How Facebook is making politics safe for sin
Drunkenness, affairs, secret gay relationships, dodgy financial dealings, and other sins have been common in public life since the Jewish and Roman historians started documenting them. But for most of American history, most Americans didn’t want to know, a desire affirmed by last year’s cringe-inducing memoir by a teenage girlfriend of John F. Kennedy. The demand that politicians actually live up to their virtuous facades, enforced by press and prosecutors for the last few decades, reached its peak in the exposure of Bill Clinton’s affair with an intern, Monica Lewinsky. And the sanctimonious approach by some press and prosecutors has been — as the national revulsion at the Starr Report, and bipartisan embarrassment at its memory has showed — basically unwelcome.
Now America is on the cusp of an end to that anomalous era. The change is change defined, most of all, by Facebook, where an ever-increasing share of Americans (and their so-called friends) have preserved embarrassing moments. Members of Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard Class of 2006 who made it to graduation will be eligible to run for Senate in 2014. The early jokes that nobody of that generation would ever survive public life have been replaced by the reality that they all will. They’ve been building their memoirs of occasional error and excess, Obama style, in real time on their Timelines, with little calculation and far too much information.
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They were common before before historians started documenting them. What got historians to start documenting them was profit! Yeah!
Dusty on December 26, 2012 at 9:26 AM
What left wing stupidity, trust me that any REPUBLICAN will be judged and attacked.
rob verdi on December 26, 2012 at 9:27 AM
I’m going to nitpick this poorly-written sentence, just because I can.
Jeddite on December 26, 2012 at 9:38 AM
This explains why those who tried to make Seamus the Dog into a big story were roundly ridiculed across the political spectrum.
forest on December 26, 2012 at 9:40 AM
Ah, good ol’ #123, Ben ‘The Mouth of Sauron’ Smith has once again enthralled the editors of Hot Gas with the evil fumes and vile mists of Mordor.
Knott Buyinit on December 26, 2012 at 9:41 AM
All of the “credit” goes to FaceBook but the real mechanism behind our sudden lurch down the slippery slope of moral relativism is the culture.
HotAirian on December 26, 2012 at 9:42 AM
It remains to be seen whether the trend offered by social media will make politics safe for sin. There is a big difference between sinning on your own dime and sinning on the people’s dime.
Dusty on December 26, 2012 at 10:32 AM
I think impeachment was overstepping in the Clinton matter – I don’t think his conduct was “high crimes”.
However, this revisionist history is also crap. Clinton did not get into trouble because he had an affair. He got into trouble for committing perjury and attempting to get others to commit perjury.
He was under oath, being deposed in a sexual harassment case by a former employee. His conduct and treatment of Monica Lewinsky – a current employee – was very relevant to the case – showing a pattern of conduct – and his lying under oath was therefore perjury (unfortunately, not all lying under oath rises to the level of perjury, it has to be a lie that has bearing on a matter).
Further, his attempts to get Monica Lewinsky and others to lie under oath in the same case was suborning perjury.
That should be a pretty big deal when done by 1) the president and 2) an attorney.
These constant claims that the investigation was about sex is a complete lie. Yes, sex was involved in that it was sex they were lying about. but it was the lying under oath and the attempting to get others to lie under oath that was being investigated.
That the press and dems continue to play this game years later shows their complete disregard for the law and for the truth.
Liberals are simply never honest about anything. Even when it doesn’t really matter anymore – a la Clinton’s perjury. They still feel compelled to lie. the press’s complicity in that lie is simply extra proof, if any were needed, of the press’s abdicating any pretense at reporting news and instead their 24/7 partisan advocacy for all things liberal.
Monkeytoe on December 26, 2012 at 11:02 AM
Sinning has always been pretty safe for dem/liberal politicians as the press doesn’t crucify them for their sins. Republican/conservatives will always be persecuted for sins or perceived sins. I think Facebook will, in fact, help dems in this regard – but won’t offer republicans any help.
Let’s face it – Dems can get away with not paying taxes, submitting fraudulent tax returns, lying, stealing, bribing, racial insults, and any other modern “sins” without paying much, if any, penalty.
Monkeytoe on December 26, 2012 at 11:06 AM
I keep thinking the moral and political pendulums will swing back eventually. So far, not looking too good.
hopeful on December 26, 2012 at 11:39 AM
Your name suits you! I, too, have hope. My daughter is 13, and she and her friends are a lot different than the 20 somethings are right now. I don’t know if that is just because of how they are being raised, but they don’t seem to be as self-centered and demanding.
Night Owl on December 26, 2012 at 11:50 AM
[Monkeytoe on December 26, 2012 at 11:06 AM]
I know what you mean. The problem, though, is that Republicans are reasonable, courteous, moderate, and even handed, when they should be extreme, radical, not to mention being as unscrupulous as the opposition, because merely being steadfast isn’t working.
Dusty on December 26, 2012 at 12:03 PM