies perfect" commentary that smelled a whole lot like "God doesn't want us to judge." In a few words, they pretty much wanted to white wash Newt, while dancing around the larger elephant in the room ... i.e. conservative family values hypocrisy.

In an effort to set the record straight - and because I wanted to have a little fun - I decided to participate. I also decided to share my comments with you. Here's what I wrote ...

God wants me to speak out here ... At the end of the day I'd like to say who cares about any of this stuff. Seriously. The problem is that conservative politicians and the family values crowd have a tendency to tear down and demonize anyone who disagrees with their moral imperatives on their way up the political ladder. But then we learn about people like Ken Mehlman (gay), David Vitter (whore mongerer), Larry Craig (bathroom enthusiast), Mark Sanford ("I'll spend Father's Day with my mistress in Argentina"), John Ensign ("I do staffer's wives"), Newt Gingrich (serial cheater), Ted Haggard ("Spank me, I'm cured of the gay"), et al. I think most of us are not too concerned about what politicians do with their love lives. It's between them and their significant others (and God). But the moral posturing on the way up suggests that they deserve to be politically isolated and singled out when they get caught. If you want to have an affair? Fine. But be sure you don't build your political profile around family values. There's no conspiracy or evil ploys here. Think it through ...
Funny thing, though. While the thread was full of lively commentary, no one found it necessary to comment on my post. I wonder why ...

- Mark

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